Exploring the Situated Acceptance of Emerging Technologies in and Concerning Activity: Approaches and Processes

This chapter explains the different perspectives relating to the acceptability of technologies, specifying the modalities of situated acceptance, which are capable of restoring the favorable or unfavorable effects of the use of technologies on different dimensions of the system of professional activity. It defines what is meant by the generic concept of technological acceptability. In a process of design, innovation, deployment and/or technological change, it is about predicting, measuring, explaining and improving user acceptance of technologies. Three main approaches can be distinguished, depending on the state of maturation of the innovation and the level of development and diffusion of the tool in the activity: practical or instrumental acceptability, social acceptability model, and situated acceptance approach. The different approaches make it possible to support and/or explore the local acceptance of technologies by repositioning them in the activity that is being carried out and/or will be carried out.