Re: [xmca] Abstract to Concrete

[Huw Lloyd <huw.softdesigns@gmail.com>]

On 15 November 2012 08:54, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:

> Taylor & Francis allows xmca only discuss one article per issue, but I see
> no reason why we couldn't discuss this excerpt from Engestrom's paper. It
> concerns "rising from the abstract to the concrete," which we were recently
> discussing, but without resolution.
>
>
Hi,

I voted for that one.  Am a bit busy to promise any disputation... but will
likely find time to try to read the viewpoints.

Huw


> --------------------------
>
> Ascending from the abstract to the concrete is achieved through specific
> epistemic or learning actions. Together these actions form an expansive
> cycle or spiral. An ideal-typical sequence of epistemic actions in
> ascending from the abstract to the concrete may be described as follows:
>
> •         The first action is that of questioning, criticizing, or
> rejecting some aspects of the accepted practice and existing wisdom. For
> the sake of simplicity, we will call this action questioning.
>
> •         The second action is that of analyzing the situation. Analysis
> involves mental, discursive or practical transformation of the situation in
> order to find out origins and explanatory mechanisms.
>
> •         The third action is that of modeling a new explanatory
> relationship in some publicly observable and transmittable medium. This
> means constructing an explicit, simplified model of the new idea, a germ
> cell, that explains the problematic situation and offers a perspective for
> resolving and transforming it.
>
> •         The fourth action is that of examining the model, running,
> operating, and experimenting on it in order to fully grasp its dynamics,
> potentials, and limitations.
>
> •         The fifth action is that of implementing the model, concretizing
> it by means of practical applications, enrichments, and conceptual
> extensions.
>
> •         The sixth and seventh actions are those of reflecting on and
> evaluating the process and consolidating its outcomes into a new stable
> form of practice.
>
>
> --------------------
>
> MCA 19(1) pp. 288-289.
>
> Andy
>
> mike cole wrote:
>
>> Dear Colleagues--
>>
>> I have been reminded of an issue that has been nagging at me for some
>> time,
>> that we have not had a discussion of any of the articles in the special
>> issue of MCA called "concepts in the wild."  The article selected by a
>> plurality of
>> voters was by Chuck Bazerman on concepts in the process of writing. But
>> no one has
>> commented on the article. That seems to me a shame. In fact, the entire
>> issue, with its stellar set of authors and papers is worth discussing,
>> and I
>> figure  there will be more articles on this general theme in the time to
>> come, spanning as it does, the story of all those practice in which we
>> acquire and deploy concepts in organizing our social life and experience
>> the world.
>>
>>
>
>
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