VOLUME 38 NUMBER 4 APRIL 1997

COMPUTING REVIEWS

Activity theory, with its emphasis on the importance of motive and consciousness-which belong only to humans-sees people and things as fundamentally different. People are not reduced to "nodes" or "agents" in a system; "information processing" is not seen as something to be modeled in the same way for people and machines. In activity theory, artifacts are mediators of human thought and behavior; they do not occupy the same ontological space. This results in a more human view of the relationship of people and artifacts, as well as squarely confronting the many real differences between people and things.

BONNIE NARDI

Context and Consciousness, 1996

back to ... Bonnie Nardi, Context and...