Please pardon this recent pushing around of inquiry domains as toys, adapting theories, as tools are sometimes, and the arguably flagrant use of surnames in the subject line.
Following up on my latest post, in lieu of grading, I began to wonder what are the material foundations of dialectical materialism, and what are its modes of production? It was not long being stumped on this, that Yrjö's work came to mind in answer to the latter part of the question -- and then of course Marx appeared also. DM is a theory of social change, and if it per se becomes a tool of social change, then it may self-referentially be investigated. We can consider taking Yrjö's work as the object of our study -- how he and his colleagues apply DM to social change, almost as a 'social engineering' that take as a foundation the modes of material production of the activity systems with which they work. DM and activity systems in a dialectic, if you will. It would be very good to hear from Yrjö his perspective, to provide us with an insider view, especially as I am uncertain of the accuracy of what I have just written.
Perhaps a reading of one the papers coming from this group could follow and extend our discussion of DM, integrating some of the more practical aspects.
Bill Barowy, Associate Professor
Lesley College
29 Everett Street, Cambridge, MA 02138-2790
Phone: 617-349-8168 / Fax: 617-349-8169
http://www.lesley.edu/faculty/wbarowy/Barowy.html
_______________________
"One of life's quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself
and watch yourself softly become the author of something beautiful."
[Norman Maclean in "A river runs through it."]
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