Goldkuhl and Lyytinen had coined the term language-action perspective in the early 1980s to describe an approach to software design from the perspective of how humans perform actions using software. Whereas Winograd and Flores were primarily concerned by rationalistic thinking in AI, this European movement originated in a reflection on the rationalistic paradigm in the field of information systems. This paradigm emphasized storage and message structures, and analysis of content in the form of objectivistic conceptual modeling.

The fundamental assumption of LAP is that language is not only used for exchanging information about the world, as in reports and statements, but also for changing the (social) world, for example, by means of promises, orders, and declarations. LAP emphasizes the patterns of speech acts by which humans create a common understanding, and how they coordinate their activities on the basis of this common understanding.