The view that an agent’s cognitive processes sometimes include proper parts found outside the skin and skull of the agent is gaining increasing acceptance in philosophy of mind. One main empirical touchstone for this so-called active externalism is Edwin Hutchins’ theory of distributed cognition (DCog). However, the connection between DCog and active externalism is far from clear. While active ...

This special socio-technical supplement of the Open Medical Informatics Journal showcases a number of innovative and unique research approaches that highlight the current scope of socio-technical perspectives in the health informatics discipline. In just three short decades the discipline of health informatics has evolved from a primary focus on the " application of computers to all fields of m...

Actor-network theory, which is considered as a development of socio-technical structuralism school, observes reservation and stability of networks containing personal and impersonal components such as individuals, organizations, communication software and hardware, and infrastructural standards by examination of socio-technical dimensions concurrently.The goal of this research is studying the i...

Knowledge management professionals are consistently presented with the challenges of socio-technical initiatives when it comes to enhancing, sharing, and utilizing knowledge and information in corporate, scholarly, and professional applications.Socio-Technical Knowledge Management: Studies and Initiatives connects knowledge management theory to knowledge management practice, allowing the empiri...

Modern organisations are complex, socio-technical systems consisting of a mixture of physical infrastructure, human actors, policies and processes. An increasing number of attacks on these organisations exploits vulnerabilities on all different levels, for example combining a malware attack with social engineering. Due to this combination of attack steps on technical and social levels, risk ass...

Purpose: Commercial aviation is feasible thanks to the complex socio-technical air transportation system, which involves interactions between human operators, technical systems, and procedures. In view of the expected growth in commercial aviation, significant changes in this socio-technical system are in development both in the USA and Europe. Such a complex socio-technical system may generate...

This paper argues for the relevance and utility of socio-technical systems theory for designing solutions to the challenges we face from climate change and managing the impact of human activity on the environment. Socio-technical systems theory defines systems as a collection of messy, complex, problem-solving components. This paper identifies two elements of sociotechnical systems theory most ...

On first reading this book, I could not decide if I was delighted with the breadth covered or if I felt I would have preferred more in-depth coverage of fewer issues. On second reading, I still was not sure. In the words of the author herself, ‘this book embraces difference, as evidenced by a wide variety of studies presented in 22 chapters that differ in perspectives on knowledge (explicit and...

Introduction This chapter will explore the use of socio-technical analysis in design of assistive technology. It starts out with a discussion of assistive technology (AT) and the various user types (roles) that are involved in AT development and adoption, with particular focus on the high rate of abandonment of complex AT. It continues, contrasting the conventional approach of studying system d...