The object seems to be evolving also in our discussions and 'object ' is
slippery indeed as Foot/Engeström remind us.
"The object should not be confused with a conscious goal or aim. In activity
theory, conscious goals are
related to discrete, finite, and individual actions; objects are related to
continuous, collective activity
systems and their motives…The slippery and transitional nature of objects
sometimes evokes a denial
of their very existence."
In Helsinki many of us use the distinction between collective activity and
individual/group actions and their goals, and how they influence each other,
see Leontjev.
So in that sense there is no individual activity. Perspectives, interests,
tensions are used to describe the slipperiness and multifacedness of the
object.
Acouple of years ago I collected a list of concepts/approaches people in our
center have been using in their writings about the object that.
My hunch is there are new ones out there.
•Emerging concepts of discussion: Potential object , •Rhetorical object ,
Disrupted object.
This also points to the issue of the temporal dimension of the object of
activity. A historical analysis of a long station social 'institution' like
heatlh service can produce an evolving object from curing a sickness to
preventive medicine. But what about emerging forms of e. g. net/knotworking,
scientific or design projects. How to figure out their object, if there ever
will be a common enough and enduring object of an activity system?
•Object of activity/Y. Engeström
•Dual/double object/Miettinen
Epistemic object/Miettinen/Knorr-Cetina
•Emerging object/Hasu
•Partial object/Hasu
•Heterogeneous object/Contested
•field of negotiations/helle
•Shared object (in Competence Laboratory)/Ahonen
•Referential object/R.Engerström
•Boundary crossing object/Toiviainen
•Temporary object/activity in Border Crossing Laboratory/Kkerosuo
•Practical object of transformation/Miettinen/Hyysalo
•Objest as a learning Challenge/Seppänen
•Developmental task/Mott
•Object-tool shift/Miettinen etc
•Boundary actions/Kerosuo
•Boundary object/Star
•Levels of operations/Engeström Y.
Merja
working on an article about the heterogeneous object of
journalism/publishing
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Merja Helle
Researcher
Center for Activity Theory
Box 47
00140 University of Helsinki
Finland
e-mail:merja.helle@helsinki.fi
phone 358-(0)50-4485 111
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You'll never know the facts before you know the fiction"
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