What is context?: a synthesis of views and its implications for human-AI work systems

Context has been invoked as an explanatory concept in philosophy, psychology, and most recently in cognitive systems engineering and computer science. An analysis of how context has been defined suggests that context or its effects are manifest in many ways. Examples of contextualising − the ‘discovery’ of context and its implications − point to a definition of context, one that goes beyond the notion of context as ‘just more information.’ The article considers the implications of a model of contextualising for ergonomic theory and the design of human-AI work systems.