An interdisciplinary theory of activity

352 Pages·2010·1.452 MB·English

by  Andy Blunden

An Interdisciplinary
Theory of Activity
Studies in Critical
Social Sciences
Series Editor
David Fasenfest
Wayne State University
Editorial Board
Chris Chase-Dunn, University of California-Riverside
G. William Domhoff, University of California-Santa Cruz
Colette Fagan, Manchester University
Matha Gimenez, University of Colorado, Boulder
Heidi Gottfried, Wayne State University
Karin Gottschall, University of Bremen
Bob Jessop, Lancaster University
Rhonda Levine, Colgate University
Jacqueline O’Reilly, University of Brighton
Mary Romero, Arizona State University
Chizuko Ueno, University of Tokyo
VOLUME 22
An Interdisciplinary
Theory of Activity
By
Andy Blunden
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2010
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Blunden, Andy.
An interdisciplinary theory of activity / by Andy Blunden.
p. cm. — (Studies in critical social sciences ; 22)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-18406-0 (alk. paper)
1. Mind and body. 2. Psychology—History. 3. Vygotskii, L. S. (Lev Semenovich),
1896–1934. I. Title. II. Series.
BF151.B58 2010
150.19’8–dc22
2010005214
ISSN 1573-4234
ISBN 978 90 04 18406 0
Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
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printed in the netherlands
CONTENTS
PART I
INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL EXCURSUS
Chapter One Introduction ....................................................... 3
Chapter Two Soviet Cultural Psychology (1924–) ............... 13
Chapter Three Goethe’s Romantic Science ............................. 23
Chapter Four The Young Hegel and What Drove Him ...... 33
Chapter Five The Phenomenology and ‘Formations of
Consciousness’ ................................................... 41
The Phenomenology ..................................... 45
Chapter Six The Subject Matter of the Logic ..................... 51
Chapter Seven Being, Essence & the Notion .......................... 59
Chapter Eight Subjectivity and Culture .................................. 69
Chapter Nine Hegel’s Psychology and Spirit ......................... 75
Hegel’s Psychology ....................................... 79
Chapter Ten Marx’s Critique of Hegel ................................. 85
Chapter Eleven Marx and the Foundations of Activity
Theory ................................................................. 93
Activity ........................................................... 94
Social Formations ......................................... 100
Chapter Twelve Marx’s Critique of Political Economy ........... 103
Abstraction ..................................................... 105
The Commodity Relation ............................ 108
vi contents
Chapter Thirteen Conclusions from this Historical
Excursus ......................................................... 113
PART II
LEV VYGOTSKY
Chapter Fourteen Vygotsky’s Critique of Behaviorism ......... 119
Vygotsky’s Hegelianism .......................... 122
Behaviorism .............................................. 126
Vygotsky’s Sources and Influences ....... 130
Chapter Fifteen Vygotsky and Luria on Romantic
Science ........................................................... 133
Luria ........................................................... 138
Chapter Sixteen Vygotsky on Units and Microcosms ........ 141
Unit of Analysis ....................................... 145
Chapter Seventeen Vygotsky on Gestalt and Bildung .............. 149
The Higher Psychological Functions .... 152
The Social Situation of Development ... 154
Vygotsky on Concepts ............................ 158
Chapter Eighteen The Significance of Vygotsky’s Legacy ..... 163
PART III
ACTIVITY THEORY
Chapter Nineteen Activity ........................................................... 169
Interdisciplinary Concept ...................... 169
The General Conception of
“Activity” ................................................... 174
Chapter Twenty Activity as the Substance of a Science ..... 179
Gadamer on the Hermeneutic Circle ... 185
contents vii
Chapter Twenty-One Criticisms of Vygotsky’s Concept of
Activity ................................................... 189
Vygotsky’s Unit of Analysis for
Consciousness ................................... 192
Leontyev’s Criticism of Vygotsky’s
Unit of Analysis ................................ 197
Meshcheryakov’s Work ................... 199
Vygotsky’s Cultural Psychology ..... 201
Bakhtin ............................................... 202
Chapter Twenty-Two Leontyev’s Anatomy of Activity ......... 205
Levels of Activity .............................. 205
The Standpoint of Activity
Theory ................................................ 208
Leontyev’s Methodology ................. 211
Some Outstanding Problems .......... 213
Chapter Twenty-Three Leontyev’s Activity Theory and
Marx’s Political Economy ................... 217
The Object of Labor under
Capital ................................................ 218
Chapter Twenty-Four Groups as a Model of Sociality .......... 223
Chapter Twenty-Five Yrjö Engeström’s Model ...................... 229
Chapter Twenty-Six Michael Cole and Cross-Cultural
Psychology ............................................. 235
What is Context? .............................. 240
History and Culture ......................... 244
Chapter Twenty-Seven The Results of this Immanent
Critique ................................................... 249
viii contents
PART IV
AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH
Chapter Twenty-Eight Collaborative Projects ........................... 255
Chapter Twenty-Nine Ethics and Collaboration ...................... 267
Social Science and Ethics ................. 267
Collaboration with Strangers .......... 268
The Ethics of Collaboration ............ 271
Chapter Thirty Marx’s Critique of Political Economy
and Activity Theory .............................. 275
Collaboration and Exchange ........... 276
Projects and Firms ............................ 277
Chapter Thirty-One Towards a Taxonomy of Activity ....... 281
Genre, Frame and Field ................... 286
Chapter Thirty-Two Collaborative Projects and Identity .... 289
Chapter Thirty-Three Collaborative Projects and Agency ..... 295
Chapter Thirty-Four Emancipatory Science ........................... 301
Chapter Thirty-Five Conclusion .............................................. 317
Cultural Psychology and Critical
Theory ................................................. 318
Science and Survival ......................... 324
Acknowledgements ............................................................................ 327
References ........................................................................................... 329
Index .................................................................................................... 339
PART I
INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL EXCURSUS