David Guile
Biographic Data
| ID | 641135 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David Guile |
| GIVEN NAMES | David |
| FAMILY NAME | Guile |
| SIGNATURE | GUILE D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2060-3971 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 23 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Machine learning and human learning
The paper adopts an inter-theoretical socio-cultural and -material perspective on the relationship between human + machine learning to propose a new way to investigate the human + machine assistive assemblages emerging in professional work (e.g. medicine, architecture, design and engineering). Its starting point is Hutchins’s (1995a) concept of ‘distributed cognition’ and his argument that his concept of ‘cultural ecosystems’ constitutes a unit o…
Machine learning – A new kind of cultural tool? A “recontextualisation” perspective on machine learning + interprofessional learning
The paper argues that (a) Machine Learning (ML) constitutes a cultural tool capable of learning through perceiving patterns in data, (b) the kind of learning ML is capable of nevertheless constitutes a more circumscribed kind of learning compared with how that concept has been interpreted in sociocultural (S-c) theory; and, (c) the development of ML is therefore further extending and distributing the complex relationship between human and machine…
Expertise as a ‘capacity for action’
Occupational expertise has always been constituted and afforded recognition and status in work contexts, however, these contexts are becoming increasingly interconnected and interrelated, underpinned by, ‘intangible assets’. To explore this complex process and its implications for vocational education and training (VET), this article uses the concept of expertise as a ‘capacity for action’ and its emphasis on the communicative dimension of expert…
Complexity theory and learning
In a spirit of collegial support, this paper argues that Beckett and Hager’s theoretical justification and empirical exemplifications do not do full justice to the complexity of group or team learning. We firstly reaffirm our support for the theoretical argument Becket and Hager make, though expressing some reservations about Complexity Theory, to explain the taken-for-granted assumptions that learning by an individual is the paradigm case of lea…
Client-facing Interprofessional Project Teams
This paper addresses the type of engineering practice associated with ‘client-focused interprofessional project teams’ C-fIPPTs which is a typical pattern of work associated with engineering consulting companies. To do so, the article introduces the concepts of ‘situated judgment’ and ‘immaterial activity’ to the Engineering Studies community. It uses these concepts to demonstrate how engineers with different specialisms, working alongside archit…
The Wiley Handbook of Vocational Education and Training
The Wiley Handbook of Vocational Education and Training offers an in-depth guide to the theories, practices, and policies of vocational education and training (VET). With contributions from a panel of leading international scholars, the Handbook contains 27 authoritative essays from a wide range of disciplines. The contributors present an integrated analysis of the complex and dynamic field of VET. \n \nDrawing on the most recent research, thinki…
Wiley Handbook of Vocational Education and Training
The concept of “recontextualization”
The Knowledge Economy and Lifelong Learning
This book presents some of the most trenchant critical analyses of the widespread claims for the recent emergence of a knowledge economy and the attendant need for greater lifelong learning. The book contains two sections: first, general critiques of the limits of current notions of a knowledge economy and required adult learning, in terms of historical comparisons, socio-political construction and current empirical evidence; secondly, specific c…
Interprofessional Learning
This article makes a number of interconnected arguments. First, spatially and temporally distributed project teams constitute a new form of interprofessional work and, as a corollary, a new site for interprofessional learning. Second, researchers in cultural-historical activity theory have generated some concepts and methods, for example, “placeless organisations” (Nardi); “object of activity” (Leont'ev); “knotworking” (Engeström) and “relational…
Learning to work in the creative and cultural sector
The paper questions the link that policy‐makers assume exists between qualifications and access to employment in the creative and cultural (C&C) sector. It identifies how labour market conditions in the C&C sector undermine this assumption and how the UK’s policy formation process inhibits education and training (E&T) actors from countering these labour market conditions. It demonstrates how non‐government agencies (‘intermediary organizations’) …
They give you tools and they give you a lot, but it is up to you to use them’
This article explores the extent to which aspiring entrants to the performing arts industry have to develop both the forms of vocational practice employers require and social capital to enable them to operate effectively in external labour markets (i.e. contract-based and networked-generated work). It focuses on the work of one college—the WAC Performing Arts and Media College—that has developed and designed together with industry partners a prog…
Conceptualizing the transition from education to work as vocational practice
The paper argues that: (1) the demise of ‘occupational’ and ‘internal’ and the spread of ‘external’ labour markets in growth areas of UK economy such as the creative and cultural sector, coupled with the massification of higher education which has created a new type of post‐degree ‘vocational need’, means that the transition from education to work should be re‐thought as the development of vocational practice rather than the acquisition of qualif…
O que distingue a economia do conhecimento?Implicações para a educação
O objetivo deste artigo é compensar a insuficiência da teorização a respeito da economia do conhecimento por parte dos sociólogos e identificar as implicações da análise aqui desenvolvida para a educação. O texto começa distinguindo e expondo as diferentes explicações do papel do conhecimento na economia do conhecimento; em seguida, argumenta sobre as conexões que podem ser estabelecidas entre essas duas concepções de conhecimento e a economia do…
Characterizing the Use of Mathematical Knowledge in Boundary-Crossing Situations at Work
The first aim of this article is to present a characterization of the techno-mathematical literacies needed for effective practice in modern, technology-rich workplaces that are both highly automated and increasingly focused on flexible response to customer needs. The second aim is to introduce an epistemological dimension to activity theory, specifically to the notions of boundary object and boundary crossing. We draw on ethnographic research in…
Learning and Technology at Work
Moebius strip enterprises and expertise in the creative industries
The paper argues that the emergence of a new mode of production—co‐configuration is generating new modes of expertise that EU policies for lifelong learning (LLL) are not designed to support professionals to develop. It maintains that this change can be seen most clearly when we analyse Small and Medium Size (SMEs) enterprises in the creative industries. Drawing on concepts from Political Economy—‘Moebius strip enterprise/expertise’ and Cultural …
Access, learning and development in the creative and cultural sectors
This paper challenges the prevailing conventional wisdom in the UK that the government is the sole architect of the education and training (E&T) system and that qualifications are the magic bullet for securing employment in the creative and cultural sector. It also argues that if policy‐makers are serious about wanting to diversify the occupational profile of the creative and cultural sector to reflect both the multicultural composition of the UK…
Learning Across Contexts
This paper maintains that post Lave and Wenger VET has overlooked the relation between vocational curricula and workplace practice. The paper attributes this oversight to Kant's legacy in the ‘situated’ tradition in VET and critics of that tradition. The paper argues that when Vygotsky's concept of mediation is allied to the recent work of Robert Brandom and John McDowell, it is possible to formulate a non‐dualisitic conception of the relation be…
Education and the economy
Conceptualizing the transition from education to work as vocational practice
The paper argues that: (1) the demise of ‘occupational’ and ‘internal’ and the spread of ‘external’ labour markets in growth areas of UK economy such as the creative and cultural sector, coupled with the massification of higher education which has created a new type of post‐degree ‘vocational need’, means that the transition from education to work should be re‐thought as the development of vocational practice rather than the acquisition of qualif…
Education and the economy
Learning to work in the creative and cultural sector
The paper questions the link that policy‐makers assume exists between qualifications and access to employment in the creative and cultural (C&C) sector. It identifies how labour market conditions in the C&C sector undermine this assumption and how the UK’s policy formation process inhibits education and training (E&T) actors from countering these labour market conditions. It demonstrates how non‐government agencies (‘intermediary organizations’) …
Moebius strip enterprises and expertise in the creative industries
The paper argues that the emergence of a new mode of production—co‐configuration is generating new modes of expertise that EU policies for lifelong learning (LLL) are not designed to support professionals to develop. It maintains that this change can be seen most clearly when we analyse Small and Medium Size (SMEs) enterprises in the creative industries. Drawing on concepts from Political Economy—‘Moebius strip enterprise/expertise’ and Cultural …
Learning Across Contexts
This paper maintains that post Lave and Wenger VET has overlooked the relation between vocational curricula and workplace practice. The paper attributes this oversight to Kant's legacy in the ‘situated’ tradition in VET and critics of that tradition. The paper argues that when Vygotsky's concept of mediation is allied to the recent work of Robert Brandom and John McDowell, it is possible to formulate a non‐dualisitic conception of the relation be…
They give you tools and they give you a lot, but it is up to you to use them’
This article explores the extent to which aspiring entrants to the performing arts industry have to develop both the forms of vocational practice employers require and social capital to enable them to operate effectively in external labour markets (i.e. contract-based and networked-generated work). It focuses on the work of one college—the WAC Performing Arts and Media College—that has developed and designed together with industry partners a prog…
Education and the economy
Access, learning and development in the creative and cultural sectors
This paper challenges the prevailing conventional wisdom in the UK that the government is the sole architect of the education and training (E&T) system and that qualifications are the magic bullet for securing employment in the creative and cultural sector. It also argues that if policy‐makers are serious about wanting to diversify the occupational profile of the creative and cultural sector to reflect both the multicultural composition of the UK…
Learning Across Contexts
This paper maintains that post Lave and Wenger VET has overlooked the relation between vocational curricula and workplace practice. The paper attributes this oversight to Kant's legacy in the ‘situated’ tradition in VET and critics of that tradition. The paper argues that when Vygotsky's concept of mediation is allied to the recent work of Robert Brandom and John McDowell, it is possible to formulate a non‐dualisitic conception of the relation be…
Characterizing the Use of Mathematical Knowledge in Boundary-Crossing Situations at Work
The first aim of this article is to present a characterization of the techno-mathematical literacies needed for effective practice in modern, technology-rich workplaces that are both highly automated and increasingly focused on flexible response to customer needs. The second aim is to introduce an epistemological dimension to activity theory, specifically to the notions of boundary object and boundary crossing. We draw on ethnographic research in…
Learning and Technology at Work
Moebius strip enterprises and expertise in the creative industries
The paper argues that the emergence of a new mode of production—co‐configuration is generating new modes of expertise that EU policies for lifelong learning (LLL) are not designed to support professionals to develop. It maintains that this change can be seen most clearly when we analyse Small and Medium Size (SMEs) enterprises in the creative industries. Drawing on concepts from Political Economy—‘Moebius strip enterprise/expertise’ and Cultural …
O que distingue a economia do conhecimento?Implicações para a educação
O objetivo deste artigo é compensar a insuficiência da teorização a respeito da economia do conhecimento por parte dos sociólogos e identificar as implicações da análise aqui desenvolvida para a educação. O texto começa distinguindo e expondo as diferentes explicações do papel do conhecimento na economia do conhecimento; em seguida, argumenta sobre as conexões que podem ser estabelecidas entre essas duas concepções de conhecimento e a economia do…
They give you tools and they give you a lot, but it is up to you to use them’
This article explores the extent to which aspiring entrants to the performing arts industry have to develop both the forms of vocational practice employers require and social capital to enable them to operate effectively in external labour markets (i.e. contract-based and networked-generated work). It focuses on the work of one college—the WAC Performing Arts and Media College—that has developed and designed together with industry partners a prog…
Conceptualizing the transition from education to work as vocational practice
The paper argues that: (1) the demise of ‘occupational’ and ‘internal’ and the spread of ‘external’ labour markets in growth areas of UK economy such as the creative and cultural sector, coupled with the massification of higher education which has created a new type of post‐degree ‘vocational need’, means that the transition from education to work should be re‐thought as the development of vocational practice rather than the acquisition of qualif…
Learning to work in the creative and cultural sector
The paper questions the link that policy‐makers assume exists between qualifications and access to employment in the creative and cultural (C&C) sector. It identifies how labour market conditions in the C&C sector undermine this assumption and how the UK’s policy formation process inhibits education and training (E&T) actors from countering these labour market conditions. It demonstrates how non‐government agencies (‘intermediary organizations’) …
Interprofessional Learning
This article makes a number of interconnected arguments. First, spatially and temporally distributed project teams constitute a new form of interprofessional work and, as a corollary, a new site for interprofessional learning. Second, researchers in cultural-historical activity theory have generated some concepts and methods, for example, “placeless organisations” (Nardi); “object of activity” (Leont'ev); “knotworking” (Engeström) and “relational…
The Knowledge Economy and Lifelong Learning
This book presents some of the most trenchant critical analyses of the widespread claims for the recent emergence of a knowledge economy and the attendant need for greater lifelong learning. The book contains two sections: first, general critiques of the limits of current notions of a knowledge economy and required adult learning, in terms of historical comparisons, socio-political construction and current empirical evidence; secondly, specific c…
The Wiley Handbook of Vocational Education and Training
The Wiley Handbook of Vocational Education and Training offers an in-depth guide to the theories, practices, and policies of vocational education and training (VET). With contributions from a panel of leading international scholars, the Handbook contains 27 authoritative essays from a wide range of disciplines. The contributors present an integrated analysis of the complex and dynamic field of VET. \n \nDrawing on the most recent research, thinki…
Wiley Handbook of Vocational Education and Training
The concept of “recontextualization”
Client-facing Interprofessional Project Teams
This paper addresses the type of engineering practice associated with ‘client-focused interprofessional project teams’ C-fIPPTs which is a typical pattern of work associated with engineering consulting companies. To do so, the article introduces the concepts of ‘situated judgment’ and ‘immaterial activity’ to the Engineering Studies community. It uses these concepts to demonstrate how engineers with different specialisms, working alongside archit…
Expertise as a ‘capacity for action’
Occupational expertise has always been constituted and afforded recognition and status in work contexts, however, these contexts are becoming increasingly interconnected and interrelated, underpinned by, ‘intangible assets’. To explore this complex process and its implications for vocational education and training (VET), this article uses the concept of expertise as a ‘capacity for action’ and its emphasis on the communicative dimension of expert…
Complexity theory and learning
In a spirit of collegial support, this paper argues that Beckett and Hager’s theoretical justification and empirical exemplifications do not do full justice to the complexity of group or team learning. We firstly reaffirm our support for the theoretical argument Becket and Hager make, though expressing some reservations about Complexity Theory, to explain the taken-for-granted assumptions that learning by an individual is the paradigm case of lea…
Machine learning – A new kind of cultural tool? A “recontextualisation” perspective on machine learning + interprofessional learning
The paper argues that (a) Machine Learning (ML) constitutes a cultural tool capable of learning through perceiving patterns in data, (b) the kind of learning ML is capable of nevertheless constitutes a more circumscribed kind of learning compared with how that concept has been interpreted in sociocultural (S-c) theory; and, (c) the development of ML is therefore further extending and distributing the complex relationship between human and machine…
Machine learning and human learning
The paper adopts an inter-theoretical socio-cultural and -material perspective on the relationship between human + machine learning to propose a new way to investigate the human + machine assistive assemblages emerging in professional work (e.g. medicine, architecture, design and engineering). Its starting point is Hutchins’s (1995a) concept of ‘distributed cognition’ and his argument that his concept of ‘cultural ecosystems’ constitutes a unit o…
Sociology (16 works) · Computer Science (13 works) · Innovative Education and Learning Practices (13 works) · Pedagogy (13 works) · Psychology (10 works) · Engineering (7 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Vocational education (7 works) · Economics (6 works) · Knowledge management (6 works)