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This study aimed to analyze work-related empowerment and interprofessional collaboration and to identify possible associations among healthcare professionals working in cancer care settings. A cross-sectional survey design was employed in this study. Healthcare professionals (n = 175) in one Finnish Cancer Center participating in the care of patients with cancer at least on a monthly basis took part in the study. The data were collected with three instruments: Interprofessional Collaboration and Leadership, Performance of an Empowered Personnel (PEN), and Work-related Empowerment Promoting Factors (WEP). The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, Pearson and Spearman's correlation coefficients and multivariate analysis using generalized liner models. Healthcare professionals rated their work empowerment as rather high. Performance of an Empowered Personnel (PEN) was perceived as high (mean 4.08, SD 0.47). Promoting factors for Work Empowerment (WEP) were also assessed as high (mean 3.98, SD 0.61). Interprofessional collaboration in the cancer care setting was perceived as moderate (mean 2.94, SD 0.36). Managerial position explained work empowerment based on multivariate analysis. Work empowerment and interprofessional collaboration had a strong correlation. The results can be used in the leadership and management of interprofessional collaboration and in developing new structures to support health professionals' work empowerment. In the future, work empowerment needs to be promoted by constructing solutions and practices that support interprofessional collaboration and thus improve the quality of cancer care.

This chapter presents the COLAB model for promoting organisational learning and innovation with potential application in criminal justice-related organisations. We describe this model as a toolkit that built on the Change Laboratory model of workplace transformation but one augmented with the beneficial components of Activity Clinics, Boundary Crossing Workshops and Codesign methods and developed within the criminal justice context. Limitations and future directions for the model are discussed.

In prison, the provision of care and the surveillance of inmates takes place in multiple locations with several often contradictory demands. Inmates may experience a fragmentation of services because of the separate silos in which criminal justice service and mental health professionals work and the distinct ways of working that develop within these. A greater alignment between services is required. This chapter focuses on interagency meetings in a Norwegian prison. These are groups that aim to develop an holistic perspective of the inmate’s situation and problems, and are seen as an innovative way to overcome the contradiction between ‘treatment’ and ‘punishment’ prison paradigms applied by the different professionals working together in the prison and mental health services. We analysed how the professionals interact at interagency meetings, and how they align their tasks, goals, roles and expertise to support the inmate’s imprisonment and rehabilitation. Our analysis illustrates the multiple ways in which this collective activity is conceptualised by the participants and then provides a model of interorganisational dynamics through which these collaborations may be fostered. By so doing, we have made suggestions about how to enhance interprofessional collaboration between prison and mental health services. The chapter also contributes to research on challenges and opportunities for collaboration in complex organisational settings.

The voluntary and community sector (VCS) is a key player in the support of prisoners and ex-prisoners in the English and Welsh criminal justice system. Organisational learning and innovation is urgently required in this sector to adapt to the current political and economic environment. The chapter describes exploratory efforts to introduce participatory methods drawn from Change Laboratory Methods and Clinics of Activity within a local VCS organisation that would help (re)build dialogue between stakeholders with the aim of promoting organisational learning and innovation. The intervention comprised an ethnographic phase of observing the staff, interviews with 19 key stakeholders, and a final developmental workshop with the staff. The analysis of these data by the researcher (first author) provided insight into the experience of mentors working in the voluntary sector as well as providing a trigger for dialogue in a subsequent workshop that used these data to establish dialogue between staff. These served as dialogical artefacts, introducing micro-dramas in the form of selected user stories. These dialogical artefacts triggered diverse reactions and analyses by the various participants, highlighting different elements than those anticipated by the researcher. We discuss the different readings of our research data by the researcher and staff members, presenting these two contrasting perspectives, and the implications this has for workplace development methods.

Collaboration and learning are especially needed in times of change in the workplace. This chapter describes a novel method for developing work practices and enhancing professionals’ proactiveness through collective, participatory experimentation and evaluation. We used the method in a low-security closed prison in Finland to advance prison staff’s rehabilitation work with prisoners. The design, implementation and evaluation of the innovations prison officers introduced to advance their work (recording the inmates’ behaviour and needs into their sentence plans) are illustrated. Besides describing how the method was applied in practice, we also identify and discuss the gaps within prison work where there are opportunities for organisational learning and innovation.

Professionals in many domains need to deal with increasingly complex, technology-mediated and uncertain work. Thus ways of learning that continuously and flexibly create new knowledge are needed at work. The aim of this article is to describe the logic of theoretical-genetic generalisation, and to use this, in addition to other methodological resources from pragmatism and cultural-historical psychology, for devel-oping a learning method for robotic surgery. In theoretical generalisation, or theoretical thinking, the learner orientates him-/herself in two directions: towards producing general, abstract understanding of dynamic interrelations within a phenomenon, and towards flexibly tailoring good solutions for each particular situation. Based on our ongoing study of robotic surgery, we sketch three different designs for learning which are all based on video-supported joint reflection of real robotic surgical operations. We outline the necessary principles and steps of the method in this context, and finally, discuss the potential of the outlined method for learning.

The global importance of crowd or on-demand work via digital platforms is increasing. Platform enterprises create and manage two- or many-sided markets by enabling suppliers and buyers of services meet in a flexible and scalable way, creating new economic efficiencies. However, platform work may also increase invisibility, uncertainty, risks, and competition for workers [2]. This paper investigates the sustainability of on-demand work through a dynamic analysis of the resources available to workers when facing an abrupt change in their work organization. Our empirical case is a platform-driven food courier company in the Helsinki region, Finland. We discuss the resources we found in the light of the immunity, control and fungibility mechanisms that lead to both opportunities and vulnerabilities for the on-demand workers [9]. The paper yields practice-based empirical insights of how immunity, control and fungibility are experienced by workers, and thus add our understanding of the often invisible and dark side of on-demand work. At the end, we present our conclusions regarding research on sustainable development. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of the article. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://link.springer.com/

Due to the international demands of competition and organizational changes, the tasks of rail traffic control in Southern Finland have been divided into those run by public agencies and those run by private companies (train operators). The working routines and collaboration have changed during this period of transition. To better understand the reasons for diversity in the actions and solutions of everyday work, this paper examines how fluency, a common objective of networks, is maintained or pursued in network collaboration. The analysis shows how the logics of fluency differ between operative and situational disturbance-handling design levels. We elaborate and discuss the developmental possibilities embedded in the analysis of logics.

Policy-makers and practitioners face the difficult task of designing new activities to help solve environmental problems and improve the sustainability of production. Although several studies have paid attention to the development of new technologies, the conditions and forms of applying these technologies have been analyzed less often. To design economically and functionally viable forms of environmental activities, a configuration of other complementary elements is needed. In this article, we propose that an analysis of historically evolved forms of environmental activities enables a more realistic assessment of future possibilities than a decontextualized assessment of technologies. Using two cases of on-farm biogas production; one from Finland and one from Brazil, we demonstrate how such analysis can be carried out and used for assessing developmental possibilities. We further argue that this type of analysis may contribute to filling the gap between studies that focus on the general societal benefits of environmental activities and those that focus on their specific technological aspects, suggesting an intermediate-level research object: the historical development of qualitatively different forms that are applicable in different types of environments and historical situations.

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Part 5: Examining Knowledge and Practice; International audience; Drawing on interventionist activity theoretical approaches, this paper describes a method of self-confrontation as a way in which to study objects in technology-mediated practices. In addition to research interests, the aim of examining the objects is to develop the capacity of professionals and organizations to work and learn better in complex technology-mediated work. The method was applied in robotic surgery, in which instruments are tele-operated by a surgeon. The robot offers better, collective visualization of the area under surgical operation than previous techniques. In particular, the paper shows how objects were revealed and new objects emerged during the intervention. We suggest that activity theoretical developmental interventions such as self-confrontations may help understand the complexity and evolution of objects, and thus contribute to studies of technology and organizations.

Despite the importance of the expectations and visions of the actors involved in sustainable innovations, only the societal, motivational perspective is usually considered. The fact that local actors may have different multi-motivations is typically overlooked. The aim of this study is to examine and understand the multi-motivational perspectives in a sustainable production project. First, we introduce the concept of the object and analyze the case of a biogas production project as a mediating activity for making swine production more sustainable. We argue that the object of the activity, as manifested in motivational perspectives, shapes the way in which biogas production (BP) systems are implemented. The article concludes by discussing how the concept of object can be used to explore the actual and future possibilities of using artifacts for increasing the sustainability of production.

Elintarvikeketjujen rakenteellinen keskittyminen on ollut vallitseva kehityskulku avoimilla markkinoilla, joilla suomalaisten elintarvikeketjujen keskeinen haaste on usein kilpailukyvyn parantaminen. Suomalainen maatalous, elintarviketeollisuus ja vähittäiskaupan ketjut ovat kehittämässä yhteistyötään. Tarjontaketjun paradigma korostaa ketjun toimijoiden yhteistyöllä saavutettavaa kilpailuetua; taloussosiologiassa on toimijoiden suhdekategorioina tunnistettu laajojen empiiristen aineistojen perusteella markkina-, hierarkia- ja kumppanuussuhteita sekä muita sosiaalisia suhteita. Tässä laadullisessa tutkimuksessa kuvataan ja analysoidaan toimijoiden välisiä taloussosiologisia suhteita suomalaisissa kasvisketjuissa. Tutkimuksessa kysytään, millaisille suhteille ketjut rakentuvat ja miten nämä suhteet parantavat ketjujen kilpailukykyä ja edistävät niiden laajenemista. Laadullisen tapaustutkimuksen aineisto on kerätty suomalaiselta maa- ja elintarviketalousvaltaiselta paikkakunnalta. Tekstianalyysissä haastatteluaineistosta tulkittiin toimijoiden markkina-, hierarkia-, kumppanuus- ja muita sosiaalisia suhteita, joita visualisoimalla tuotettiin verkostokuvauksia. Tässä kirjoituksessa esitetään yhden suomalaisen suuren mittakaavan kasvisketjun suhdeanalyysi ja verkostokuvaus. Verkostokuvaus osoittaa sosiaalisten suhteiden suuren määrän, monimutkaisuuden ja vivahteikkuuden. Tämä viittaa siihen, että toimijoilta edellytetään huomattavaa sosiaalista taidokkuutta, jotta 'suhdeviidakossa' onnistutaan pitämään yllä ja kehittämään elintarvikeketjua. Ketjun tuottajan verkostosuhteiden ytimenä vaikuttaa olevan sosiaalinen taidokkuus ja sosiaaliset suhteet muihin tuottajiin ja alan toimijoihin. Taidokkaalla toimijalla on 'hallussaan' markkina-, hierarkia- ja kumppanuussuhteita sekä muita sosiaalisia suhteita sekä ylä- että alavirtaan. Tällaiset suhteet parantavat mahdollisuuksia työn ja osaamisen kehittämiseen. Merkittävänä toimintatapana on tunnistettu tuottajien rakentamien horisontaalisten ja alavirtaan vertikaalisten kumppanuussuhteiden avulla tapahtuva integroituminen keskeisiin markkinoihin. Mahdollinen kumppanuussuhde päivittäiskaupan ketjuihin tuottaisi kumppanuussuhteiden jatkumon, jolloin voitaisiin puhua jatkuvasti tuotelaatua ja hintakilpailukykyä parantavasta 'ihannetarjontaketjusta'. Esitellyn ketjun ominaisena piirteenä näyttäytyy sosiaalinen ydin, joka johti kumppanuussuhteisiin. Niiden avulla voitiin 'säätää' usean portaan kautta kasvistarjontaa markkinoille. Tällaiset toimijoiden väliset suhteet voisivat yleisemminkin parantaa kasvisketjujen kilpailukykyä ja mahdollistaa ketjujen laajenemista.

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Lepsämänjoki LTSER (long term social ecological research platform) kuuluu kahdeksan muun erilaisia ekosysteemityyppejä edustavan verkoston kanssa vuonna 2007 perustettuun Suomen LTSER- konsortioon (FinLTSER: http://www.ymparisto.fi/default.asp?contentid=257172&lan=FI). FinLTSER puolestaan on samana vuonna hyväksytty kv. ILTER -verkostoon jäseneksi (http://www.ilternet.edu/). LTSER toiminnan perusajatus on luoda ja ylläpitää ekosysteemitutkimuksen infrastruktuureja, joissa pitkäaikainen ja seuranta-aineistoihin perustuva tutkimus kohdistuu ns. ydinalueelle. Tällainen ydinalue on maantieteellisesti määritelty ekosysteemialue, jossa verkoston tutkimusryhmät tuottavat pitkäaikaista, julkista ja hyvin dokumentoitua seurantaja tutkimustietoa sosioekologisista ekosysteemin tilaan ja muutokseen sekä muutosta ohjaaviin voimiin liittyvistä muuttujista. LTSER- verkoston tulisi mahdollistaa monitieteinen ja tieteidenvälinen sosioekologinen tutkimus, ja sen tulisi tuottaa laadukasta tutkimusdataa kv. tutkimusyhteisön käyttöön. Lepsämänjoki LTSER on keskeisten maatalousekosysteemien tilasta ja muutoksesta kiinnostuneiden tutkimuslaitosten ja –ryhmien verkosto. Se on avoin yhteenliittymä, joka pyrkii kehittämään julkista ja yleishyödyllistä yhteistyötä ja infrastruktuuria maatalousympäristön monitieteiseen tutkimukseen. Verkoston ydinalue on Lepsämänjoen maataloudellinen valuma-alue, joka suurimmaksi osaksi kuuluu Uusimaalaisen Nurmijärven kunnan alueeseen noin 30 km Helsingistä luoteeseen (60° 23' 60° 28' N, 24° 31' 24° 43' E). Se on topografialtaan laakea 213 km² suuruinen alue, jossa harjoitetaan Etelä-Suomen savikoille ominaista peltoviljelyvaltaista maataloutta. Alueen pohjoisosassa on useita vihannesviljelyyn keskittyneitä tiloja. Alue on kaupungin läheistä maaseutua, jolle muualla työskentelevien haja-asutus leviää, ja jonka eteläosassa sijaitseva Klaukkalan taajama on kasvussa. Lepsämänjoen valuma-alueelta on parhaimmillaan jo vuosikymmenten ajalta biofysikaalisiin ympäristömuuttujiin liittyviä tutkimusaineistoja: jokiveden laatu, maatalouden ravinne- ja kiintoaineskuormitus, maataloudellinen maankäyttö, maatalouden ravinnetaseet, maalajit ja topografia, alue-ekologinen monimuotoisuus, putkilokasvien, perhosten ja peltolintujen lajimonimuotoisuus. Verkoston eri tutkimusryhmät ovat toisistaan riippumatta koonneet em. aineistoja eri seurannoissa ja tutkimus- ja kehityshankkeissa. Lepsämänjoki LTSER-verkoston tavoite on LTSER-konseptin mukaisesti verkostoitumisen avulla kehittää tutkimuksen infrastruktuuria, parantaa seuranta-aineistojen saatavuutta ja laatua sekä edistää ekologisen, ympäristöja yhteiskunnallisen tutkimuksen integraatiota. Tiedustelut voi osoittaa verkoston koordinaattorille (juha.helenius@helsinki.fi).

Metadata only record This paper provides an evaluation of three short graduate-level courses on ecological agriculture and food systems offered in Norway 1995-1997. The evaluation took place in 1999, in the form of a three day workshop involving both students and faculty. Their objectives were to evaluate the impacts of the courses, assess relative importance of the course content areas, evaluate the different learning methods used especially case studies, and develop a vision and plan for the future directions of ecoagriculture education. Both students and faculty considered soft systems research methods and varied learning processes to be more valuable than the more commonly taught technical material. They identified nine priority areas for ecological agriculture education: (1) systems thinking, (2) research methods, (3) farmer/stakeholder participation, (4) improving production methods, (5) relating agriculture to food systems, (6) learning about learning, (7) values and ethics, (8) faculty development and institutional change, and (9) agricultural and food policy. Case studies are an effective method for addressing and integrating many of these topics. The action plan they developed included four priority needs: : (1) publish a Nordic teaching text in ecological agriculture, (2) expand the network of educators and researchers with a short course for faculty, (3) broaden the focus from farm production to food systems by including additional disciplines and themes, and (4) coordinate thesis research activities in ecological agriculture among universities. Prior organization and mutual participant ownership of the process made the workshop time spent in evaluation and planning highly efficient and productive. All participants contributed to this final document.

Resumo O objetivo deste artigo é analisar se um método de intervenção formativa contribui para que os profissionais de atividades colaborativas formem uma compreensão histórica dos problemas enfrentados em crises interinstitucionais e criem soluções para essas situações. Apresentamos o método Laboratório de Mudança (LM), inspirado na Teoria da Atividade Histórico-Cultural (TAHC). Ele é ilustrado com um caso empírico de intervenção na qual foi identificada a gênese histórica e as contradições que levaram à crise entre uma universidade pública e um centro de saúde escola. Para o estudo foram utilizados dados obtidos a partir de registros efetuados ao longo da intervenção, entre 2013 e 2015, assim como entrevistas e comentários dos participantes. Como resultado, eles analisaram historicamente suas atividades e desenharam novos cenários de colaboração futura, visando uma solução para a crise, no âmbito de possíveis relações acadêmico-pedagógicas vinculadas ao Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS). A análise sugere a existência de contradições nos objetos das atividades de assistência à saúde e educação que podem estar no cerne da relação problemática entre outras instituições semelhantes que precisam desenvolver atividades colaborativamente. O LM, enquanto metodologia de intervenção formativa, integra diagnóstico, aprendizagem, protagonismo dos participantes e criação de soluções como parte de um mesmo processo.

Paikallinen ruokajärjestelmä, lähiruoka, on erityisesti globaalistuvan ruokajärjestelmän vastakohtana kiinnostava tutkimuskohde. Ruokajärjestelmän paikallistamisella tavoitellaan ruoan tasaveroista ja yhteisöllisesti omatoimista saavutettavuutta, taloudellista ruokaturvaa sekä vastuullisuutta ruoan tuotannon luonnonvaroista ja tuotantoympäristöstä. Nämä tavoitteet liittyvät läheisesti väestö-, talous-, ympäristö- ja kulttuurisiin kysymyksiin analyysin mittakaavasta riippumatta. Olemme tutkineet ruokajärjestelmän paikallistamisen vaikutuksia ja siihen liittyviä oppimishaasteita kunta- ja maakuntatasolla Etelä-Savossa. Tämänkaltainen kansallista mittakaavaa paikallisempi lähiruoka-ajattelu ilmaantui etenkin maaseudun toimijoiden hankkeisiin 1990-luvun loppupuolella reaktiona maaseudun elinolojen ja -keinojen taantumiseen. Hankkeessa kehitimme monitieteiseen kommunikointiin ja tieteiden-väliseen yhdistämiseen tähtäävän käsitteellisen LOFO järjestelmämallin. Mallissa ruokajärjestelmän ajatellaan muodostuvan kolmesta osajärjestelmästä, jotka olivat yhteiskunnallis-taloudellinen, biofysikaalinen sekä toiminnan osajärjestelmä. Yhteiskunnallis-taloudellinen osajärjestelmä sisältää normatiivisen ja taloudellisen 'ympäristön', samaan tapaan kuin biofysikaalinen osajärjestelmä sisältää fyysisen ja biologisen ympäristön. Näiden ehdoilla, niihin sopeutuen ja niitä muuntaen kaikki toiminnan osajärjestelmän osakkaat tuottajasta ruoan kuluttajaan toimivat ja tekevät ruokajärjestelmää koskevia päätöksiä. Teimme jokaista osajärjestelmää koskien menetelmällisiä rajauksia ja valintoja, ja toteutimme osajärjestelmäkohtaiset osatutkimukset menetelmällisesti erillisinä tieteenalakohtaisina harjoitelmina. Näin ollen tuloksemme ovat ikäänkuin näytteitä tai palasia systeemimallin tarjoamaan kokonaisvaltaisempaan palapeliin. Toiminnan osajärjestelmään sisältyy keskeisen tärkeänä ruokajärjestelmään osallisten 'voimaannuttaminen' sekä lisäksi prosessi, jossa paikalliset yhteisöt neovottelevat yhteisestä tulevaisuudestaan ja tunnistavat sen mahdollisuuksia. Lisäksi tuloksemme tukevat ruoan 'valuma-alue' (foodshed) -ajattelua: on välttämätöntä sisällyttää sekä maatilojen ja maaseudun ruoan 'lähde'- (source) että taajamien ja kaupunkien ruoan 'kohde'- (sink) alueet paikallisen järjestelmän rajauksen sisään.