ERIC Number: EJ834000
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2005-Feb
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1074-9039
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Activity as Object-Related: Resolving the Dichotomy of Individual and Collective Planes of Activity
Stetsenko, Anna
Mind, Culture, and Activity, v12 n1 p70-88 Feb 2005
This article suggests that the principle of object-relatedness, introduced by Vygotsky and expanded by A. N. Leontiev, can be used to conceptualize human subjectivity within a profoundly social view of human development. This is achieved by reformulating the premises of cultural-historical activity theory to include the notion that material production, intersubjective exchanges, and human subjectivity form a unified three-fold dialectical system. Focusing on the constant manifold transitions among components of this system as its "modus vivendi" reveals (a) individual and collective processes as being interrelated and co-evolving levels of activity, and (b) the practical relevance of human subjectivity alongside the human relevance of material practices. Such an expanded view posits human subjectivity on a continuum of regulatory mechanisms of social practice, to which both individual and social processes belong. It is further conceptualized as a form of practical transformative pursuits in the world, and as a lawful and necessary moment of human life endowed with the capacity to generate new activity cycles. The co-evolution of collective motives and personal goals, as well as the practical relevance of theoretical constructions, are used as illustrations. (Contains 12 footnotes.)
Descriptors: Educational Principles, Individual Development, Social Environment, Sociocultural Patterns, Developmental Psychology, Cognitive Structures, Cooperation, Adjustment (to Environment), Activities, Productivity, Learning Theories
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
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Language: English
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