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Re: [xmca] Abstract to Concrete



I followed your advice, Mike, and the Google search turned up Yrjo and Chuck discussing this same topic on xmca in 1996. :) It also drew my attention to the new XMCA searchable archive, which not only had 16-year-old conversations but was up to date to today, so included in the same abstract with Yrjo and Chuck in 1996, was Chuck and Andy in 2012! Very good work, Etienne or Ivan or Bruce or whoever is doing that work.

Andy

mike cole wrote:
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 <mailto: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


    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
        <mailto: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/ <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/>
    Book: http://www.brill.nl/concepts
    http://ucsd.academia.edu/AndyBlunden

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--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
Book: http://www.brill.nl/concepts
http://ucsd.academia.edu/AndyBlunden

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