Re: [xmca] Abstract to Concrete

[mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>]

There are many places to access Yrjo's ideas about ascending from the
abstract to the concrete. Searching on Engestrom "abstract to concrete"
should provide plenty of examples.
mike

On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 6:05 AM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:

> You have to buy the journal or purchase a copy of the article here:
> http://www.tandfonline.com/**toc/hmca20/19/3<http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hmca20/19/3>
>
>
> Sorry. That's how it works. We are allowed one article per issue for free
> distribution on xmca only.
>
> Andy
>
>
> Nektarios Alexi wrote:
>
>>
>> Can we have the whole article?
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu on behalf of Andy Blunden
>> Sent: Thu 11/15/2012 6:24 PM
>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>> Subject: [xmca] Abstract to Concrete
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> --------------------------
>>
>> 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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>>
>>
> --
> ------------------------------**------------------------------**
> ------------
> *Andy Blunden*
> Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
> Book: http://www.brill.nl/concepts
> http://ucsd.academia.edu/**AndyBlunden<http://ucsd.academia.edu/AndyBlunden>
>
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