As you commented, I think the concept of praxis is under-developed.
Even though your insightful comments I have difficulties integrating a few
comments.
Do you mean activity is a general term and praxis is a specific instance
of activity?
Kwang-Su
On Mon, 3 May 1999, Diane HODGES wrote:
> At 17:36 5/4/99, Kwang-Su Cho wrote:
> >Dear XMCA members
> >
> >While I was reading a chapter on activity theory and CSCW(computer
> >mediated collaborate work), I found a word, praxis. The problem is that
> >I don't know the meaning. A English dictionary says Praxis is practice.
> >However, it's not enough for me to understand the word.
> >what is the concept of praxis? is it different from activity?
> >
> >>From Kwang-Su
>
> i understand the word to come out of Paolo Freire' theories on
> liberatory pedagogy (e.g., Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1977).
> Praxis is supposed to describe strategic educative relations amongst the
> learners and teacher.
>
> Practice is uncritical teaching,
> and praxis is a political engagement that explicitly addresses a need for
> emancipatory and critical work;
>
> It is perhaps the "x" that pretends to signal the political significance;
> The same change was made to the word
> "reflective", which means, "... to be thoughtful or contemplative;"
>
> but to be _reflexive_ is to think politically on one's privilege and power,
> so that, by definition, _reflexivity_ is the political act of critical
> self-interrogation.
>
> Praxis is absolutely different from Activity -
>
> Activity is, like Speech, a general term of reference that requires
> an historical/social relation for meaning.
>
> Praxis, on the other hand, presumes a particular historical context has
> determined the conditions of oppression and inequality
> In other words, if the learning context were successfully organized as
> equitable and emancipatory,
> there would be no need for praxis - Praxis is a method of intervention.
> .
> Now i haven't got a reference
> for any of this so i could be mistaken; however, i know Freire writes about
> praxis as liberatory
> pedagogy.
>
> Praxis is a word that has been overused and under-developed; it may well be
> the case the the author you are reading is equating practice with praxis.
> Certainly overuse is the best way to empty a word of its political
> intention: the same way
> a word like "patriarchy" can still accurately describe systemic domination
> and the forced maintenance of women as a slave labour class,
> the effect of the word has been emptied through repetition, now defused
> enough so that "patriarchal structures of oppression," for example,
> sounds like "...a tale told by an idiot: full of sound and fury, signifying
> nothing."
>
>
> diane
>
>
> """"""""""""""""""""""" """""""""""""""""""""""""""""
> When she walks,
> the revolution's coming.
> In her hips, there's revolution.
> When she talks, I hear revolution.
> In her kiss, I taste the revolution.
> (poem by Kathleen Hanna: Riot Grrl)
> ******************************************
> diane celia hodges
> university of british columbia
> centre for the study of curriculum and knowledge
> vancouver, british columbia, canada
>
>