abstract: A pressing question in public policymaking is how best to allocate decision-making authority and to facilitate opportunities for input. When it comes to science, technology, and environmental (STE) policy decisions, persons impacted by those decisions often have relevant information and perspectives to contribute yet lack either the specialized, technical knowledge or the means by which to effectively communicate that knowledge. Consequently, due to a variety of factors, they are frequently denied meaningful involvement in making them. In an effort to better understand why this is so, and how this might change, this dissertation uses an activity systems framework to examine how three factors mediate the circulation of information in STE public engagement mechanisms. In this project, I examine the transcripts of a 2015 administrative hearing and community meeting about the Santa Susana Field Lab—a former nuclear- and rocket engine-testing facility 30 miles from Los Angeles, where an experimental nuclear reactor suffered a partial meltdown in 1959. Specifically, I identify (1) who was designated as an "expert" versus a member of "the public," (2) the structural features, and (3) the stylistic features of participants' remarks at these events; and I study how these factors mediated the flow of information at each. To do so, I view "expert" and "public" as what Michael McGee has termed ideographs, and consider the structural and stylistic features that prior scholarship has identified to impact information flow. Based on my analysis, I theorize that role designations, structural features, and stylistic features work together to mediate whose, what, and how information flows in public engagement mechanisms. Based on my findings, I also suggest that this mediation impacts policy outcomes. As such, I contend that better understanding the relationships among these mediational means, information flow, and policy outcomes is an important step towards developing public engagement mechanisms that most effectively use the relevant knowledge and other insights of all who have a stake in policy decisions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2016

This study used Activity Theory (AT) as a lens to explore how administrative and academic activity systems worked in a university, in schools and in the university-school partnership to support Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Saudi Arabia. It examined the perspectives of partnership coordinators, university tutors, head teachers, cooperating teachers and student teachers involved in the ITE partnership programme at Umm Alqura University. The study was conducted under the umbrella of the interpretive paradigm. Case study was used as the methodology of the study. The study employed multiple methods of data collection: questionnaire, interviews and documentary evidence. Maximum variation sampling was used to select the participants to take part in the current study. The total number of the whole sample with all sub-groups was 187. Ten in-depth interviews were conducted with volunteer interviewees. The study yielded various findings. Participants’ expectations were influenced by their history and background. In addition, student teachers were supported in learning about teaching in the university, school and through the partnership between school and university. However, different kinds of challenges were identified. These included: extreme centralisation in running the partnership activity system, lack of awareness of the importance of the partnership and of the need to address contradictory points of view about teaching and learning to teach in a constructive way. These challenges were symptoms of unresolved contradictions inherent in the partnership activity system. Despite these contradictions, many opportunities for professional development were highlighted by all partners. Using AT as an analytical tool, several implications for all partners were identified. The study concluded with the idea that for effective teacher education, not only is it important to understand the interaction between university and school but also how, within each, administrative and academic activity sub-systems operate and interact. This is because clear understanding of all aspects of the academic and administrative elements of the partnership, and of their relationship, is essential for a successful teacher education.

Il est couramment admis aujourd’hui que le stage en entreprise est essentiel à la formation, fut-elle universitaire. Peu de travaux pourtant se sont intéressés à la manière dont le stage contribue à la professionnalisation et au développement et à la formation des élèves et étudiants. La thèse réalisée dans le cadre de l’Ecole des Mines de St Etienne cherche à explorer en quoi le stage en entreprise pour des élèves en formation d’ingénieurs pouvait être facteur de développement Appuyé sur une perspective socio-constructiviste, et sur la théorie de l’activité issue des approches vygotskienne la thèse s’intéresse à la manière dont les instruments langagiers structurent la pratique du stage, permettent la réflexivité et la mise en visibilité des contradictions des systèmes d’activité entre l’entreprise et l’Ecole et à l’intérieur même de l’Ecole.L’approche théorique permet de définir les hypothèses suivantes :- Le stage est intégré à un dispositif de formation, organisé en lien avec les règles de la communauté constituée par les instances qui valident la formation. Ce dispositif s’imprègne de l’histoire du métier dans laquelle il s’inscrit. - Le stage est un élément de socialisation par les instruments parce qu’il permet à l’élève de s’inscrire dans un genre partagé, avec une acceptation de règles du jeu autour de la construction de son identité professionnelle, vers le métier d’ingénieur. Le dispositif de formation propose à l’élève un appareil de conversation qui lui permet de modifier et de reconstruire la réalité subjective et lui fournit une nouvelle identité professionnelle. Le rapport et la soutenance sont des instances proposées à l’élève pour discuter du genre découvert pendant le stage.- L’élève, lorsqu’il restitue son expérience en entreprise, se situe à l’intersection de plusieurs systèmes d’activité : le sien, celui de l’entreprise qui l’a accueilli en stage et celui du tuteur enseignant qui va valider cette expérience pour sa formation. Nous caractérisons donc en quoi le dispositif proposé par la formation permet la réflexivité avec la mise en visibilité des contradictions vécues et éventuellement leur dépassement. Nous regardons ensuite comment le rapport et la soutenance portent les traces de cette réflexion.A partir d’une analyse de l’historique des formations des ingénieurs nous cherchons à comprendre les logiques de formation et l’évolution de la place laissée aux stages. Une analyse du prescrit des stages est réalisé à travers les documents de l’Ecole d’ingénieurs. Questionnaires et entretiens permettent de saisir les représentations du stage par le Directeur et une promotion d’élèves. Puis deux études de cas appuyées sur l’étude des rapports et des soutenances de deux élèves et d’entretiens avec leurs tuteurs sont réalisées. L’analyse des données recueillies a montré que le stage en entreprise, pour fonctionner, se situe dans différents systèmes d’activité. Le système de formation qui prescrit le stage est pris dans des logiques dépendantes de celles des instances prescriptives du métier d’ingénieurs : les entreprises et leurs évolutions, les politiques d’enseignement, la CTI, le CEFI… A une autre échelle, dans la formation d’ingénieurs observée, les systèmes d’activité interpellés pour ce stage sont notamment ceux de l’Ecole, de l’entreprise, de l’élève, de l’enseignement, de la recherche. Enfin à l’échelle de deux élèves, nous avons pointé les convergences et les contradictions qui existent entre le système d’activité d’un élève, celui de son tuteur-enseignant, celui de l’entreprise, et celui de la recherche. / It is widely acknowledged today that the industrial placement is essential to academic study, even at university. However, few works have focused on the way in which the placement contributes to professional experience, the development and training of the students. The thesis undertaken at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines in Saint-Etienne (Graduate School of engineering) investigates to what extent the industrial placement could be a factor in the development of engineering students. Based on a socio-constructivist perspective and on the activity theory developed by Vygotsky’s approach, the thesis looks at the way in which the linguistic instruments structure the industrial placement itself, allowing a degree of reflexiveness and bringing to light contradictions in the activity systems between the company and the School as well as within the School itself.The theoretical approach allows us to establish the following hypotheses:- The industrial placement is integrated into a method of training that is set up in line with the rules of the community consisting of the authorities who validate the training. This methodology is embedded in the history of the profession. - The industrial placement is a way of socialising using the instruments because it allows the student to join a shared environment and to accept a set of rules around building a professional identity towards the engineering profession. The industrial placement gives the student a mechanism for conversation which allows him to modify and reconstruct the subjective reality, giving him a new professional identity. The written report and the viva voice are opportunities for the student to discuss the learning from the placement.- When the student presents his experience within the company, he is situated at the intersection of several activity systems: his own, that of the company at which he worked and that of the teacher who is going to validate this experience for his training, the engineering curriculum. We therefore characterise how the method proposed by the curriculum allows a level of reflexiveness and increased visibility of the contradictions experienced and how they can be overcome. We then look at to what extent these reflexions are contained within the written report and the viva voice..From an analysis of the history of engineering studies, we aim to understand the educational logic and the evolution of the industrial placement. An analysis of prescribed training courses is undertaken through the documents from the Engineering school. Questionnaires and interviews allow information about the placement to be recorded by the director of studies and of the students of the class of 2006 have on the placement. Then two case studies are undertaken based on the analysis of two students’ written reports and viva voices as well as interviews with their teachers.The data analysis showed that in order to work, a placement must be located in a variety of activity systems. The academic system which prescribes the placement is taken from the logic dependent on that of the authorities prescriptive to the engineering profession: companies and how they evolve, the politics of education, the CTI, the CEFI … On another scale, in the engineering curriculum that was observed, the activity systems questioned for this training course are those of the School, the company, the student, education and research. Finally, for the two students, we pointed out the convergences and the contradictions which exist between the activity system of a student, that of his teacher, that of the company, and that of the research.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T16:59:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ana Rebeca Miranda Castillo.pdf: 943350 bytes, checksum: ce0b94356ed32746bad627cd8904e8b1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-06-29 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / The objective of the current work is to investigate the teaching activity held in the Project proposed by Government Department of Education in the State of São Paulo to schools that work full time, this Project is called Workshop Mathematical Experiences. We based our theoretical Activity Theory view of Engeström (1999) who proposes an activity system composed of the elements: subject, object, mediator artifact, rules, community and work division. We consider the teacher as the active subject working in the workshop, the mathematical subject worked is the objective, the Workshop Mathematical Experiences is the mediator artifact, the project proposal and the guideline are the rules, the students parents and the school s teachers is the community and the power of teachers decision and the others individuals at school is the work division. Based on this system we analyzed the contradiction between all these groups, with the purpose to answer our research question: How the identification of contradictions in relations between the components of an activity system developed at the Workshop Mathematical Experiences, may help us to understand its operation? So we used a qualitative approach and followed the methodology of case study, because we decided to pay attention to two teachers at a public school they teach at the Workshop Mathematical Experiences. During the data gathering we used an initial questionnaire, we watched the classes and finally we had a semi-structured interview. The data analysis showed us through the contradictions identified that the Workshop Mathematical Experiences proposal, as well as its guidelines, are known and implemented by the interviewed teachers in a superficial way, in other words, the Workshop Mathematical Experiences is not developed by them as available resources, which shows us the need to expand the work with the Workshop Mathematical Experiences in order to promote its effective carrying out and consistent with the needs of the educational scene requires / O presente trabalho tem como objetivo investigar a atividade de ensino realizada no projeto proposto pela Secretaria de Educação do Estado de São Paulo para as Escolas em Tempo Integral chamado Oficina de Experiências Matemáticas. Nos fundamentamos nos pressupostos teóricos da Teoria da Atividade na perspectiva de Engeström (1999) que propõe um sistema de atividade formado pelos elementos: sujeito, objeto, artefato mediador, regras, comunidade e divisão do trabalho. Consideramos como sujeito o professor atuante na oficina, como objeto o conteúdo matemático trabalhado, como artefato mediador a Oficina de Experiências Matemáticas, como regras a proposta e as diretrizes do projeto, como comunidade os pais dos alunos e grupo de professores da escola e como divisão do trabalho o poder de decisão do professor e demais indivíduos da instituição escolar. Com base nesse sistema analisamos as contradições geradas nas relações entre todos estes elementos, tendo em vista responder nossa questão de pesquisa: Como a identificação de contradições nas relações entre os componentes de um sistema de atividade desenvolvido na Oficina de Experiências Matemáticas, pode contribuir para entender seu funcionamento? Para isso utilizamos uma abordagem qualitativa e seguimos a metodologia de estudo de caso, já que optamos por dirigir nosso olhar para duas professoras da rede pública de ensino que lecionam na Oficina de Experiências Matemáticas. Na coleta de dados utilizamos um questionário inicial, observação das aulas e por fim uma entrevista semi-estruturada. A análise dos dados revelou-nos por meio das contradições identificadas que a proposta da Oficina de Experiências Matemáticas, bem como suas diretrizes, são conhecidas e implementadas pelas professoras entrevistadas de forma superficial, ou seja, a Oficina de Experiências Matemáticas não é desenvolvida por elas com os recursos disponíveis, o que mostra a necessidade de ampliar o trabalho com a Oficina de Experiências Matemáticas, de modo a promover sua realização efetiva e condizente com as necessidades que o cenário educacional exige

This study is an empirical work about healthcare in the process of transformation. The speciic healthcare concerns foot and leg wound care within the homecare. The theoretical frame of the study relies on the Activity theory applied onto the healthcare workers involved into the wound care of the hard healing leg and foot ulcers. The transformation process involving this activity is seen as the example of the expansive learning and which is part of the activity theory. The method used is known, according to the Engeström (the leading figure within the currunt Activity research) as "etnography of trouble". The focus is on identifying conflicts which take place within the work activity. The purpose of the study was to increase understanding of how the wound care business is performed in home care in light of expansive learning theory. Results show the need for the wound care within the homecare to develop at the subject level as much as the system level. There are two specific developmental areas in concern, the tehnical-instrumental (development of digital assistance) and interaction-communication dmension (development of a new communication channel on vertical level). Both solutions liberate individuals competens. In the question of communication channel connected to the leadership this would create conditions for tehnical solutions to appear quicker. / Detta studie är ett empiriskt arbete och handlar om vårdarbete i förändring. Det specifika vårdarbete som denna studie behandlar är vård av ben- och fotsår (svårläkta sår) inom hemsjukvården. Teosretiskt anlägger jag ett verksamhetsteoretiskt perspektiv på vårdpersonalens arbete med svarläkta sår. På den förändringen som sker i sårvårdens praktik tar jag det analytiska greppet att jag betratar den som ett möjligt exempel på expansivt lärande. metod har varit inriktad på det som Engeström kallar för "etnography of trouble". En viktig fokus har varit att komma åt motsättningar, spänningar, eller "gnissel" i vårdverksamheten. Insamlade data består av observationer, intervjuer och dokumentation. Syftet med studien har varit att öka förståelse för hur sårvårds verksamhet utförds inom hemsjukvården i ljuset av Expansivt lärande teori. Resultatet visar att sårvård inom hemsjukvården behöver utvecklas likaså på subjekt som på systemnivå. Två specifik utvecklingsfaktorer handlar om teknisk/instrumentell dimension (utveckling av en ny kommunikationskanal på vertikal nivå). Båda lösningar frigör individens kompetens. Skulle det öppnas en mer direkt kontakt med ledningen det skulle skapa förutsättningar för snabbare utveckling av nödvändiga tekniska lösningar.

The path to a career in nursing begins on the first day of nursing training and is not completed until the nurses have worked one year in their profession. During the training period, the student nurses have training elements in two different activitysystems: the higher education institution and the healthcare sector. The aim of this study is to examine and highlight the relationship between the different parts of the training as well as how the relationship is manifested during the newly qualified nurses’ initial period in the profession. The research’s overall question is what makes the newly qualified nurses’ learning and knowledge development easier or harder in relation to the different parts of the nursing training. Interviews have been used to create data which have been analysed based on activity theory, a social theory of learning and different ways of describing knowledge. The research findings show that the activity systems have different knowledge cultures, learning processes and patterns of action. The study participants describe the differences in terms of being in ‘different worlds’. The newly qualified nurses do not always have the practical skills that are sought after and, therefore, cannot always act as independent subjects, but become marginalized non-participants who observe the course of events. Supervision and the rounds are the two most demanding duties during the first year in the profession, since these duties have been practiced to a limited extent during the nurse training placement. The supervisory function appears different to newly qualified male and female nurses. The women in the study feel that it is problematic to be a supervisor for older experienced assistant nurses, in that the assistant nurses do not accept them as supervisors. The men do not indicate this as being a problem, rather emphasizing that the assistant nurses support them in the supervisory function. During the rounds, the nurses must inform the doctor of the state of the patients’ health and care needs. The participants feel that it is difficult to live up to the doctors’ demands ahead of the rounds. In summary, my findings show that the different knowledge cultures in the higher education institution and the healthcare sector make the newly qualified nurses’ learning and knowledge development more difficult. During the first year in the profession, the newly qualified nurses learn to be nurses, and they talk about themselves as nurses in a totally different way than at the start of that year. The changed way of talking about themselves indicates that they have recreated their identity from student nurses to nurses.

Ce travail de thèse a pour objectif d’évaluer les facteurs intervenant dans l’acceptation d’un Espace Numérique de Travail (ONE) dans le contexte des écoles primaires en France. Dans ce cadre, nous avons mis en place un modèle d’acceptation triangulaire qui associe trois types de facteurs d’acceptation : facteurs pratiques (liés à la conception de l’outil), facteurs de perception (liés aux attitudes des utilisateurs) et facteurs situationnels liés aux caractéristiques du système d’activité scolaire.Afin d’évaluer ces facteurs, nous avons implémenté trois opérations de recueil de données. Dans la première opération (Axe 1), nous avons évalué, à partir de statistiques d’usage (N=266), les différences en termes d’utilisation entre les écoles ayant participé à la conception de l’outil et les écoles non participantes. Dans la seconde opération (Axe 2), nous avons évalués les attitudes des enseignants (N=8) et des parents (N=158) à l’aide de questionnaires d’intention d’usage et d’entretiens semi-directifs. Enfin, la troisième opération (Axe 3) est constituée d’entretiens approfondis à l’aide de méthodes d’explicitation et des analyses ethnographiques de publications réalisées sur ONE par lesenseignants, les élèves et les parents d’élèves.Les résultats montrent que l’acceptation des ENT dans les écoles primaires est un processus lent, qui se construit sur plusieurs années. Nous constatons un rôle déterminant de la coopération entre les concepteurs et les enseignants dans l’acceptation future de ONE. Les enseignants et les parents sont globalement favorables à l’utilisation de ONE et ont des perceptions positives concernant sa facilité d’usage et le rôle de cet outil dans la communication entre les écoles et les familles et dans le suivi des élèves. Ils craignent cependant que l’outil allonge le temps passé devant les écrans par les élèves. Les facteurs situationnels montrent certaines difficultés pour intégrer ONE dans les pratiques enseignantes : problèmes de gestion de la classe, manque d’infrastructure, allongement du temps des séances et un accompagnement insuffisant sur le plan pédagogique. En revanche, les enseignants apprécient le rôle important de l’outil, d’une part, dans la formation des compétences numériques et la responsabilisation digitale des élèves et, d’autre part, dans la valorisation des connaissances des élèves et la construction d’une expérience d’apprentissage plus autonome. / The objectif on this PhD thesis is to assess the factors involved in the acceptance of a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment), called One, in a context of primary schools in France. Within this framework, we developed a trangulated acceptancy model which associates three types of determinants : practical factors (related to the technology conception), perceptual factors (associated to users’ attitudes toward One), and situated factors related to the school activity system’s specifications. In order to assess these factors, we implemented three phases of data collection. In the first stage (Topic 1), we assessed, from usage statistics, the differences between schools that were involved in the platform’s design and those who where not. In the second stage (Topic 2), we evaluated the teachers and parents’ atitudes toward the VLE with specific one-to-one interviews and surveys. Finally, the third stage (Topic 3) was based on qualitative interviews and ethnographic analysis of activities developed by teacher, students and parents on the platform.The results attest the fact that the acceptance of VLE in primary schools is a slow process which is built step by step and achieved over several years. The collaboration between designers and teachers plays a crucial role in the future acceptance of One. The teachers and parents are globaly in favour of platform’s adoption and they show positive views on its ease of use, the facilitator role played in the communication between families and schools and concerning a better monitoring of pupils. They fear however that One could increase the length of childrens’ exposure to screens. The situated factors highlight some difficulties to integrate technologies in teachers’ everyday practices : organisational issues, class management, lack of infrastructure, increase in classes’ lenght, insuffisant pedagogical support for teachers. Nonetheless, the teachers appreciate the contribution of the platform in the development of children’s digital skills on the one hand, and in a better exploitation and recognition of childen’s knowledge and a more autonomous learning experience on theother hand

<p>Preschool is a central part of Swedish family life. The manner in which the state regulates preschool through laws, ordinances, and various kinds of written objectives has an impact on many people in the Swedish society. </p><p>The thesis examines the development of preschool state regulation from the 1940s until 2008. The starting point of the study is a draft for a new Education Act, put forward in 2003, which proposed that preschool should be integrated into the school system as a new form of school. The purpose of the study is to generate knowledge about the state regulation of Swedish preschool, and how it has contributed to the shaping of preschool as a societal institution. Questions considered in the analysis are how regulation delimits preschool as a social category, what role this regulation assigns preschool in relation to other actors and societal institutions involved in early childhood education and care, and what principles this regulation is based on.</p><p>The study has evolved within the research tradition of curriculum theory as developed in studies in educational politics. The analysis is carried out as a text analysis, where the concepts of boundary work, official classification and activity system serve as important analytical tools. Texts produced within the formal chain of decision and legislation: directives for committees, government white papers, ministerial task forces, bills, legislative texts etc., form the empirical foundation for the study. </p><p>The analysis shows that economic as well as legal and ideological governing instruments are used in the shaping of the framework of preschool. These frameworks are indicated in the form of different boundary markers that delimit preschool as a specific category and arrange it in relation to other categories. The boundaries indicated by these boundary markers have been subject to extensive discussion during the formulation process. Through this boundary work, preschool has been constructed as a full time preschool, commissioned to provide both education and care. The boundaries of this commission are in some respects indistinct and contain several overlapping elements with regards to family, social services and school. At the same time, preschool holds a fixed core with more distinct boundaries, in the form of a part time public preschool delimited by time and age and regulated by far-reaching legislation regarding the rights of children to attend. Owing to this construction, preschool may balance several different and partly contradictory demands placed on it by other institutions and by different interest groups, while at the same time maintaining a core of identity of its own. In that sense, preschool may be described as a boundary object. Thus, when it is suggested that preschool should constitute a form of school and be placed in the more formal regulation structures of the school system, the balance of this construction is challenged. </p>

Cette thèse envisage les effets occasionnés par la créativité collective contextualisée, plus particulièrement à l’échelle des groupes restreints, à partir d’une approche communicationnelle par les « constructions médiatrices ». Elle poursuit trois grands objectifs. Premièrement, elle s’inscrit dans une volonté d’éclaircissement de la notion de créativité de groupe en tant que phénomène (tel qu’abordé par Woodman, Sawyer et Griffin, 1993) et propose d’en faire la distinction par rapport à la méthode employée par le groupe de créativité (Demory, 1986; Aznar, 2011). Deuxièmement, elle cherche à clarifier les formes d’échanges et d’interactions au cours du processus de création-communication. Troisièmement, elle interroge les effets de ce phénomène collectif complexe de manière à mieux comprendre les conditions de déploiement de la créativité contextualisée.En prenant pour objet d’étude l’expérience vécue d’acteurs en situation par le biais d’un dispositif pédagogique, nous avons convié une communauté d’apprenants à vivre une expérience de création collective immersive et originale qui, par sa nature engageante et déroutante, était susceptible de heurter les habitudes et le cadre traditionnel d’apprentissage. Nous avons émis l’hypothèse que la tension créative entraine la réorganisation constante de l’activité des groupes en influençant les « constructions médiatrices » puis, que la nature de ce contexte cristallise la cohésion et l’engagement des groupes impliqués. Par une analyse de l’activité-créativité (la créactivité) de groupe, et plus particulièrement par l’observation des actions conjointes, des rapports d’interactions et de l’implication des membres, cette étude postule que la créativité collective contextualisée participe à l’émergence de formes d’interactions. Puis, que le recours aux moyens médiateurs (aux artefacts, à la division du travail et aux règles d’interactions) s’effectue dans un mouvement constant de réorganisation de l’activité par dépassements successifs des contradictions, par la formation de noeuds de médiations. Les constructions médiatrices sont ainsi le reflet du processus de transformation du sens des interactions sociales au cours de l’activité. / This thesis considers the effects caused by contextualized collective creativity, especially in small groups, based on a communicational approach by “mediational constructs". It has three main objectives. First, it wishes to clarify the concept of group creativity as a phenomenon (as discussed by Woodman, Sawyer and Griffin, 1993) and to propose its distinction from the method used by creativity groups (Demory, 1986; Aznar, 2011). Secondly, it seeks to clarify the forms of exchange and interactions during the communicative-creative process. Third, it investigates the effects of this complex collective phenomenon for a better understanding of contextualized creativity conditions and deployment.Using a pedagogical framework, we have invited a community of learners to experiment an immersive and original collective creation experience which was likely to upset habits and the traditional framework of learning by its engaging and confusing nature. We hypothesized that creative tension leads to the constant reorganization of group activity by influencing " mediational constructs " and that the nature of this context crystallizes the group cohesion and commitment. Through an analysis of group activity-creativity (creactivity), and more specifically by observing joint actions, interactions relationships and the involvement of members, this study postulates that contextualized collective creativity participates in the emergence of forms of interactions. Then, that the use of meditational means (artefacts, division of labor and rules of interactions) takes place in a constant movement of activity reorganization by overcoming contradictions by successive formation of “mediation nodes”. Thus, the mediational constructs represent a reflection of the transformation process of the social interactions meaning during the activity.

Cette thèse vise à étudier les conditions psychosociales d'adoption des véhicules électriques qui peuvent être utilisés de façon similaire au véhicule thermique (déplacements pendulaires, mobilités professionnelles, loisirs, vacances, etc.) et qui peuvent aussi participer à la réduction des nuisances environnementales (bruit, gaz à effet de serre). Si les voitures électriques (VE) répondent à ces exigences, ce véhicule connait pourtant une faible diffusion et un engouement limité auprès du grand public. L'objectif de cette recherche est de cerner les dimensions psychosociales de l'acceptation du VE. Dans une première phase nous chercherons à déterminer quels sont les facteurs (individuels, sociaux, domestiques/familiaux, technologiques, d'usage...) qui peuvent ou au contraire contrarier l'acceptabilité du VE, notamment aux niveaux des stratégies de déplacement, d'organisation et de gestion des activités, des styles de conduite automobile.... La méthodologie combinera deux approches, a priori et a posteriori, de l'acceptabilité et sera basée sur des outils de recueil de données qualitatifs et quantitatifs : entretiens individuels et collectifs, observations et suivis d'activités, questionnaires et échelles de mesure. Dans une seconde phase, il s'agira de tester les interactions entre les facteurs précédemment déterminés. Cette démarche s'inscrit dans un travail d'évaluation des rapports à une technologie pouvant modifier non seulement les pratiques et les usages liés à la conduite automobile mais aussi les attitudes et comportements pro-environnementaux. / This thesis aims to study the dimensions that were involved in the acceptance process of the electric car into an household context. This process begins before any use into the social acceptability phase, which happens a priori and may lead or not to the use of the vehicle. This phase is then followed by a practical acceptability that we would study during the first using sessions. This process extends to a long term use with the integration of the electric car into daily practices and socio-domestic activities.To define and to evaluate the implications of the dimensions involved in each phases of the process, we have implemented two operations of data-collection. In the first one, we apprehended the social representation of the electric car and their anchorages, to determine their effects on the intentions of using an electric car. This study was realized by using an associative method, with a sample of novice in therm of electric car driving experiences (N=70). Then we allowed these subjects to experience the driving of an electric car, immediately followed by an individual interview. The second data-collection-operation consist of in-depth interviews by utilizing explicitation technics and critical incidents, realised with owners/drivers of electric cars (N=9).The results show the evolving nature of the relation between drivers and electric car throughout the acceptation process. We observed weak intentions of electric-car-use mainly due to negatives representations of its technical characteristics (autonomy, speed), and to their anchorage on conventional cars (internal combustion engine vehicles). Those negative perceptions changed after an initial test drive of the vehicle, leading to a positive “driver experience”. This trend was confirmed with a long term use of this type of cars, which allows the continuity of socio-domestic practices and activities.