DISTRIBUTED ATTENTION AND FOCUSED ATTENTI ON - COOPERATION AT THE PCCON THE A LINE OF THE RER

What, exactly, is team work? To answer this question a meticulous, Gof fmanian ispired analysis, is made of the observable forms of involveme nt in regulating traffic at the control center of a suburban line of t he parisian subway. Four forms are identified: ''to be informed'', to fill the gap'', ''to shed the load'', ''to get things back under contr ol''. Through them, an ongoing form of distributed intelligence can be observed. Underlying this ''copiloting'', wherein everyone is at time s on active duty and at times in reserve, are processes of adjustment and coupling, themselves grounded in the implicit duties that make thi s collective activity ''work''.