These files are maintained strictly for historical reference, research, and recordkeeping purposes,
and the content has not been altered or updated since archiving.
Content on this site may not meet current digital accessibility standards.
If you require an alternative, accessible format of any information found on this site,
please contact Bruce Jones, bjones@ucsd.edu to request an accommodation.

These files are maintained strictly for historical reference, research, and recordkeeping purposes,
and the content has not been altered or updated since archiving.
Content on this site may not meet current digital accessibility standards.
If you require an alternative, accessible format of any information found on this site,
please contact Bruce Jones, bjones@ucsd.edu to request an accommodation.


[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: [xmca] Abstract to Concrete



On 15 November 2012 08:54, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:

> Taylor & Francis allows xmca only discuss one article per issue, but I see
> no reason why we couldn't discuss this excerpt from Engestrom's paper. It
> concerns "rising from the abstract to the concrete," which we were recently
> discussing, but without resolution.
>
>
Hi,

I voted for that one.  Am a bit busy to promise any disputation... but will
likely find time to try to read the viewpoints.

Huw


> --------------------------
>
> Ascending from the abstract to the concrete is achieved through specific
> epistemic or learning actions. Together these actions form an expansive
> cycle or spiral. An ideal-typical sequence of epistemic actions in
> ascending from the abstract to the concrete may be described as follows:
>
> •         The first action is that of questioning, criticizing, or
> rejecting some aspects of the accepted practice and existing wisdom. For
> the sake of simplicity, we will call this action questioning.
>
> •         The second action is that of analyzing the situation. Analysis
> involves mental, discursive or practical transformation of the situation in
> order to find out origins and explanatory mechanisms.
>
> •         The third action is that of modeling a new explanatory
> relationship in some publicly observable and transmittable medium. This
> means constructing an explicit, simplified model of the new idea, a germ
> cell, that explains the problematic situation and offers a perspective for
> resolving and transforming it.
>
> •         The fourth action is that of examining the model, running,
> operating, and experimenting on it in order to fully grasp its dynamics,
> potentials, and limitations.
>
> •         The fifth action is that of implementing the model, concretizing
> it by means of practical applications, enrichments, and conceptual
> extensions.
>
> •         The sixth and seventh actions are those of reflecting on and
> evaluating the process and consolidating its outcomes into a new stable
> form of practice.
>
>
> --------------------
>
> MCA 19(1) pp. 288-289.
>
> Andy
>
> mike cole wrote:
>
>> Dear Colleagues--
>>
>> I have been reminded of an issue that has been nagging at me for some
>> time,
>> that we have not had a discussion of any of the articles in the special
>> issue of MCA called "concepts in the wild."  The article selected by a
>> plurality of
>> voters was by Chuck Bazerman on concepts in the process of writing. But
>> no one has
>> commented on the article. That seems to me a shame. In fact, the entire
>> issue, with its stellar set of authors and papers is worth discussing,
>> and I
>> figure  there will be more articles on this general theme in the time to
>> come, spanning as it does, the story of all those practice in which we
>> acquire and deploy concepts in organizing our social life and experience
>> the world.
>>
>>
>
>
> ______________________________**____________
> _____
> xmca mailing list
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/**listinfo/xmca<http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca>
>
__________________________________________
_____
xmca mailing list
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca