OUTLINES - CRITICAL PRACTICE STUDIES • Vol. 14, No. 2 • 2013 • (106-129) • http://www.outlines.dk A Gramscian perspective on developmental work research: Contradictions, power and the role of researchers reconsidered Tiina Kontinen Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä and the Department for Political and Economic Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland Abstract The article presents a Gramscian reading of organisational interventions within the framework of developmental work research. Developmental work research is based on Engeström’s concepts of activity system and expansive learning cycle. It utilizes the theoretical vocabulary provided by Marx and Ilyenkov and is situated in the traditions of cultural-historical and critical research. In recent years, critical commentaries have pointed to a need to reconsider questions related to transformation, contradictions and power within the approach. The Gramscian reading here suggests that the concepts of transformism, hegemony and dialectic pedagogy could open potential ways to reformulate certain elements of both the practice of organisational intervention and the theoretical principles of developmental work research. Keywords: developmental work research, expansive learning, hegemony, dialectical pedagogy, Engeström, Gramsci Introduction Organisational change triggered by designed interventions is at the core of developmental work research situated in the tradition of cultural-historical research (Engeström 2001; 2005b; Virkkunen & Schaupp 2011). Developmental work research and its further applications, such as Change Laboratories, apply interventionist methodology to organisations conceptualised as activity systems, or, networks of activity systems. The theoretical groundwork of developmental work research (Engeström 1987) innovatively combines psychological accounts of human learning drawing on Vygotsky, Leontjev and Bateson together with the overall Marxian philosophy of praxis and the analysis of contradictions as phenomena related to the economic constellation of capitalism. The fundamental notions of developmental work research are activity system and the cycle of