Citation

Morales KL, García-Acosta G. Work 2012; 41: 3101-3108.

Affiliation

MIMAPRO Research Group - School of Industrial Design, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Ciudad Universitaria, Edif. 303 - Of 316, Bogotá, Colombia Institute of Ergonomics, Darmstadt University of Technology, Petersenstrasse 30, D-64287, Darmstadt, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, IOS Press)

DOI

10.3233/WOR-2012-0569-3101

PMID

22317190

Abstract

Ergonomics has been successful in increasing productivity and comfort in the work arena. It has also contributed to reducing occupational accidents. Despite this, ergonomics is frequently limited to understanding the health-disease process related to human-technology interactions, as this process is more complex than what can be understood from an ergonomic evaluation. Recognising this limit, this work ontologically and epistemologically contrasts the notions of 'human being' and 'social subject', and concludes that the study object of ergonomics, or human-technology interaction, greatly depends on social aspects that nowadays are not tackled explicitly: route (history), project, structure, agency, motivations and power. It also analyses how participatory ergonomics tacitly includes many of these aspects, including some implications that the change of notion, from 'human being' to 'social subject', brings to the understanding of the health-disease process and the reduction of associated risks during human activities.

Language: en