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This paper aims to examine the differences in epistemological underpinnings of conventional information systems analysis and design (ISAD) approaches (such as structured system and analysis design methodologies) and a recently developed situated ISAD approach.

This empirical investigation involved constructing a simulated field situation to allow a conventionally trained IS analyst to analyse the same case as had been previously analysed by applying the situated ISAD methodology.

While the conventional approach focuses on articulated knowledge and observes the system under study with a detached stance, the situated approach includes tacit knowledge and recognises the importance of the environment. The situated analyst is immersed in the system, attempting to take the subject position of an actor in the system, while also maintaining some analytical distance.

The research method and framework presented is a novel way to compare the epistemological underpinnings of other systems analysis and design methodologies. Validity issues are explicitly addressed in the paper; although it is based on a single case, the fact that it is a real‐world problem gives it high external validity.

The investigation is based on an actual system design case and shows that, in analysis and design, the different epistemological underpinnings affect what is identified as a problem and hence the type of solution proposed.

There has been little previous work comparing epistemological commitments of alternative ISAD methodologies as they are played out in actual application. This paper makes a significant contribution to the theoretical foundations of IS.

This paper aims to address the methodological and conceptual challenges arising from the use of activity theory as a theoretical framework in empirical studies of work.

To grasp the relationship between situated action and activity development, the authors build upon the concept of perspective and suggest that perspectives are grounded on salient configurations, which are both emergent in situ and collectively elaborated cultural resources. Empirical evidence for these theoretical considerations is provided through a two-year ethnographic study of the organizational change and collective activity at an inbound call centre for a number of mutual health insurance companies. This research used several data collection techniques such as ethnographic observation, video recordings and interviews.

The presented results highlight that seemingly unskilled routine practices such as opening and sorting the mail rely upon a complex set of informational resources that only have “value” and meaning in a broader relational context, that of the activity.

The originality of this paper is the use of salient configurations as a basis for the operationalization of the notion of perspective and open new avenues of thought (and action) on situated work practices as embedded within activities.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a situated conception of projects, in order develop finer understanding of how these endeavors emerge and unfold over time. The author proposes that these understandings should be rooted in a process ontology, conceive action as situated and focus on actual practices as they are performed by all project actors. Taken together, these dimensions can renew how one views and approaches projects and their management.

The paper is illustrated with examples taken out of a study of a software development project, conducted in the ethnographic tradition.

The examples expose how a specific practice, planning, was accomplished differently depending on the moment and was affected by different circumstances and constraints. The paper also discusses how preferring a processual worldview is especially befitting projects. As endeavors instigated to create or to make something happen, projects are perpetually changing and in movement; it is therefore relevant that their conceptualization takes fully into consideration their intimate nature.

The originality and value of the paper lie in the combination of perspectives, which can be both useful in theorizing projects differently, and in enhancing practitioners' reflexivity. This combination, it is argued, can address a wide array of issues in the context of projects, can favor localized reflection on project management prescriptions and tools, and can help practitioners to sharpen their sensitivity to their own practice.

This paper aims to focus on activity-based workplaces, which offer a diversity of typologies and configurations which, instead of being attributed to users, are shared according to the needs of their activities. Indeed, this paper questions the way these activity-based workplaces configure the ways in which individuals and collectives carry out their activity.

To do so, this paper established a two-phase methodology. Three days of observation amid three different units evolving in activity-based workplaces have helped us to identify the uses that emerged from these spatial typologies. Then, a set of two interviews with eight participants have been conducted based on the four dimensions of the situated acceptance model (Bobillier Chaumon, 2013) and on picture elicitation.

The results allow us to understand how activity-based workspaces can be considered as artefacts for the activity that needs to be appropriated to allow the worker to realise his activity.

The results provide an overview of the social and psychological consequences of activity-based workspaces on workers, their work collective and their activity. Thus, the conclusions can be mobilised in activity-based real estate projects, for example, during the design stage.

This research conducted with a situated approach based upon the study of the development of the activity proposes a change from the usual managerial approach about these activity-based workplaces, which prescribe an ideal way of working within the workplace.

This paper aims to propose to rehabilitate prâxis and revive possibilities of practical wisdom (phrónêsis) and a reinterpret excellence as an ethically committed way for responsible and sustainable form of living, while operating in the midst of a systematically constrained world of neoliberal regimes.

Based on a literature review, this essay first presents some basic understandings of prâxis, practices and its architecture as well as phrónêsis and its interconnection. Further, possibilities for integrating excellence in prâxis and success in poiêtic practice are suggested in form of a critical poiêtic phrónêsis, and some implications are outlined in conclusions.

Considering the systemic constrains of contemporary neoliberal regimes, this paper has shown the significance of a reviving the inter-relational nexus between prâxis, embodied practices, phrónêsis and sustainable action. An integral holonic approach of constrained prâxis was discussed, by which the macro-level is holonically connected to meso-level of likewise constrained practices to micro-level of action and vice versa. In particular, constrained excellence-oriented practical wisdom was connected with constraining result- and success- poiesis in a critical poietic phrónêsis and creative actions in inter-practices as part of inter-prâxis discussed.

The paper is a meta-reflective paper and view point, but links to “prâxis-related research” are offered.

Some practical and political implications are provided.

Some links to social and societal implications are discussed.

The proposed integration of prâxis, embodied practices, sustainable actions and practical wisdom for organisation and in relation to society is genuine and critical. It is orginal in that it provides possibilities to re-assess, re-vive and further investigate the relevance of embodied forms of an integral prâxis, practicing, phronesis and action in and through organizations as well as stakeholder towards a flourishing unfoldment.

Presents a theoretical approach to understanding the local culture of firms in the multinational information sector. Called situating culture, this approach holds that cultural understanding is locally situated, behavioral and embedded in everyday, socially negotiated work practices. The application of this theory is provided through cases from the workplace cultures of US multinational IT firms operating in Ireland. These examples show how the local culture of a global IT firm represents the interaction of industry, corporate and national contexts. It results in locally situated work practices and distinct socially negotiated realities that ultimately impact behavior in these settings. The theoretical approach of situating culture contributes to a better understanding of contextualism in the cross‐cultural IT environment. This understanding, in turn, has implications for future cross‐cultural IS research as well as for cross‐cultural IT practice.

The purpose of this paper is to engage with the theme of activation policies and organisational innovation in the capability perspective, from the viewpoint of active labour market policies in the UK.

The focus of the article is the City Strategy initiative in Great Britain, which encourages institutions to work together to develop solutions to concentrations of worklessness. The article presents findings from a case study of the introduction of the City Strategy in one English sub‐region: Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country. The empirical investigation is based on analysis of documentary evidence including strategy papers and “grey literature” such as minutes of meetings and internal briefings. In addition, the case study draws on in‐depth qualitative interviews conducted with 18 local actors involved in the City Strategy.

The empirical investigation provides selected evidence of successful public action undertaken through the City Strategy. It discusses issues concerning the benefits of partnership working and inter‐agency cooperation, but also limits that are reached.

The paper identifies elements of the capabilities approach – the idea of situated public action, the importance of local actors, and key concepts of empowerment and voice – as providing a helpful framework for analysis. While the City Strategy represents an interesting example of situated public action to tackle worklessness, it can be argued that what is missing in this instance is what the capabilities approach identifies as key elements of empowerment and voice for local actors.

The aim of this introduction to the special issue is to furnish a panorama on how practice‐based studies (PBS) concerned with organizational learning have developed in recent years, and to describe the topics that such studies have debated.

The articles in this special issue were first presented at the standing working group on “Practice‐based Studies of Knowledge and Innovation in Workplaces” of the European Group for Organizational Studies, and will therefore provide the background to PBS and an idea of its methodology.

The practice‐ based approach may be useful for: a renewed conception of organization as a texture of interrelated practices which extend to form an action‐net sustained by a knowing‐in‐action which renews itself and transforms itself into being practiced; a renewed conception of knowledge as a situated, negotiated, emergent and embedded activity; a renewed conception of materiality as a form of distributed agency and an intimate relationship with humans; a methodology for analysis of the new forms of work as knowing‐in‐practice; and a lexicon which comprises new expressions and concepts for the renewal of organization studies.

The special issue does not represent an extended review of the literature on PBS.

This paper offers an overview of an emergent field of studies.

Interactive storytelling can be based either on explicit plot representations or on the autonomous behaviour of artificial characters. In such a character‐based approach, the dynamic interaction between characters generates the actual plot from a generic storyline. Characters’ behaviours are implemented through real‐time search‐based planning techniques. However, the top‐down planning systems that control artificial actors need to be complemented with appropriate mechanisms dealing with emerging (“bottom‐up”) situations of narrative relevance. After discussing the determinants that account for the emergence of narrative situations, we introduce additional mechanisms for coping with these situations. These comprise situated reasoning and action repair: we also illustrate the concepts through detailed examples.