Dans le « carré de l'activité » : perspectives internationales sur le travail et l'activité

How to define a "space" of research on labor and work for describing the development, at the international level, of case studies of work-related situations? This space is described as a square bounded by four perspectives: distributed cognition, activity theory, ethnomethodology as well as related currents of thought and the sociology of science and techniques. After an explanation of their underlying principles, these perspectives are compared so as to highlight their tensions and differences with regard to several critical points in analyzing work-related situations: data collection during fieldwork, the roles of persons and things and their position on the dialectics of continuity and change. The current development of information and communication technology provides a starting point for (re)inquiring into these four perspectives and suggesting overlapping areas and possible reconfigurations.