[Xmca-l] RESET/CRADLE online seminar on Thursday: “Power and transformative agency in three interconnected Change Laboratories on homelessness in Finland”

[Engeström, Yrjö H M]

Dear colleagues,

Thanks to all of you who attended the RESET/CRADLE Online Seminar Series “Changing Activities and Formative Interventions: Vulnerable Lives and Power” in the fall. A total of 243 senior scholars and doctoral researchers from all continents registered to the seminars held in October and November. The two remaining seminars for the academic year 2020-2021 are listed below. Welcome!



The seminars are organized by RESET at Tampere University and CRADLE at University of Helsinki. They bring together scholars who develop cultural-historical activity theory and formative intervention methods derived from it to address acute societal challenges requiring transformations.



The seminars are open to all registered participants through a link sent after registration. Doctoral students are also welcome to attend: attending one seminar (with active participation in the discussion and a reflection written text on the contents and readings of the seminar) corresponds to 1 ECTS.

More details on the seminar in February will follow.



February 18, 2021 (Thursday)
15PM-17PM Tampere/Helsinki
“Power and transformative agency in three interconnected Change Laboratories on homelessness in Finland”
Annalisa Sannino, Faculty of Education & Culture, Tampere University, Finland
REGISTER HERE FOR THE FEB.18 SEMINAR!<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=r0Rp-nzM2EyRVMARMnmJEHUpCSFLWfxOuWgoQnqZjfNUMkpCVEU1UUhEMVRPWEMzWlhMVVpEUkYzVy4u__;!!Mih3wA!Td8wiIxNDJ6TtnrakC3wBfYepwA4jtCpeVpryYgVEYt-A8emrXTx7Sis9nRuvAV3zDsnsw$ >



March 22, 2021 (Monday)
15PM-17PM Tampere/Helsinki; 8AM Boston; 9PM Beijing
“Poverty alleviation through government‐led e‐commerce development in rural China: An activity theory perspective”
Liang Li, School of Information Technology and Management, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing
Kui (Andy) Du, College of Management, University of Massachusetts Boston
Wei Zhang,College of Management, University of Massachusetts Boston
Ji‐Ye Mao, School of Business, Renmin University of China, Beijing
REGISTER HERE FOR THE MAR.22 SEMINAR!<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=r0Rp-nzM2EyRVMARMnmJEHUpCSFLWfxOuWgoQnqZjfNUMkdCRUcyTEtGRzg3RUVaME40TVVIQzRIMS4u__;!!Mih3wA!Td8wiIxNDJ6TtnrakC3wBfYepwA4jtCpeVpryYgVEYt-A8emrXTx7Sis9nRuvAVhcH9eRg$ >


Please find below more information on this Thursday's third seminar of RESET/CRADLE Online Seminar Series 2020-2021“Changing Activities and Formative Interventions: Vulnerable Lives and Power.”

The seminar is open to all registered participants through a link which will be sent the day before the seminar. Doctoral students are also welcome to attend: attending one seminar (with active participation in the discussion and a reflection written text on the contents and readings of the seminar) corresponds to 1 ECTS.

----------------
RESET/CRADLE Online Seminar 3:
February 18, 2021(Thursday), 15PM-17PM Tampere/Helsinki
Presenter: Annalisa Sannino, Faculty of Education & Culture, Tampere University
Title of the presentation: “Power and transformative agency in three interconnected Change Laboratories on homelessness in Finland”

Abstract of the presentation
Over the past decade a significant contribution to discussions of agency and change from a cultural-historical perspective (CHP) consist of findings on transformative agency by double stimulation (TADS, Sannino, 2015, 2020; Engeström, Nuttall & Hopwood, 2020). TADS is a process by which individuals or collectives accomplish change amidst uncertainty by intentionally breaking out of conflicts of motives (also referred to as first stimuli) with the help of systematically implemented mediating means (also called second stimuli). Aspects of the ongoing discussions on agency revolve around the notion of power (Blackler, 2011; Lewis, Enciso, & Moje, 2020). This presentation offers a theoretical argument supported by an empirical example claiming that TADS process is intrinsically a power-sensitive conceptualization of agency.

The presentation engages in dialogue with and expands the proposition on power put forward by Eric Olin Wright’s sociology of real utopias (2016, 2019). Wright’s perspective is particularly relevant in discussions on agency and power involving CHP and in particular the emerging fourth generation of activity theory (Engeström & Sannino, 2020). First, it offers an alternative to the elusive and contested concept of power in social theory. Second, its features allow it to be fruitfully used in discussions of cross-sectoral/inter-organizational change and societal transformations. For Wright, power is the individual or collective capacity to produce effects in the world. Starting from this definition, he argues for the key role of heterogeneous democratic and egalitarian coalitions for multi-layered collective action. He refers to these coalitions as real utopias. They can contribute to more profoundly democratic States within which alternatives to capitalism can more visibly display themselves as in contrast with capitalist modes of production and, consequently, erode capitalist exploitative modes of power.

The chapter argues that, despite the strong dialectical and progressive stance it adopts, Wright’s perspective is still predominantly one based on the formulation of accounts and critiques on how power is played out. The proposition constructed in this presentation complements Wright’s contribution by asking the following research questions: 1) How is hidden, unrecognized and often suppressed power generated and how can it be supported?  2) Given the key role conflicts of motives play in TADS, to which extent do they also play a key role in generating and supporting suppressed power? 3) How do symbolic and material tools that are developed, changed and used in TADS serve as mediators to originate and foster power?

The presentation responds to these questions by delving into a fourth generation activity theory study with three interconnected Change Laboratories focused on eradicating homelessness in Finland. The study involved Change Laboratories conducted at the level of a supported housing unit for former homeless, at the city level (with one of the largest municipalities in Finland) and at the national level (with organisations and actors including the director of the national programme for the prevention of homelessness, four prominent NGOs, six cities, the nationwide network developers, and the largest non-profit provider of socially supported housing in the country).

The proposition of a power-sensitive concept of transformative agency builds on the following three claims 1) power can be put in motion by means of TADS; 2) conflicting motives are a resource for generating and exerting power; 3) power is a process similarly mediated as TADS. This proposition lends itself to create conditions for generating and enabling collective transformative agency needed for responding to acute contemporary challenges of equity and social justice. The power-sensitive perspective on agency put forward here presents affordances that are essential to navigate the turbulences, hierarchies and complexities which often block the necessary cross-sectoral and inter-organizational change initiatives these challenges require.

References

Blackler, F. (2011). Power, politics, and intervention theory: Lessons from organization studies. Theory & psychology, 21(5), 724-734.
Engeström, Y. & Sannino, A. (2020). From mediated actions to heterogeneous coalitions: Four generations of activity-theoretical studies of work and learning. Mind, Culture, and Activity. DOI: 10.1080/10749039.2020.1806328
Lewis, C., Enciso, P. E., & Moje, E. B. (Eds.) (2020). Reframing sociocultural research on literacy: Identity, agency, and power. London: Routledge.
Sannino, A. (Ed.) (2015). The emergence of transformative agency and double stimulation: Activity-based studies in the Vygotskian tradition. Special issue of Learning, Culture, and Social Interaction, 4.
Engeström, Y, Nuttall, J, & Hopwood, N. (2020). Transformative agency by double stimulation: advances in theory and methodology. Pedagogy, Culture & Society. DOI: 10.1080/14681366.2020.1805499<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2020.1805499__;!!Mih3wA!Td8wiIxNDJ6TtnrakC3wBfYepwA4jtCpeVpryYgVEYt-A8emrXTx7Sis9nRuvAWQ3wzZcg$ >
Sannino, A. (2020). Transformative agency as warping: How collectives accomplish change amidst uncertainty. Pedagogy, Culture & Society. DOI: 10.1080/14681366.2020.1805493
Wright, E. O. (2010). Envisioning real utopias. London: Verso.
Wright, E. O. (2019). How to be an anticapitalist in the twenty-first century. London: Verso.


With kind regards,
Annalisa Sannino, Tampere University, annalisa.sannino@tuni.fi<mailto:annalisa.sannino@tuni.fi>
Yrjö Engeström, University of Helsinki, yrjo.engestrom@helsinki.fi<mailto:yrjo.engestrom@helsinki.fi>




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.ucsd.edu/pipermail/xmca-l/attachments/20210215/ae85ffd3/attachment.html