Hey, people -- The analysis has a perspective, too -- a motive. The analysis can't be "objective." So we've got nested activity systems, each defined by a motive. Where the motives are disjunctive, we've got the edges of one activity system bumping up against another one.
This is one of the beauties of AT -- it allows us to keep in mind that we've got multiple systems running at all times and that what drives one system may not be what drives the one that forms its context or that lies within it.
This is key to using AT for understanding work.
Helena Worthen
Judy Diamondstone wrote:
> I know there are many xmca-ers who can help me here. Nate? Andy? someone?
>
> At 03:20 PM 1/30/01 -0500, you wrote:
> >>>>
>
> This, I think, gets right to the heart of debates lately. The "real" motive in AT is supposedly objective, right? So while individuals may participate in an activity for different reasons, the difference between their version of affairs and the "real" social motive is irrelevant, unless it affects their actions, in which case they become the subjects of analysis and the disjunctions between what they think they're doing/their reasons for doing it and the collective object becomes the 'object' of analysis. Or do I have this wrong?
>
> In Yrjo's interpretation of the contradictions in Stanislavski's methods and of the workshops conducted as an intervention into theatre, the subject's version of affairs does not define the object -- on the contrary: the ideal of theatre is enunciated by the analyst. I buy it because it's illuminating, inspirational, but we don't know what participants in the workshop might have commented on Yrjo's analysis. So what makes the ideal he identifies the 'real' objective ....?
>
> At 11:41 AM 1/30/01 -0800, you wrote:
> >>>>
>
> Questions:
>
> Does motive always determine the activity?
> Or, does different people having different motives change the activity system for each individual even if they physically are doing the same thing?
> Because people can have more than one motive while engaging in work (e.g., survival, pleasure, social influence, etc.), can one person with multiple motives doing the same thing be engaged in more than one activity?
> Given the difficulty of determining motive(s), how do we identify the "real" activity?
>
> Charles Nelson
>
> <<<<
>
> <<<<
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Feb 01 2001 - 14:24:57 PST