Re: [xmca] Common ground as the coordination of MARKED activity

[mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>]

I'll mark those words, Larry!  :-)

At first i was put in mind of the notion of "inscription" by your note. Then
I began to
broaden out my idea of what you were talking about as you go through the
examples.

>From the example, it seems that MARKING can take a lot of different forms.
At some
point it seems useful to marking to overlap inscription a lot, but at
earlier ages and in
different circumstances, i am not sure of what can constitute  an
action-that-marks or perhaps an
action-that-is-marked.

At what age do you think marking begins, Larry? Does it, like word meaning,
develop?
I figure your answer would be yes in general, but in particular, could one
trace out through these
different thinkers an ontogeny of marking? Would it be an ontogeny of
signification?

Figuring out the "joint" of joint mediated activity seems to be one task
around which many are
organizing their efforts, whatever their particular phenomena and associated
languages.

mike

On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 10:57 AM, Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com> wrote:

> Mike
>
> I'm responding to and reflecting on your musings about common GROUND as a
> possible way of linking parallel conversations.
> I want to amplify a simple common sense term - "MARKED" - that seems to be
> central to many discussions on notions of the emergence of self other and
> culture.
>
> 1) Herbert Clark's article's description of the intricate synchronicity of
> a
> piano duet captures the MARKED social acts that SIGNAL the joint activity
> that must be co-ordinated among the participants. He is describing how the
> agentic self intentionally uses one's corporeal body as a material object
> to
> signal "directing TO" and "placing-FOR"  intentionally MANIFESTED joint
> activity.
>
>  Herbert Clark states "MANIFESTING an action is the doing of that action IN
> A TIME, PLACE, OR MANNER INTENDED TO BE RECOGNIZED AS MARKED OR SPECIAL".
> In
> this way it DIRECTS the observer TO that action for a REASON RECOGNIZABLE
> in
> these circumstances. Manifesting an action is therefore a TYPE of
> directing-TO. One advantage of a manifesting action is that it is done in
> the course of the action it is INTENDED TO MANIFEST. (p 514)
>
> The central point as I read this statement is that manifesting actions are
> MARKED [intentional] actions meant to coordinate joint activity.
>
> 2) Fonagey, Gergely, and Target in exploring attachment theory emphasize
> that the development of "mentalization" in infants is a direct product of
> MARKED ENGAGEMENT in coordinating eye gaze etc. smiles, etc.  They
> emphasize
> this is not a process of imitation because the adults behaviors are
> exaggerated in order to signal the infant to direct his/her attention TO a
> joint activity.  [the adult is operating from a particular horizon of
> understanding]
>
> 3)Daniel Stern in his book "The present Moment" points to the MARKED
> signals
> that are jointly co-ordinated in a meaningful moment [that has a definite
> temporal arc of a few seconds]
>
> 4) Alex Gillespie & Jack Martin's neo-Meadian focus on ACTUAL MATERIAL
> social ACTS as the GROUND for the development of co-ordinating
> psychological
> perspectives also emphasizes  directing TO and placing FOR  as MARKED
> activities where the partners learn to take BOTH positions in a joint
> activity.
>
> Now the centrality of the term "marked" when describing manifesting action
> must be put into the larger sociohistorical context that explicates what
> particular activity becomes MARKED for intentional amplification.  Also,
> Herbert Clark's description of the material co-ordination of geographical
> places and spaces in the material world also are signals that manifest
> joint
> activity.  Material objects of activity also coordinate joint activity.
> HOWEVER the socio-relational level of MARKED joint activity as an
> intersubjective and phenomenological reality is a central level of analysis
> to understand the notion of joint activity as a precursor to learning how
> to
> coordinate psychological perspectives, develop pseudoconcepts [externally
> mediated as described above] and eventually becoming internalized as true
> concepts.
>
> I assume that the development of an emerging sense of self with agentic
> capacity also follows from coordinated MARKED joint activities.  Attachment
> theory is pointing in this direction of MARKED activity BUT needs to
> incorporate an historical, sociocultural explanation to its biological
> narrative.
>
> Larry
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