ABSTRACT
Grasping, holding, and handling objects and implements are important features of many tasks within organisational environments. They enable tools and equipment to be deployed in appropriate and professionally relevant ways and inform how people coordinate their activities with each other. In this chapter, we explore the ways in which the appropriate exchange and handling of implements enables the collaborative accomplishment of specialised activities, namely surgical procedures. We focus on the ways in which tools and equipment are handed, in a timely and situationally relevant way, to the surgeon and how the surgeons are able to grasp implements to enable their immediate and unproblematic application. The analysis, drawing on video recordings and fieldwork, raises issues concerning the sequential organisation of action and interaction and the methodological challenges that arise when we take touch seriously. It also raises issues that resonate with contemporary developments in research on robotics and intelligent agents.
