The analysis of work carried out by actors involved in food system transitions in the context of territorialized public action within a territorial food project, with a view to developing their sustainability, presented us with four conceptual challenges. We propose a specific analytical framework, based on three complementary fields of research (rural sociology, political sociology, and transition studies). This framework is built to understand: what is involved in the processes of transition to sustainable and territorialized food systems, who is involved in these processes, and the coordination required. We present this framework to establish what we believe to be the most appropriate focus for the analysis: the coupling of the work system with its environment. We then illustrate how we conducted the analysis and the results that emerged at the level of a research project. In the final section, we draw some lessons to highlight the theoretical, methodological, and pragmatic issues that we believe still need to be addressed to analyze and support, as ergonomists, systemic transformations with a view to contributing to the development of sustainable work systems
In view of the growing contribution of healthcare systems to ecosystem degradation, training institutions are increasingly called upon to rethink their pedagogical practices, particularly in simulation-based education. This article examines the emergence of low-tech approaches in health simulation as an alternative to the dominant paradigm based on high technologization and realistic reproduction of clinical environments. Building on prior work addressing the ecological impact of healthcare systems and sustainability initiatives developed in certain simulation centers, the article identifies the core principles structuring a low-tech approach across four dimensions: usefulness, durability, accessibility, and appropriation. Through a case study illustrative of an institutional culture oriented toward sustainability, the analysis focuses on the activity of designing a wound simulation model, drawing on the theoretical contributions of professional didactics. The article concludes by framing simulation as a space for pedagogical and institutional experimentation, within which more frugal and sustainable forms of care-related activity can be envisioned.
This study analyses the effects of a perturbation-based simulation training programme, focusing on individual concerns and collective learning processes that emerge during the activity. Analysis of the experiences of three learners highlights the heterogeneity of these experiences and the differentiated effects of disruption on individual activity. These differences nevertheless dimensions. Our results show that these localised effects are useful indicators allowing trainers to regulate learners' activity during simulation. Furthermore, the study highlights the construction), and an original process, that of the protection of the collective, defined as the spontaneous response to an event threatening the continuity of collective activity. This process contributes to the reconfiguration of the activity and to the development of a collective awareness of the situation, which is conducive to adaptation in complex and uncertain contexts. These results highlight the value of perturbation simulation in enriching collective learning.
Crisis management is a complex activity that involves numerous challenges, including during the activity of crisis units. Scientific literature still offers relatively few models to help us understand these challenges-models that might nonetheless provide a relevant foundation for developing the ability of operators to manage crisis situations. This article aims to address this limitation by combining two perspectives: the modeling of operator activity in crisis situations, and the design of simulation-based training. We first describe the foundations of the model, then present it in detail. The model subsequently allows us to formulate avenues for reflection on simulation-based training for risk management across various types of crisis situation. In concrete terms, it involves an articulation between general (adaptation, transformation, progression) and specific principles (unique to each type of crisis situation). This approach aims to enhance the relevance and effectiveness of simulations, thereby fostering the development of adaptative activity to manage risks in different types of crisis situation.
This article analyzes ways to enhance the constructive potential of crisis simulations, starting from the observation that traditional formats, often standardized and repetitive, offer limited opportunities for learning and performance improvement. Based on a series of studies conducted in real-world contexts using methods of activity and participant experience analysis, we propose three design principles aimed at fostering the constructive potential of these simulations: designing them (i) as spaces for controlled experimentation or (ii) as spaces for immersed reflexivity, and (iii) integrating participatory design elements. We then specify the overarching conditions required to implement these principles, encapsulated in the concept of "good enough simulations". Finally, we outline promising research directions derived from our findings.
This article focuses on how building tradespeople create and define the characteristics of their company, beyond the diversity of the construction projects they carry out. Tradespeople are selfemployed workers (just like the liberal professions or farmers). But the building trade is a specific socio-professional configuration, which remains relatively misunderstood despite its economic importance. Our objective is to examine the "company" as an object that building tradespeople define and design in their activity. We propose to use the term "entrepreneurial activity" to characterize the activity they engage in to create and maintain their business over the long term. And we seek to understand the latter using the concept of "productive configuration", the dimensions of which we discuss in our article. We show that the productive configuration has a significant impact on the economic sustainability of the company, but also on the working conditions of the tradespeople. In particular it is the coherence that the tradesman is able to give to this productive configuration that is decisive. And maintaining this coherence is a long-term task: it is especially destabilized by the hiring of an employee. This event calls into question not only the productive configuration, but also the role that tradespeople play. However, despite the challenges of entrepreneurial activity, most building tradespeople base the creation or takeover of their business solely on their technical expertise. In this context, these entrepreneurs are ill-prepared for the creation or takeover of a business, the outcome of which is therefore uncertain.
While the nursing education framework has advocated for the use of simulation in various teaching units for over a decade, this activity remains particularly complex for trainers. For the purposes of training trainers, we analyzed the activities of five experienced trainers within the framework of professional didactics. Our interviews enabled us to identify seven moments that involved complex skills for the trainer. This contribution focuses on the moment when trainers seek to manage the simulated activity while simultaneously anticipating the debriefing. The aim here is to clarify the depth of this moment by detailing the tricks trainers use to simultaneously manage six concerns. We have schematized their expertise in the form of a conceptual situation structure, by identifying the links between parameters and indicators that make it possible to cope with the complexity. This provisional formalization can be completed and tested in training.
This study aims to investigate a misleading scheme that occurred in an aeronautic workshop, and to test possible forms of remediation. A misleading scheme is a scheme activated by deceptive characteristics of the situation which might reduce performance. Such a scheme had been identified among operators in a metal frame stretching workshop: they used the results obtained on one frame to program a stretching machine for subsequent frames. As it proved difficult to study this misleading scheme in the real workshop, the microworld paradigm was used for this research to evaluate two forms of remediation: a brief training course in the inhibition of the misleading scheme and a real-time simulation program. The misleading scheme appeared among the "na & iuml;ve" participants in the same way it had appeared among the operators in the real workshop. Moreover, in the microworld the misleading scheme led to a decrease in performance. The real-time simulation tool did not lead to the disappearance of the misleading scheme, even though it seemed to allow users to learn how to refine the rules guiding the machine tool settings. The article thus raises the question of the persistence of a misleading scheme and the relevance of using real-time simulation without support to avoid its use in a situation where it is not relevant.
This study analyzes the evolution of an Olympic windsurfing champion's relationship with her body in connection with the emotions she experienced. Adopting an enactive approach and drawing on the theoretical construct of the "life course related to a practice" (Theureau, 2015), an interview enabled the identification of eight distinct periods in the athlete's career. The results are presented in two parts: first, a synthetic analysis of the evolution of the athlete's relationship with her body and emotional dynamics; second, an in-depth examination of the eight periods, using the components of the life course (potentialities, actualities, virtualities) alongside emotional experiences. The discussion is structured around four key themes: (1) the construction of the relationship with the body through a logic of self-surpassing; (2) the pursuit of bodily performance-related emotions in the evolving coupling with the environment; (3) injury as a turning point toward a more sustainable relationship with the body; and (4) post-competition emotions and the redefinition of the body relationship. This research highlights the role of lived experience and emotions in the turning points and reconfigurations of the athlete's relationship with her body in a high-level sport. Furthermore, the original articulation of qualitative and quantitative data offers deeper insight into the development of embodied knowledge constructed by the athlete throughout her career.
How can we support professionals who are reluctant to change their practices, even when those practices have negative impacts on work performance and health? Fostering the transformation of professional practices remains a major challenge. This article presents the design and effects of two embodied simulation-based training programs in the fields of viticulture and aeronautics. It highlights the value of simulations grounded in the bodily sensations and self-assessments of trainees, which serve as triggers for activity disruption and the emergence of new concerns. Both programs were evaluated using a methodological triangulation that combined questionnaires,interviews, observations, and objective assessments of professional performance based on measurable criteria. The results reveal a significant reconfiguration of practices within the encouraged fields of action. In viticulture, the pruning shear becomes a lever for health, productivity, and quality; sharpening emerges as a crucial daily task, with cutting quality becoming a central reference point. In aeronautics, professionals become aware that achieving a compliant drill hole on the first attempt is essential for proper assembly. In addition, they more rapidly achieve full autonomy. Embodied simulation-based training proved to be a powerful lever with which to foster the evolution and development of professional practices.
This article advocates for a research approach to training that is both activity-centered and design-based. We describe the aims, approaches and methods, and present an empirical study conducted in the field of medical simulation, the results of which are both "locally" relevant and generalizable. In this study, an analysis of the course-of-action of ten nurses enrolled in a "quality and safety of care" training program, taking part in a "room of errors" type simulation, enabled us to test the program's pedagogical principles. Using observation data and interviews, regularities in the participants' experience in the error room were identified and analyzed with reference to course-of-action theory. As a result, we were able to identify ways of improving the training program, these being implemented in a second version of the program. Several pedagogical adjustments were introduced via an iteration of the design process. We conclude with proposals for generalization, and directions for future research.
