Anyway, let me first qoute Gordon's summary of Leont'ev's definition,
because it contains the distinctive features:
"Leont'ev thinks of humans as both embarking on activity that is
individually motivated and directed .... and of participating
individually in communal activity that is collaborative organized."
At his point, I want to conclude that activity is both individually
motivated and at the same time collaborative organized, or - to
paraphrase Eugene's notion - it is either/or and both/and
solo-joint.
Gordon applied his conceptualization of activity to the forthcoming
referendum in Quebec, and this brought to my memory Davydov's
definition.
Apart from the duplex 'solo - joint', Davydov added a third feature
in his definition of activity as a "specific species of human
societal existence which aims at a goal-directed _change_ of physical
and social reality" (emphasis in the original: Activity Theory, No.
13/14, p. 50). Here also emerges the feature that activity always
include the intentional change of reality.
So, now we have the following features of activity:
- it is human
- solo - joint
- change-directed
and surely there will more...
Jac Haenen
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Jacques Haenen
Utrecht University
IVLOS Institute of Education
P.O. Box 80127 tel +31 30 533400
NL-3508 TC Utrecht fax +31 30 532741
Netherlands email j.haenen who-is-at ivlos.ruu.nl
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