A key theme of the book is the relationship between theory and practice. This is not treated as an abstract problem of interest merely to social scientists. Instead, it is discussed as an issue that working people address when they attempt to understand a task and communicate its demands. Mindful practices and communicative interaction are examined as situated issues at work in the reproduction of communities of practice in a variety of work settings including courts of law, computer software design, scientific laboratories, repair and maintenance of advanced manufacturing systems, the piloting of airliners, air traffic control, baggage handling, and traffic management in underground railway systems.
This book will appeal to faculty, graduate students, and researchers in the fields of cognitive science, psychology, sociology, anthropology, education, and computer science.
Yrjo Engestrom is Professor of Communications at the University of California, San Diego and Academy Professor at the Academy of Finland. He is author of Learning by Expanding and Learning, Working and Imagining, and coeditor of the journal, Mind, Culture, Activity.
David Middleton is Senior Lecturer of Psychology at Loughborough University. He is author of Ideological Dilemmas: A Social Psychology of Everyday Thinking (with M. Billig et al.) and editor of Collective Remembering (with D. Edwards).