Comm 261: MEDIATIONAL APPROACHES TO CULTURE AND MIND: FOUNDATIONS OF ACTIVITY THEORY

Purpose of the class

To introduce, discuss and evaluate basic concepts and ideas of the

cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT or AT for short) as an interdisciplinary approach to human practices. Within this approach, communication is regarded as a foundational aspect of all human activity, mediated by signs and cultural artifacts.

Practical setup and requirements

The class topics will, in rough approximation, follow the historical evolution of cultural-historical activity theory from its philosophical roots to its current challenges. In each topic, certain theoretical and methodological themes will be examined. These themes include: dialectics; mediation; historicity and culture; units and levels of analysis; and zone of proximal developmement. Each participant will be assigned a topic and a set of texts associated with it.

Each topic will be discussed in three phases. The first phase consists of discussion in class where the topic will be introduced and central issues will be identified, based on short (2-3 pages) introductory papers presented by the students to whom the topic was assigned. The second phase of the discussion takes place in electronic form. The introductions are distributed electronically, and the students discuss them over the week after the in-class introduction; each student is expected to contribute to the electronic discussion. The third phase is a summary of the preceding electronic discussion at the beginning of the next meeting of the class.

The class will be run in parallel in the Graduate School for Developmental Work Research at the University of Helsinki. The 10 graduate students of that program will follow the same schedule as the UCSD students and contribute to the electronic discussion.

The students will write a final paper in which they may either discuss some conceptual aspects of CHAT or apply ideas from CHAT to a concrete research topic of their own.

The topics and the schedule

Session 1, January 6

Topic: The relevance of CHAT

Readings:

Engeström, Y. & Miettinen, R. (1998). Introduction. From Perspectives on Activity Theory, edited by Engeström, Miettinen & Punamäki

Davydov, V. V. (1998). The content and unsolved problems of activity theory. Chapter from Perspectives on Activity Theory, edited by Engeström, Miettinen & Punamäki

Engeström, Y. (1998). Activity theory and individual and social transformation. Chapter from Perspectives on Activity Theory, edited by Engeström, Miettinen & Punamäki

Session 2, January 13

Topic: Revolutionary roots: Marx

Readings:

Marx, K. (1844). Alienated Labour and Private Property and Communism. From The Economico-Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844.

Marx, K. (1845/1888). Theses on Feuerbach

Marx, K. (1867). Capital (chapters 1.1; 1.2; 7.1; 7.2; 13, 14, 15.1; and 15.4)

Session 3, January 20

Topic: Philosophical roots: dialectics

Readings:

Il'enkov, E. V. (1977). The Concept of the Ideal. From Philosophy in the USSR: Problems of Dialectical Materialism.

Il'enkov, E. V. (1977). Dialectical Logic (chapters 10 and 11)

Session 4, January 27

Topic: The first generation of CHAT: Vygotsky and the idea of mediation

Readings:

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society (chapters 1 through 6)

Davydov, V. V. & Radzikhovskii, L. A. (1985). Vygotsky's Theory and the Activity-Oriented Approach in Psychology. From Culture, Communication and Cognition, edited by J. V. Wertsch

Scribner, S. (1985). Vygotsky's Uses of History. From Culture, Communication and Cognition, edited by J. V. Wertsch

Session 5: February 3

Topic: The second generation of CHAT: Leont'ev and the concept of activity

Readings:

Leont'ev, A. N. (1981). Problems of the Development of the Mind (part II, pages 156-326)

Leont'ev, A. N. (1978). Activity, Consciousness and Personality (chapters 3 and 4)

Session 6: February 10

Topic: Epistemology and learning

Readings:

Davydov, V. V. (1990). Types of Generalization in Instruction (chapter 7)

Session 7: February 17

Topic: CHAT and cultural psychology

Readings:

Cole, M. (1996). Cultural Psychology (chapters 5 and 6)

Session 8: February 24

Topic: The collective-institutional challenge

Readings:

Engeström, Y (1987). Learning by Expanding (chapter 2 from page 29 to page 91; all of chapter 3)

Session 9: March 3

Topic: Action and activity; situated and distributed cognition

Readings:

Wertsch, J. V. (1995). The Need for Action in Sociocultural Research. From Sociocultural Studies of Mind, edited by Wertsch, del Rio & Alvarez

Lave, J. (1997). The Culture of Acquisition and the Practice of Understanding. From Situated Cognition, edited by Kirshner & Whitson

Engeström, Y. & Cole, M. (1997). Situated Cognition in Search for an Agenda. From Situated Cognition, edited by Kirshner & Whitson

Cole, M. & Engeström, Y. (1993). A Cultural-Historical Approach to Distributed Cognition. From Distributed Cognitions, edited by Salomon

Session 10: March 15

Topic: Methodological issues and summary