Den 13 augusti 2021 hade jag förmånen att inviga Centre for Activity Theory som kom till på initiativ av forskningsmiljön Lärande i och för det nya arbetslivet, LINA. Activity Theory har stor betydelse för Arbetsintegrerat lärande och centrets arbete är viktigt för att utveckla och stärka teoribildningen i AIL-sammanhang. Det hade inte varit möjligt utan Högskolan Västs gästprofessorer i Sverige och internationellt. Och jag blev nästintill rörd när en av våra gästforskare och tillika centralgestalt inom Activity Theory, Yrjö Engeström, i sitt invigningstal sade att han kommer att lägga all sin intellektuella kraft på att vårt Centre for Activity Theory kommer att lyckas.

Tack alla kollegor som arbetat för det här, särskilt tack till Kristina Johansson som med sitt engagemang sett till att detta blivit verklighet och tack alla våra gästprofessorer!

Mitt invigningsanförande:

Dear students and colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

University West in Trollhättan is one of the younger universities in Sweden, founded in 1990. From the beginning, cooperation between industry and higher education and research was the basic idea for our university. We proudly can say that we have developed the ideas of cooperation in a systematic and strategic way. Today we are working together with more than 120 companies and surrounding society.

Over the years we have learned a lot about the benefits and challenges with collaboration. And this resulted in our concepts and visions for Work integrated learning – now our signum and subject for our new PHD-program since last year. But the work is not finished by that.

To tackle the future challenges of international scale problems, the need of new tools and extended theories in research is eminent. In order to strengthen theory in our research areas, I am proud to announce the new Centre for Activity Theory at University West. Here we can make Immanuel Kant´s idea a reality through collaboration in mutual knowledge exchange. His words were: Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play, which mirrors the idea of Work integrated learning.

Activity theory has been applied in many fields and disciplines to investigate and try to solve large scale societal challenges such as homelessness, social and environmental justice, and climate change.

With a focus on social dynamics, collaboration and change it fits very well in our ambitions to solve this type of problems in our research within work integrated learning. Our hope is that such a center will strengthen theories and lead to new methodologies for game changing science and education. Our students will be equipped with new knowledge, tools, and theories to apply in their future employments.

I would like to thank all of my colleagues who have worked hard to make this happen. Especially I warmly will acknowledge our guest researchers and professors from all over the world who fundamentally have contributed to our research in WIL and to this Centre for Activity Theory.

I hereby announce the Centre for Activity Theory at University West opened.