Re: [xmca] Radius of Subjectivity

From: Paul Dillon <phd_crit_think who-is-at yahoo.com>
Date: Tue Nov 13 2007 - 16:16:05 PST

Andy, Eric
   
  I'm not sure that Vygotsky's ZPD is at all similar to what Lewin had in mind . It seems that Giddens microspaces -- that eclectic stew of Bourdieu's fields and Garfinkel's ethnomethodological frames are the already elaborated concepts that encompass what is being proposed in the various terminologies being discussed in this thread.. . But, as far as I understand, these theoretical constructs, have a totally abstract relationship to Vygotsky's ZPD: the notion of a boundary, a very abstrract notion at that, something limiting individual agency (which doesn't have a whole lot to do with subjectivity in any event).
   
  It seems to me that the learning process at the core of Vygotsky's ZPD isn't a key factor in Lewin, Garfinkel, Giddens, or any other formulations of "radii" I've read in this thread. In all of these micro-sociological frames, the boundary has nothing at all to do with a learning relationship between someone competent in a task and someone gaining competency. Lewin's idea was almost geometrical. Do you think Vygotsky's was? From what I understand the ZPD is not a boundary that can be reduced to a metric any more than can the feelings of blossoming wonder or or monstrous terror.
   
  What d'ya think>
   
  Paul

Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:
  Thank you Eric. You and David have given me the kind of pointers I
suspected were out there.
Andy
At 11:58 AM 13/11/2007 -0600, you wrote:

>Andy:
>
>Radius of subjectivity is not new but providing different language for
>social situations can help introduce new thinking about the age old
>question, "Why and How are humans what they are?"
>
>Consider the following quote regarding Kurt Lewin:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> For Kurt Lewin behaviour was determined by totality of an individual's
> situation. In his field
> theory, a 'field' is defined as 'the totality of coexisting facts which
> are conceived of as
> mutually interdependent' (Lewin 1951: 240). Individuals were seen to
> behave differently according
> to the way in which tensions between perceptions of the self and of the
> environment were worked
> through. The whole psychological field, or 'lifespace', within which
> people acted had to be
> viewed, in order to understand behaviour. Within this individuals and
> groups could be seen in
> topological terms (using map-like representations). Individuals
> participate in a series of life
> spaces (such as the family, work, school and church), and these were
> constructed under the
> influence of various force vectors (Lewin
> 1952).
>
>
>
>
>
>
>this was taken from the following website:
>http://wilderdom.com/theory/FieldTheory.html
>
>or consider Jaan Valsiner's Zone theory that suggests people develop based
>on their zone of free movement, society's zone of promoted action and the
>specific zone of proximal development ( as defined by Seth Chaiklen).
>
>I for one appreciate your input and believe if you were to extrapolate
>further you may be onto a successful philosophical tool Andy!
>
>eric
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Andy
> Blunden
>
>
> et> cc:
>
> Sent by: Subject: Re: [xmca] Radius
> of Subjectivity
> xmca-bounces@web
>
> er.ucsd.edu
>
>
>
>
>
> 11/08/2007
> 06:44
>
> PM
>
> Please
> respond
>
> to
> "eXtended
>
> Mind,
> Culture,
>
> Activity"
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>My reason for splurting the thought on to the list was the suspicion that
>it was not original.
>There are differences though. The idea of "radius" as a measure unites, for
>
>example, both "society" and the "individual", which people regularly talk
>about as two distinct levels needing some kind of bridge between them, and
>you have people talking about "agency" in quite contradictory ways, using
>the same word for what appears as two different things, but actually
>involves different radii which has a continuous scale. Plus you mention a
>trichotomy, but a quite different trichotomy to identity, agency and
>knowing.
>Andy
>At 03:17 PM 8/11/2007 -0800, you wrote:
> >Andy--
> >
> > Great! But wait....
> >
> > What's the relationship between your "radii of subjectivity" (and my
> > "event horizon" and Mike's and LSV's "social situation of learning"...how
>
> > the terms proliferate!) and the trichotomy (if that is what it is)
> > "operation", "action", and "activity"?
> >
> > That's my question!
> >
> > David Kellogg
> > Seoul National University of Education
> >
> > __________________________________________________
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>
> Andy Blunden : http://home.mira.net/~andy/ tel (H) +61 3 9380 9435,
>mobile 0409 358 651
>
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>
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>
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Andy Blunden : http://home.mira.net/~andy/ tel (H) +61 3 9380 9435,
mobile 0409 358 651

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Received on Tue Nov 13 16:19 PST 2007

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