Abstract
Cultural-historical activity theory has evolved through three generations of
research. The emerging third generation of activity theory takes two interacting activity
systems as its minimal unit of analysis, inviting us to focus research efforts on the challenges
and possibilities of inter-organizational learning. Activity theory and its concept of expansive
learning are examined with the help of four questions: 1. Who are the subjects of
learning? 2. Why do they learn? 3. What do they learn? 4. How do they learn? Five central
principles of activity theory are presented, namely activity system as unit of analysis,
multi-voicedness of activity, historicity of activity, contradictions as driving force of change
in activity, and expansive cycles as possible form of transformation in activity. Together the
four questions and ve principles form a matrix which is used to present a study of
expansive learning in a hospital setting in Finland. In conclusion, implications of the
framework for our understanding of the increasingly important horizontal dimension of
learning are discussed.
