Ergonomic activity – Theory and methodology

Pascal Béguin

Coupling our understanding between « work activity » and change process

• The concept of “work activity”– 1932: J.M. Lahy

• Psychologists : J.M. Faverge, J. Leplat, A. Savoyant• Physicians: A. Wisner, A. Laville• Engineers: F. Daniellou, L. Pinsky, J. Theureau• Philosophers: G. Canguilhem, I Meyerson, Y. Schwartz

Daniellou & Rabardel (eds), TIES, Vol.6, n°5, 2005

Ergonomia, P. Falzon (Coord.), Edgard Blücher, São Paulo

Coupling our understanding between « work activity » and change process

• Ergonomics is a discipline of action:

– A profession “that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance» (IEA, 2000).

Coupling our understanding between « work activity » and change process

Taking activity into account during action

Beguin, P. (2007). Taking activity into account during the design process. @ctivites, 4 (2), pp. 115-121, http:// www.activites.org/v4n2/v4n2.pdf

Taking activity into account during action : Crystallization

• Any device crystallizes a knowledge, a representation or a model of the workers and their activity.

• But this model can be false or insufficient.Designing a staircase to reach upon a floor crystallize a representation of a valid worker. A person in a wheel chair will not be able to reach upon the floor.

• These models are cognitive, but also social

and political.

Taking activity into account during action : Crystallization

• Understanding the coupling between a human and a device

Work activity = Function (subject X task)

• The process of vizibilisation:1. Enrich the representations of the designers,2. Help to define the problem to solve.

Taking activity into account during action : Plasticity

• There is always a gap between what is plane to be done (prescribed work) and what is really done (work activity).

• Activity is situated:– Industrial variability– Subject’s variability (p.e. tireness)

• How people use the circumstances to achieve intelligent action.

Taking activity into account during action : Plasticity

• To design systems that allow or facilitate situated “intelligent action”

– Defining “boundaries of action”, and giving workers the possibility to finish design (K. Vicente),

– Design « rooms of maneuver » (F. Daniellou) by identifying the diversity and variability

• Is the workers will have sufficient leeway to make the work system efficient, whilst remaining in good health ?

Owen, C., P. Béguin, G. Wackers [Coord.] (2009). Risky Work Environments:

Reappraising Human Work within Fallible Systems. (Eds). Ashgate

Taking activity into account during action : Development

• Development of artifacts and development of activity must be considered jointly during the change process.Beguin, P., & Clot, Y. (2004). Situated action in the development of activity. @ctivites, 1 (2), 50-63 (http://www.activites.org/v1n2/beguin.eng.pdf)

• A process of “appropriation”:– Work activity is a historical-cultural construction,– During appropriation, there is an evolution of activity, but also a process

in which the workers enrich and modify the device’s properties,– “constructive dimension” of work activity

Taking activity into account during action : Development

• Constructive activity must be understood as a « vital process » in the sense of G. Canguilhem.

• Whats is Health?an "healthy person" is one who does not suffer the constraints of the environment, but who is able to change the environment in order to assert his or her standard and his or her own life project (Canguilhem, 1966).

Understanding development

• What is the logic of action introduced by a developmental approach?

• An alternative between:– The own possibilities or impossibilities of a given activity

system,– A political process, which aims to take over what

constitutes a state of nature.• These two meanings of development are opposite

Understanding development

• But there is a need to combine the two different explanation orders: the desirable order and the potentiality of a given reality on the other hand.

• There is two possible solutions:– The developmental process is “impeded” or “blocked”.

The political action try to release the potential development,

– Articulate in the same process both dynamics : the political action and the internal developmental dynamics of a given environment.

Landmark for “prevention project management”

• designing safe work system may be understood as a project.

Landmark for “prevention project management”

• But we have to manage such a in articulating the “desirable” and the “possibilities”.

Landmark for “prevention project management”

1.The initial understanding of what is needed cannot and should not be understood as being defined once and for all at the beginning of the design process.

Landmarks for “prevention project management”

1. The initial understanding of what is needed cannot and should not be understood as being defined once and for all at the beginning of the design process.

2. “Prevention project management” is a learning process

3. Developmental process should take into account power and social relations between the actors:

– The knowledge of some therefore becomes the norm for others ("normation”)

– Constructing development curves of knowledge so as to locally establish normality ("normalization”)