The Experimental Zone of Learning: Mapping the Dynamics of Everyday Experiment (original) (raw)

Arguments in science and technology studies have prompted us to rethink the meaning of experimentation in the wider context of our everyday life, though its dynamics have not been fully analyzed. This article argues that the legacy of the sociocultural approach to learning, with special reference to the Becker-Lave/Wenger dialogue, provides such a clue, and hence proposes a framework—“experimental zone of learning”—for such purpose. This zone is the outcome of the dynamic interface between constraints and sociotechnical devices, and this framework enables analysis of the diversity of such conditions, as well as their longitudinal changes through time.