Bill,
I think that you are perfectly right. I don't think that either Eugene
nor Jay would disagree -- but they'll speak on their own. Both Space and
time are a construction anyway, so I think that no matter how we call
them: chronotopes, synomorphs (Barker), action-space, "life space"
(Lewin), they always have to have this "constructive" and relational
aspect -- "density of relations, characterized by interactions, among
people and things".
Each one of these related concepts caries an attempt to envision a
highly complex interplay between multiple activity systems, going on at
the same yet different time, connecting people and making them at the
same time...
I think what is interesting is Eugene's attempt to find the
relationships not just within each one of the "chronotopes" but between
them too: how does the "didactic chronotope" relate to the immediate
reality of the student - teacher interaction in the classroom and in the
school, in recess, outside of school etc...
What is also interesting that we are somehow coming to the same place
from different starting points and through different trajectories.. And
yes, we need a kind of "action- algebra" and a terminology that would
bind these loosely similar notions into a more coherent system (paradigm).
But the time is now -- at least for me -- not to smell the roses, but to
go to the dreamland...
Good night.
Ana
Bill Barowy wrote:
>On Monday 28 July 2003 8:53 pm, Eugene Matusov promulgated:
>
>
>>Dear Jay and everybody-
>>
>>I think that the idea of multiple times is bigger than multiple temporal
>>scales (although it is also a very important idea!). Let me elaborate.
>>
>>
>
>IMHO i think the problems of multiple time scales and Eugene's qualitative
>transformations come about from traditional notions of time as we live by and
>measure the passage of people's lives. Instead, there is the possibility of
>characterizing what happens, not with the ticking of a clock, but instead, by
>the passing of, or better phrased, the enactment of, actions. In your mind's
>eye, imagine a web whereby an action is represented as a node. It is the
>confluence of many other prior actions and in turn branches to many other
>subsequent actions.
>
>For lack of a better name for this interconnected non-linear web of
>happenings, it could be termed "action-space". In as much as a child's
>development is only crudely correlated with the passage of time, so could be
>"action-space". But the Semiotic Ecology described by Alfred Lang and the
>Mind as Action approach by Wertsch seem to me to move ideas in this
>direction, as well as Activity Theory, of course, and the Ecological
>Psychology of Barker . Units of analysis are no longer bound to a person or
>a group or a physical space, but rather are determined by the density of
>relations, characterized by interactions, among people and things. As such
>units could be flexibly ascribed to where interactions "cluster", e.g. "a
>meeting" or "an institution" or "a partnership" or "a lesson" or "a
>classroom", or "a discussion", with "or" being used here in the inclusive
>sense i.e. not the logical "xor". In analysis, one could simultaneously
>look at multiple clusterings in "action-space" that span these traditional
>units. It is explicitly anti-space and anti-time in as much as it is also
>inclusive of both these categories implicitly. Configurations of people and
>things materially make possible the "action potentials" for "events" yet to
>happen.
>
>But this is a highly abstract way of thinking . So. It is way out there as
>far as I'm concerned and for it to become a theoretical framework it needs a
>symbolic form, a kind of "action-algebra", not a necessarily quantitative
>algebra, but one that can express qualitative durations and transformations
>with the non-linear dynamics of humans. It needs a methodology to relate
>these symbolic forms to what can be observed. Consequently, this is yet a
>radically divergent dough on both sides. I hope it's not too gauche to post
>some fiction to xmca.
>
>bb
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Aug 01 2003 - 01:00:09 PDT