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Purpose Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) is increasingly important in work and workplace learning. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of IPC that are relevant for learning and developing at work. Design/methodology/approach We examine IPC in the discussion data of health care professionals when designing, implementing and evaluating developmental tasks. Qualitative content analysis is carried out on temporally sequential task trajectories, considering IPC from the perspective of the objects and goals of IPC task activity in developmental efforts. Findings The developmentally relevant characteristics of IPC are crystallized in the concepts of coordination, co-creation and community building, which play different, interdependent roles in development efforts. We show their interplay and how they complement each other in practice. Research limitations/implications Our findings regarding IPC characteristics are to be interpreted as working hypotheses and resources for further research. Practical implications Understanding the dynamics of IPC is useful for renewing work practices. Attention to the interplay and complementarity of IPC characteristics may help in the design and implementation of effective and sustained development efforts. Originality/value The dynamics of IPC in developmental settings have not been sufficiently studied. This paper proposes three developmentally relevant and intertwined characteristics of IPC for scholars of workplace learning.

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.

Nordic working life studies have mostly focused on the precarious aspects of work mediated via online labor platforms. We follow a different approach and examine the potential of such work to benefit professionals by enhancing their job quality and learning. This qualitative, practice-based study applies the concept ‘co-creation’ to examine how a social form of creating value takes place in Upwork macrotask projects. It then investigates how platform features shape opportunities for co-creation. The data comprise interviews of 15 freelancers residing in Finland. The findings suggest that co-creation is possible in macrotask projects, but the platform does not seem to actively support co-creation. This paper provides insights into the discussion of job quality at platform work and how co-creation on platforms might be developed to support the Nordic labor market model.

Background There is a growing understanding that empowerment of interprofessional personnel is linked to job satisfaction levels and quality of care, but little is known about empowerment in the context of cancer care. This study describes how interprofessional cancer care personnel perceive their performance and factors that promote work empowerment. Methods This cross-sectional study enrolled 475 (45.2%) of the 1050 employees who work at a regional cancer centre. The participants used two self-administered questionnaires – the Performance of an Empowered Personnel (PEN) questionnaire and Work Empowerment Promoting Factors (WEP) questionnaire – to report perceptions of work empowerment. Both questionnaires’ categories comprise moral principles, personal integrity, expertise, future orientation, and sociality. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics, Versions 24 and 25. Results Overall, the performance of work empowerment was evaluated as being rather high (overall sum score mean: 4.05; range: 3.51–4.41; scale: 1–5). The category that rated highest was moral principles (4.41), and the one rated lowest was the social category (3.51). The factors that promoted work empowerment also ranked high (3.93; range: 3.55–4.08; scale: 1–5), with personal integrity (4.08) the highest and future orientation (3.55) the lowest. Performance and factors that promoted work empowerment correlated positively, moderately, and highly statistically significantly (r = 0.531; p Conclusion The personnel rated their performance and the factors perceived to promote work empowerment rather highly. Personal empowerment can be promoted through teamwork training and supportive management in interprofessional 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.

PurposeThe interprofessional collaboration is a key practice for providing cancer care. However, the realization of collaboration requires effective leadership and administrative support. In this study, the aim was to analyze healthcare professionals' perceptions of leadership and administrative support (strategic and management) in interprofessional collaboration for developing practices in cancer care.Design/methodology/approachA descriptive survey design was used to collect data from healthcare professionals (n = 350, response rate 33.3%), including nurses, physicians and other professionals participating in patient care in one Finnish cancer center (out of five) in 05/2018–10/2018. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The instrument focused on leadership in the work unit and administrative support including organization strategy and organizational management.FindingsHealthcare professionals perceived leadership in the work unit, organization strategy and management for the support of interprofessional collaboration as weak. However, the ratings of male respondents and those in leading positions were more positive. The findings indicate that healthcare professionals in the cancer care setting are dissatisfied with the leadership and administrative support.Research limitations/implicationsInterprofessional collaboration, including its leadership, requires systematic and constant evaluation and development.Originality/valueHealthcare leaders in the cancer care setting can use the results to identify factors that might be in need of attention and development in the field of interprofessional collaboration.

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.

Resume Cet article rend compte d’une recherche realisee avec des chirurgiens finlandais autour de la chirurgie robotique (ablation de la prostate). Elle s’appuie sur l’approche methodologique des autoconfrontations croisees (Clot et al., 2000), enrichie par les travaux de Leena Norros autour de l’orientation interpretative au travail dans les environnements technologiques complexes (Norros et al., 2015). Cette intervention vise a encourager le developpement de la reflexion productive (Boud et al., 2006). Dans ce papier, nous commentons deux sequences ou cette reflexion productive est a l’œuvre. Ces deux sequences presentent un cas interessant de double stimulation : dans ces dialogues, l’observation detaillee de la video et la discussion entre les chirurgiens sont motivees par la presence de « marges positives », c’est-a-dire, une information medicale sur la presence residuelle (ou non) de cellules cancereuses, qui est disponible a posteriori dans le dossier du patient et oriente la demarche d’investigation. L’article s’appuie sur la puissance de cette double stimulation dans le dispositif des autoconfrontations croisees pour esquisser une methode d’apprentissage qui encourage la reflexion productive et l’orientation interpretative au travail.

Well-trained operators are essential for safety. This study presents a self-evaluation method to be applied after simulator training by power plant operators. The method was created collaboratively with training developers at a nuclear power plant. Inspiration was drawn from education theory as well as from resilience engineering literature. In particular, we considered the line of study that suggests that “interpretive practices” (which involve, e.g., robust communication and the use of various information sources critically) support system resilience. Drawing from this line of study, the developed training method encourages operators to reflect on their own work practices. In practice, the method consists of individual self-evaluation and group discussions. The method was tested with four operator shifts. A brief analysis of the group discussions is presented. It suggests that applying the method might be beneficial for system resilience because a significant proportion of the discussions supported reflection concerning issues that may support system resilience: collaboration, understanding of plant dynamics, and the use of procedures. We assume that this kind of “developmental reflection” could potentially enhance work practices. Overall, we suggest that developmental reflection may open avenues for supporting the learning dimension of interpretive practice and thus also resilience.

The aim of this chapter is to briefly introduce the most important principles and concepts used in the Change Laboratory (CL) method. First, we introduce Vygotsky’s theory of culturally mediated human actions for understanding human agency. Second, we introduce Engestrom’s model of activity system as the basic unit of analysis for depicting the structure of an activity, analyzing its historical contradictions, and simulating and modeling new practices. We proceed by introducing the concept of contradictions as force of change and the theory of expansively learning for understanding the development of human activity. We continue with the principle of double stimulation and how it is applied in the CL. Finally, the variations of the method and their expected results are briefly discussed.

The paper provides an ethnographic description of robotic surgery, along with task and work-domain analyses of it, with focus on surgeons’ adaptation to situational demands. Thereby, the study conducted ties in with the discussions on resilience and interpretive practice, theoretical approaches that consider human capability and improvisation in activity as sources of safety. The study methods include observations of operations, video analyses, interviews and self-confrontation sessions (i.e., surgeons commenting on video samples of their own work). The results are summarised in a conceptual model encompassing the basic elements that enable robotic surgery as an activity: manual, perceptual, social, and cognitive aspects are covered at three hierarchical levels, from strategies and planning to routinised techniques. Uncertainties and complexities that render adaptation challenging are elaborated upon. Robotic surgery could be considered a complex form of navigation since where anticipatory interaction with the environment is needed – the surgeon creates the landscape where the operation takes place, and tissues are identified and separated by palpation, albeit without tactile feedback, and with careful consideration of the patient’s health. In this challenging environment conflictual aims are to be addressed: minimal damage should be induced while one removes the cancer. The findings suggest that resilient activity is manifested in an interpretive human–environment connection wherein appropriate generic principles and aims guide more specific work actions; a hierarchy in adaptation to situational demands can therefore be identified as the specific actions, usually based on relatively fixed routines, vary and adapt in line with higher-level principles.

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/

Ergonomic Work Analysis is important methodology for understanding the present situations and support recommendations for transforming work. However, more emphasis to the historical analysis of the activity system is needed for understanding the origin of problems so that expansive solutions can be designed. This article shows how a historical analysis can be used to redesign the relationship between two organizations, by seeking to solve problems of collaboration between them. This paper used the data and results obtained from a Change Laboratory (CL) intervention, which took place in the Health Center & School, which is part of a Faculty of Public Health (Sao Paulo University) in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 2015. The double stimulation strategy and tools used during the CL sessions, which served as first and second stimuli and produced concrete results and learning were revisited. A timeline was collectively constructed, helping to visualize the historical events involved and how they contributed to the emergence of contradictions, which led to the crisis in the relationship between the two institutions in their actual activity. The contradictions were related to changes in curricula, isolation of the service from the Unified Health System, an emphasis on research, and financial difficulties at university. Both the CL participants and researchers expanded the way in which they understood the origin of the conflicts faced in the activity and its possible solutions. They were able to visualize alternatives for the future. The historical analysis is a powerful tool for redesigning the future and to ensure interventions.

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.

BACKGROUND Sustainable development requires learning, but the contents of learning are often complex and ambiguous. This requires new integrated approaches from research. It is argued that investigation of people's learning challenges in every-day work is beneficial for research on sustainable development. OBJECTIVE The aim of the paper is to describe a research method for examining learning challenges in promoting sustainable development. This method is illustrated with a case example from organic vegetable farming in Finland. METHODS The method, based on Activity Theory, combines historical analysis with qualitative analysis of need expressions in discourse data. RESULTS The method linking local and subjective need expressions with general historical analysis is a promising way to overcome the gap between the individual and society, so much needed in research for sustainable development. CONCLUSIONS Dialectically informed historical frameworks have practical value as tools in collaborative negotiations and participatory designs for sustainable development. The simultaneous use of systemic and subjective perspectives allows researchers to manage the complexity of practical work activities and to avoid too simplistic presumptions about sustainable development.

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.

This paper explores the importance of alternative food systems in delivering social sustainability to local communities. The perceptions of local and organic food systems actors regarding equity (or fairness) between the actors and viability of the local communities are examined to analyze social sustainability in Juva, Finland. The findings lend conditional support to the positive relationship between localized food systems and actors within these systems feeling empowered and influential, while also supporting other research emphasizing the limitations of farmer influence on vertical distributional channels, irrespective of production methods (i.e., organic or conventional).

On-farm biogas production (BP) has many environmental benefits for agricultural systems. The authors describe the evolution of a system as a learning process within BP, the outcome of which is the development of a programme of sustainable swine production. According to cultural–historical activity theory, learning is understood as a transformation of the motivating object of an activity system and its structure. First, the authors present the theoretical concepts of an activity system, including its contradictions and expansion, and then describe the methodology used in the study for data collection and analysis. The historical data and accompanying analysis are then presented in temporal phases, followed by an identification of what triggered learning and expansion during the process, and an explanation of how the nature of the activity changed. Finally, the authors reflect on what such a theoretical analysis of an activity can bring to the notion of social learning.

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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Inter-institutional or inter-functional network collaboration at work increasingly provides new challenges for professionals. A developmental network intervention based on the approach of Developmental Work Research was conducted in the field of Social Services for Divorced Families. The objective was to examine cross-functional limitations through joint reflection of examples of clients' trajectories and to discuss possibilities for developing client-oriented network collaboration between services. With the help of interlocutory analysis, the professional concepts in use were tracked in sequences of intervention discussions. The analysis reveals how “hybrid concepts,” defined as concepts in use in the professional environment and re-used as intervention tools by the researchers, could support joint reflection by the professionals on the current limits of their collaboration. It also reveals how “professional concepts” may serve as resources to mediate client-services' and service-service relations. Finally, conditions and challenges for designing activity theory-based interventions for promoting client-oriented network collaborations are sketched.

This paper describes how the methodology of developmental work research, originating from cultural–historical activity theory, was applied in an intervention study of organic vegetable farming. Analysis of disturbances occurring in practice and of the developmental histories of two farms served as basis for modeling organic vegetable farming as an activity system. Contradictions within the activity system revealed that sustainable use of natural resources on the one hand and entrepreneurial integration into society on the other hand were the two major learning challenges faced by the farmers. Learning tools created and used in the study are the special focus of this paper. These are the models of an activity system, the zone of proximal development, strategies for increasing product volume and three orientations towards farm workers. The methodology offers means for problem definition in research and development projects, and enables the formation of non-deterministic directions of development for organic vegetable farms.

Changes in agriculture and organic production bring farmers new learning challenges. This paper concentrates on two questions concerning societal integration. What learning challenges are involved in the societal integration of Finnish farms deriving from different histories to organic vegetable farming? How can learning challenges in societal integration be identified and analyzed? The paper applies an activity theoretical approach. It is argued that significant learning in organic farming is based on the construction of learning challenges through local activity. First, working hypotheses based on historical analyses are developed. Tension in discussion data is then qualitatively analyzed. Learning challenges are identified from both the working hypotheses and instances of tension in the data. The most interesting findings, both in content and methodology, are the relations between the farms and their customers, other farmers and extension. How societal integration is associated with the use of...

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.

The local, as opposed to global, food system refers to the idea of achieving food equitability, access, security, responsibility and environmental stewardship by means of localising food. We studied the effects and learning challenges of localising the food system at municipal and provincial scales in a Finnish case. In our multidisciplinary project, we developed a conceptual system model to facilitate interdisciplinary communication and integration. In the model, a food system was divided into the economic, the biophysical and, as the link between these two, the learning subsystems. The model and our disciplinary results from case studies within each of the subsystems are described. The theories and methods in analysing environmental and socioeconomic impacts of, and learning challenges for, localising the food system are discussed. Our experience gives support to foodshed thinking: it is essential to include both the rural source and the urban sink areas in a food system.

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.