Detta examensarbete har genomförts i samarbete med Åkerskolan i Strängnäs kommun och med stöd från Tekniska museet i Stockholm. Eleverna som har deltagit i studien går i årskurserna 1-4. Kvalitativa intervjuer och observationer har gjorts med eleverna på skogsutflykter med skolan och fritids för att samla data om deras förhållande till skogen och djur i skogen. Studien är en fenomenologisk studie som lutar sig mot begreppet affordance, en term inom informationsdesign som beskriver relationen mellan ett fysiskt objekt och en person och de möjliga interaktionerna mellan en person och miljön omkring. Studien tar upp teorier om  människors relation till skogen och djurs relation till skogen för att visa ett perspektiv på skogen som ett hem. Arbetet har resulterat i ett gestaltningsförslag i form av ett undervisningskoncept som ska kunna användas av lärare till årskurs 1-4 att använda till sina klasser i undervisningen, det är lekfullt och lärorikt för eleverna och kommer ändra deras sätt att se på sin närliggande skog och att tänka innan de agerar nästa gång. / This study was made with the elementary school Åkerskolan in Strängnäs county and with some support from the Museum of Technology, Tekniska Museet, in Stockholm county. The students that participated in the case were in first to fourth grade. Qualitative interviews and observations have been done with the students in a forest during school trips. This was to collect data about their relation to the forests and animals in the forest. The study is a phenomenological study that focuses on affordance, which is a concept within information design that describes the relation between a physical object and a person and the possible interactions between a person and its environment. The study also brings up theories about the human relation and distance to the forest and animals' relation to the forest, to give a perspective of the forest as a home. The work has resulted in a design as a concept for teachers in first to fourth grade to do with their students in school. It could be both playful and educational for the students and it will change their way to look at their nearby forests and they will think before they act next time.

The aim of my study has been to investigate, based on the children’s perceptions, what obstacles and opportunities they encounter in the outdoor play at the leisure home, which affects their playing habits. I interviewed eighteen children during four interview sessions at a school in Stockholm, Sweden about their outdoor play habits at the leisure home. To investigate this, I have used affordance theory, which is linked to the physical environment and the social environment. Affordance is about what meaningful offers an individual perceives in an environment and its material. The results showed that the children seem to be in a dangerous world according to the staff who set restrictive rules to protect them. The schoolyard, which should be a safe place in the other hand can contain several dangers that I have identified. The danger here are about the various factors that affected the children’s opportunities for physical activity. Previous research shows this fear of exposing children to risks is common in today’s society, it also shows how children’s opportunities for physical activity are diminishing.

Cette thèse questionne l’idée, aujourd’hui largement partagée, d’une compression de l’espace dû aux TIC. Ceci est dû au peu d’attention que les recherches en Systèmes d’Information ont porté à la question de l’espace organisationnel, ainsi qu’au déterminisme technologique. Cette étude cherche à comprendre la relation entre espace organisationnel et TIC en partant de la théorie de l’affordance, fondée sur les travaux de J.J. Gibson. Une étude de cas multiple portant sur deux écoles de management, au Canada et en Angleterre, a été menée. Les pratiques spatiales des chercheurs ont été analysées à partir d’un modèle fondé sur la théorie de l’affordance, afin de vérifier le rôle des TIC dans la formation de ces pratiques. Les résultats montrent que cette approche théorique n’est en réalité pas pertinente pour l’étude des TIC de manière générale.Nous proposons une perspective alternative reposant sur la phénoménologie de la perception de Merleau-Ponty. Au regard des 2 cas étudiés, cette approche suggère que les TIC ont un double effet : elles compriment et étendent l’espace simultanément. Les TIC constituent un point focal où les espaces proches et éloignés convergent pour produire une unique sphère d’expérience. Notre étude développe les concepts merleau-pontiens d’intentionnalité, de schéma corporel, d’habitus, de corps-connaissant et corps habituel dans le contexte des pratiques spatiales des chercheurs. Nous proposons d’abandonner la théorie de l’affordance au profit d’une approche expérientielle pour comprendre la relation entre espace organisationnel et TIC. / The dominant narrative of the collapsing of space due to ICT in organizations is challenged by this study. It is argued that this is due to a general lack of interest in organizational space in IS scholarship combined with technological determinism. This study seeks to understand the relationship between ICT and organizational space by mobilizing affordance theory based on J.J. Gibson’s work. A qualitative multiple-case study covering two business schools, in Canada and the UK, was undertaken. The spatial practices of academics were scrutinized using a model based on affordance theory to ascertain the role of ICT, as part of the wider environment, in the shaping of these practices. The results clearly demonstrate the inadequacy of affordance theory for the study of ICT in general. An alternative perspective based on the phenomenology of perception of Merleau-Ponty is proposed and successfully tested against the data. This alternative perspective suggests that, based on the experience of academics, ICT simultaneously collapses and expands space. ICT acts as a point of singularity where proximate and remote spaces converge to produce a singular sphere of experience. The study further develops Merleau-Ponty’s concepts of intentionality, body schema, habitus, knowing body, and habitual body in the context of the spatial practices of academics. I propose abandoning affordance theory in favour of an experiential approach to understand the relationship between organizational space and ICT.

The purpose of the study is to investigate how play is affected by the physical indoor environment in leisure-time centers with a focus on promotional and inhibitory factors. The survey is based on qualitative interviews with five educators who shared their perceptions and experiences within the subject. The study's results show a large agreement on enabling and limiting factors where variation, flexibility and students' participation in the environmental design are crucial for the stimulus of play. When these factors are missing, play is considered to be inhibited because the environment is not perceived to meet what is needed to be a rewarding play environment for the students. The result is related to environmental psychological theory and analyzed using an affordance perspective to understand how the students' different experiences of the environment affect the environmental offering for play.

A rising problem exists regarding the ownership of memes. This research proposes a solution consisting of an IT artefact that solves this problem by utilising design science research in combination with affordance theory and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This artefact is designed by identifying the problem areas and creating affordances that guide the design process, using the design science research methodology by Peffers et al. (2007). The artefact is evaluated and considered a potential solution to the problem with meme ownership. The affordances are connected to the designed features and offer contributions in the form of a novel artefact and documented design processes. By using affordance theory as a lens to help the design, further research can build upon this idea and expand research by combining design science with affordances. The practical implementation of NFTs gives insights into how NFTs can be applied in the case of tokenising digital goods and allows people without knowledge of blockchains to participate.

Användningen av sociala medier i organisationer har ökat och bland annat kan det unika verktyget användas för att supporta kunskapsdelning mellan individer inom och bortanför organisationens gränser. En förståelse av individens upplevelse av sociala medier är kritiskt för såväl informatikforskningen samt för organisationer som kan dra lärdom av det vid införande av sociala medier i verksamheten. Därför är studiens syfte att beskriva och söka förståelse för vad individer i en organisation uppfattar att sociala medier kan bidra med till deras kunskapsdelning och utöka kunskapsområdet för hur teknik uppfattas ur ett affordance-perspektiv. Syftet besvaras genom en fallstudie och sju kvalitativa forskningsintervjuer. Det transkriberade materialet har hanterats individuellt och tolkats utifrån tidigare forskning samt analyserats utifrån den teoretiska modell som studien tar fram. Resultatet visar att kontexten har mångfaldig inverkan på hur individen uppfattar sociala medier och hur artefakten kan användas. Kunskapsdelning på sociala medier kan öka möjligheten till att identifiera expertis, skapa en kunskapskarta och bredda sitt sociala nätverk men leda till för mycket information och en kritisk syn på innehållet. Studien stödjer den forskning som visar på att explicit kunskap kan spridas på sociala medier och framför allt genom att den kombineras med annan explicit kunskap. / The use of social media in organizations has increased and among other things the unique tool can be used to support knowledge sharing between individuals within and beyond organization boundaries. An understanding of the individual's experience of social media is critical for both informatics research and organizations that can learn from it when introducing social media in businesses. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to describe and seek understanding of what individuals in an organization perceive that social media can contribute to their knowledge sharing and expand the research area for how technology is perceived from an affordance perspective. The purpose is achieved by a case study and seven qualitative research interviews. The transcribed material has been processed individually and interpreted in accordance with previous research and analyzed on the basis of the theoretical model that this study elaborated. The results show that context has multiple impacts on how an individual perceives social media and its area of use. Knowledge sharing on social media can increase the opportunity to identify expertise, create a knowledge map and broaden one's social network, but can also produce too much information and a judgemental view of the content. The study supports previous research that shows that explicit knowledge can be shared on social media foremost by combining it with other’s explicit knowledge.

La cognition incarnée est un courant théorique qui considère que l'esprit doit être compris dans le contexte de son corps, et de l'interaction de ce dernier avec l'environnement. Elle s'est construite en réaction à l'approche cognitiviste classique qui voit la cognition dite « centrale » (mémoire, raisonnement, compréhension...) comme un système de traitement de l'information de symboles amodaux, indépendant des systèmes sensorimoteurs. S'opposant à cette vision, la cognition incarnée soutient notamment que 1/ la cognition aurait pour fonction de guider l'action 2/ elle serait ancrée dans les systèmes sensorimoteurs, c'est-à-dire qu'elle aurait des ressources de traitement en commun avec eux plutôt que d'en être indépendante. Depuis les années 80, les travaux s'inscrivant dans cette approche sont chaque année plus nombreux. Pourtant, la cognition spatiale envisagée selon cette perspective reste encore un domaine peu exploré. L'objectif de la revue de littérature présentée dans cette thèse est de montrer que différentes sources d'informations des représentations spatiales, la perception, la mémoire, et le langage, sont incarnées. Si leurs sources sont incarnées, alors il y a de bonnes raisons de penser que les représentations spatiales le sont aussi. Nous rapportons ensuite quelques éléments suggérant que les représentations spatiales pourraient être incarnées. Notre travail expérimental a eu pour objectif de montrer que la mémoire d'objets pouvant constituer une base à la formation d'une représentation spatiale est incarnée, dans le sens où elle aurait pour fonction de guider l'action, et qu'elle est ancrée dans les systèmes sensorimoteurs. A cette fin, nous avons réalisé plusieurs études explorant, au travers de postures réduisant les possibilités d'action, le rôle du système moteur dans la mémoire (Expériences 1 à 11), le langage (Expériences 9a à 10), et les représentations spatiales (Expériences 10 et 11). Les Expériences 1 à 8 ont montré dans l'ensemble qu'une posture contraignante a un effet négatif sur la mémoire d'images ou de noms d'objets manipulables, mais pas sur la mémoire des objets-non-manipulables (effet PI). Les Expériences 9a et 9b ont utilisé des phrases et ont montré que l'effet de la posture sur la mémoire de noms d'objets manipulables est présent lorsqu'il est associé à un verbe impliquant une action, mais pas lorsqu'il est associé à un verbe n'impliquant pas d'action. Les Expériences 10 et 11 ont utilisé respectivement des descriptions spatiales et des environnements virtuels, et ont montré nouvellement que des objets décrits ou présentés à une distance ne permettant par leur atteinte manuelle sont moins bien mémorisés que ceux situés à une distance proche. Après avoir discuté de ces résultats, nous proposerons notre conception des modèles de situations spatiaux incarnés. / The embodied cognition framework claims that the mind must be understood in the context of its relationship to a physical body that interacts with the world. It has been developed in response to the classical cognitivist approach, which regards the so-called « central » cognition (memory, reasoning, comprehension...) as an amodal symbols processing system, independent from the sensorimotor systems. Contrary to this idea, embodied cognition claims in particular that 1/ cognition is for action 2/ cognition is grounded on sensorimotor systems, that is, it shares processing resources with sensorimotor systems, rather than being independent from them. Since the 1980s, the amount of work within this framework is growing each year. Yet, there are still few researches on spatial cognition with this approach. The aim of the state of art of this thesis is to show that several sources of information of spatial representations, such as perception, memory, and language, are embodied. If their sources are embodied, then it is likely that spatial representations are also embodied. We will report then some direct elements in favor of the embodiment of spatial representations. The aim of our empirical work was to show that the memory of objects, which can potentially be part of a spatial representation, is embodied in the sense that it is for action, and that it is grounded on sensorimotor systems. To fulfill this aim, a body of studies has been run in order to explore, by the mean of postures decreasing the possibilities for action, the role of the motor system in memory (Experiment 1 to 11), language (Experiment 9a to 10), and spatial representations (Experiment 10 and 11). Experiments 1 to 8 showed as a whole that a constraining posture has a negative effect on the memory of manipulable objects, but not on non-manipulable objects (PI effect). Experiments 9a and 9b used sentences. They showed an effect of posture on the memory of manipulable objects only when their name is associated with a verb which involves an action, but not when it is associated with a verb which does not involve an action. Experiments 10 and 11 used respectively spatial descriptions and virtual environments, and newly showed that the objects described or presented out of reach are less recalled than those located at a close distance. After a discussion of these results, we will propose our conception of embodied spatial situation models.

Cette thèse traite du problème de planification de mouvement pour objets documentés. La difficulté du problème réside dans le couplage d’un problème symbolique et d’un problème géométrique. Les approches habituelles combinent la planification de tâche et la planification de mouvement. Elles sont complexes à implémenter et coûteuse en temps de calcul. Notre approche se différencie sur trois aspects. Le premier aspect est un cadre théorique modélisant les mouvements admissibles du robot et des objets. Ce modèle théorique utilise des contraintes pour lier tâche symbolique et chemins géométriques accomplissant cette tâche. Un graphe de contrainte permet de modéliser les règles de manipulation. Un algorithme de planification utilisant ce graphe est proposé. Le deuxième aspect est la gestion de chemin contraint. Dans le cadre de la manipulation, un définition abstraite sous forme de contrainte numérique est nécessaire. Un critère de continuité pour les méthodes de type Newton-Raphson est proposé pour assurer la continuité de trajectoire dans des sous-variétés. Le dernier aspect est la documentation des objets. Certaines informations, facile à définir pour l’être humain, accélère grandement la recherche d’une solution. Cette documentation, spécifique à chaque objet et préhenseur, est utilisée pour générer un graphe de contrainte, facilitant ainsi la spécification et la résolution du problème. / This thesis tackles the manipulation planning for documented objects. The difficulty of the problem is the coupling of a symbolic and a geometrical problem. Classical approaches combine task and motion planning. They are hard to implement and time consuming. This approach is different on three aspects. The first aspect is a theoretical framework to model admissible motions of the robot and objects. This model uses constraints to link symbolic task and motions achieving such task. A graph of constraint models the manipulation rules. A planning algorithm using this graph is proposed. The second aspect is the handling of constrained motion. In manipulation planning, an abstract definition of numerical constraint is necessary. A continuity criterion for Newton-Raphson methods is proposed to ensure the continuity of trajectories in sub-manifolds. The last aspect is object documentation. Some information, easy to define for human beings, greatly speeds up the search. This documentation, specific to each object and end-effector, is used to generate a graph of constraint, easing the problem specification and resolution.

Inomhusmiljön på förskolan är avgörande för barns lek, lärande och utveckling. Miljön påverkar hur individer interagerar med andra och bjuder in till olika typer av beteenden. Samtidigt blir barn sällan delaktiga och inkluderade i utformningen av miljön, utan miljön speglar i stället de vuxnas förväntningar och mål. Ofta beskrivs förskolepersonal vara de som begränsar barns handlingsutrymme och möjliga handlingserbjudanden. Syftet med föreliggande studie var därför att förstå förskolepersonals perspektiv på deras handlingar i förhållande till barns handlingsutrymme i inomhusmiljön på förskolan. Föreliggande studie är en kvalitativ studie med inspiration från hermeneutiken där semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts. Studien har utgångspunkt i Gibsons affordance teori och empirin har analyserat utifrån en tematisk analysmetod. Resultatet visar att förskolepersonalen är positiva till barns utforskande av miljöns handlingserbjudanden och att barn ges ett relativt stort handlingsutrymme i inomhusmiljön på förskolan. Förskolepersonalen beskriver sina handlingar som stöttande för barn, dock måste förskolepersonalen begränsa barns handlingsutrymme när det finns säkerhetsrisker eller när barn riskerar att störa varandra. Sammanfattningsvis strävar förskolepersonalen alltid efter att ge barn handlingsutrymme. / The indoor environment at the preschool is crucial for children's play, learning and development. The environment affects how individuals interact with others and invites different types of behavior. At the same time, children are rarely involved and included in the design of the environment, instead the environment reflects the adults' expectations and goals. Preschool staff are often described as those who limit children's room for action and possible affordances. The purpose of the present study was to understand preschool staff's perspective on their actions in relation to children's room for action in the indoor environment at the preschool. The present study is a qualitative study with inspiration from hermeneutics where semi-structured interviews have been conducted. The study is based on Gibson's affordance theory and the empirical evidence has been analyzed based on a thematic analysis method. The results show that the preschool staff are positive about children's exploration of the environment's affordance and that children are given a relatively large scope for action in the indoor environment at the preschool. The preschool staff describe their actions as supportive of children, however, the preschool staff must limit children's freedom of action when there are safety risks or when children risk disturbing each other. In summary, preschool staff always strive to give children room for action.

Digital technologies have for many years been acclaimed as tools that hold the power to transform learning, yet educational research has so far failed to demonstrate the transformative effects of these digital technologies on learning outcomes (Cuban, 2001; Price and Kirkwood, 2011). Some research has even gone so far as to question this underlying assumption regarding digital technologies ability to transform education, suggesting that they do not in fact have any inherently positive benefits for learning, and that perceived benefits are actually artefacts produced by other factors (Means et al, 2009). Several potential causes have been proposed for the slow progress in educational technology, including lack of time for staff development, unsuitability of technologies, and cultural barriers within institutions (Laurillard, 2012a). A fourth potential cause may lie with the lack of theory to explain technologies themselves (Oliver, 2013). Different theoretical perspectives have been proposed as a way to enhance our understanding of technologies, with one potential candidate being the theory of affordances. The theory of affordances has been used extensively within many fields, including educational technology, but remains a divisive and often under-defined term (Hammond, 2010). This thesis argues that this may in part be due to its distortion through adoption in multiple disciplines, and its popular description as the ‘action possibilities’ presented by an object or scenario, something not present in the theory’s original conception. It is suggested that a return to the original theory of affordances as proposed by Gibson (1979), which attempted to explain how individuals derive meaning from the world around them, returns clarity to the theory. A particular focus on the underexplored aspects of intention and invariant, together with a re-appreciation of what it means to apply the theory of affordances to digital environments, to digital spaces and places, provides a way of thinking about affordance that arguably can be applied more constructively to the effective use of technology in education. A design-based research approach was taken in order to research the original concept of affordance, and its key components of intention and invariant, within learning scenarios supported by digital technologies. Design-based research is an evolving methodology, with no strict definition, but it has shown promise in both the design and the research of technology-enhanced learning environments (Wang and Hannafin, 2005). A pilot phase at secondary school level demonstrated the potential for the approach; multiple iterations at a higher education level developed and enriched these findings into a stable model for the alignment of digital technologies with a particular pedagogical scenario. Findings suggest that affordances can be used to ‘explain’ educational technology, if the concept is broadened to include the wider ecology of learning; digital technologies not only as tools, but also as places. Extending the notion of affordances from ‘action possibilities’ to ‘transaction possibilities’ gives agency to both learner and technology, and recognises the important contribution of the digital environment to the learner experience. A specific design framework is offered which uses this redefinition of affordances as a design tool to align an authentic learning scenario with the digital technologies that have the potential to support that learning scenario. A generic design methodology is proposed, based on this framework, which has the potential to align pedagogy and technology using this updated definition of affordance. To close, some thoughts on the value of the design-based research approach are discussed.