Theorizing seafarers’ participation and learning in an evolving maritime workplace: an activity theory perspective

This paper presents the cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) or simply activity theory (AT) as a suitable framework to theorize seafarers’ learning in a technologically evolving shipboard environment. The recent increase in the digitalization and automation onboard ships is introduced with the aim of enhancing maritime safety and efficiency. However, maritime incidents and accidents continue to occur when seafarers overwhelmed by the complexity of novel technologies and automated tools, often fail to recognize and timely respond to developing hazards. The fundamental changes in the shipboard workplaces and the seafarers’ need for interaction with smart tools calls for a fresh look at cognitive and learning processes and situated action onboard ships. The activity theory provides a theoretical lens that affords a holistic, socio-technical perspective on the inter-dependent elements of a collective shipboard learning activity system. Any misalignment among the elements of this activity system or between itself and other relevant activity systems may result in contradictions. Resolving such contradictions becomes essential for achieving the desired outcome, i.e., competent seafarers who can safely operate highly digitalized future ships.