Russian Psychological Issues PsyJournals.ru
RUSSIANENGLISH
Вход
OPEN ACCESS JOURNALS
JournalsTopicsAuthorsEditor's Choice For AuthorsAbout PsyJournals.ruContact Us

  Previous issue (2020. Vol. 16, no. 3)

Included in Scopus

SCImago Journal & Country Rank

CrossRef

Cultural-Historical Psychology

Publisher: Moscow State University of Psychology and Education

ISSN (printed version): 1816-5435

ISSN (online): 2224-8935

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/chp

License: CC BY-NC 4.0

Started in 2005

Published quarterly

Free of fees
Open Access Journal

Affiliated ISCAR

  

Cultural-Historical Psychology
2018. Vol. 14, no. 3, 43–56
doi:10.17759/chp.2018140304
ISSN: 1816-5435 / 2224-8935 (online)

Cultural-historical activity theory: founding insights and new challenges 2043

|

Sannino A.
PhD in Psychology, Professor, Education at University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland
e-mail: annalisa.sannino@helsinki.fi

Engeström Y.
PhD, Professor Emeritus of Education, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
e-mail: yrjo.engestrom@helsinki.fi

Abstract
The article presents central ideas and future challenges of cultural-historical activity theory, focusing specifically on the work of the so-called Helsinki school of activity theory. We first introduce the revolutionary roots of the theory in the works of Marx and Vygotsky, and the evolution of the unit of analysis through different generations of activity theory. We then discuss the foundational role of historicity and dialectics in activity theory. We identify two central epistemological-methodological principles that guide activity-theoretical studies, namely the principle of double stimulation and the principle of ascending from the abstract to the concrete. These principles lead us to emphasize formative interventions as a powerful way to conduct societally impactful activity-theoretical research. We conclude by pointing out some major challenges facing activity theory in the 21st century.

Keywords: activity theory; unit of analysis; historicity; dialectics; double stimulation; formative interventions

Column: Jointneess and Creativity

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/chp.2018140304

A Part of Article

The foundations of cultural-historical activity theory (or activity theory, for short) are in the work of the Soviet-Russian psychologists Lev Vygotsky, Alexander Luria and Aleksei Leont’ev, developed further by scholars such as the educational psychologist Vassily Davydov and the philosopher Evald Il’enkov. Vitaly Rubtsov is a central figure in the current generation of Russian scholars who keep alive and develop further this legacy, to meet grand challenges of the 21st century.

For Reference

References
  1. Adler P.S. The environmental crisis and its capitalist roots: Reading Naomi Klein with Karl Polanyi. Administrative Science Quarterly, 2015. Vol. 60(2), p. 13—25.
  2. Adler P.S., Heckscher C.C. (eds.), The firm as a collaborative community. New York: Oxford University Press., 2006. 608 p.
  3. Arievitch I.M. Beyond the brain: An agentive activity perspective on mind, development, and learning. New York: Springer, 2017. 288 p.
  4. Bang J. Building a new house out of old materials — and with sharpened tools. Culture & Psychology, 2008. Vol. 14(1), pp. 45—55.
  5. Blunden A. An interdisciplinary theory of activity. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2010. 348 p.
  6. Bronfenbrenner U. Toward an experimental ecology of human development. American psychologist, 1977. Vol. 32(7), pp. 513—532.
  7. Callinicos A. Making history: Agency, structure, and change in social theory. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2009. 290 p.
  8. Chaiklin S.E., Hedegaard M.E., Jensen U.J.E. (eds.), Activity theory and social practice. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 1999. 381 p.
  9. Clot Y. Clinic of activity: The dialogue as instrument. In Sannino A. (eds.), Learning and expanding with activity theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp. 286—302.
  10. Clot Y., Kostulski K.. Intervening for transforming: The horizon of action in the Clinic of Activity. Theory and Psychology, 2—11. Vol. 21, pp. 681—696.
  11. Cole M. Cultural psvchology: A once and future discipline. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996. 416 p.
  12. Davydov V.V. Types of generalization in instruction: Logical and psychological problems in the structuring of school curricula. Reston: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1990. 438 p.
  13. Dillard E.A. Lesson study in higher education: Mediating language teacher conceptual development through shared inquiry. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 2016. 152 p.
  14. Engeström Y. Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Helsinki: Orienta-Konsultit, 1987. 338 p.
  15. Engeström Y. Developmental work research: Expanding activity theory in practice. Berlin: Lehmanns Media, 2005. 453 p.
  16. Engeström Y. Enriching the theory of expansive learning: Lessons from journeys toward coconfiguration. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 2007a. Vol. 14(1—2), pp. 23—39.
  17. Engeström Y. From communities of practice to mycorrhizae. In Hughes J. (eds.), Communities of Practice: Critical perspectives. London: Routledge, 2007b, pp. 41—54.
  18. Engeström Y. Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. 338 p.
  19. Engeström Y., Engeström R. Developmental work research: The approach and an application in cleaning work. Nordisk Pedagogik, 1986. Vol. 6(1), pp. 2—15.
  20. Engeström Y., Kaatrakoski H., Kaiponen P., Lahikainen J., Laitinen A., Myllys H., Rantavuori J., Sinikara K. Knotworking in academic libraries: Two case studies from the University of Helsinki. Liber Quarterly, 2012. Vol. 21(3/4), pp. 387—405.
  21. Engeström Y., Kajamaa A., Nummijoki J. Double stimulation in everyday work: Critical encounters between home care workers and their elderly clients. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 2015. Vol. 4, pp. 48—61.
  22. Engeström Y., Miettinen R., Punamäki R.L. (eds.), Perspectives on activity theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 480 p.
  23. Engeström Y., Nummijoki J., Sannino A. Embodied germ cell at work: Building an expansive concept of physical mobility in home care. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 2012. Vol. 19(3), pp. 287—309.
  24. Engeström Y., Rantavuori J., Kerosuo H. Expansive learning in a library: Actions, cycles and deviations from instructional intentions. Vocations and Learning, 2013. Vol. 6(1), pp. 81—106.
  25. Engeström Y., Sannino A. Discursive manifestations of contradictions in organizational change efforts: A methodological framework. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 2011. Vol. 24(3), pp. 368—387.
  26. Engeström Y., Sannino A. Whatever happened to process theories of learning? Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 2012. Vol. 1(1), pp. 45—56.
  27. Engeström Y., Sannino A., Virkkunen J. On the methodological demands of formative interventions. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 2014. Vol. 21(2), pp. 118—128.
  28. Falmagne R.J. The abstract and the concrete. In L.M. Martin, K. Nelson & E. Tobach (Eds.), Sociocultural psychology: Theory and practice of doing and knowing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, pp. 205—228.
  29. Fichtner B. Lernen und Lerntätigkeit: Ontogenetische, phylogenetische und epistemologische Studien. Berlin: Lehmanns Media, 2008. 372 p.
  30. Freeman C., Louçã F. As time goes by: From the industrial revolutions to the information revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
  31. Giest H., Rückriem G. Tätigkeitstheorie und (Wissens-)Gesellschaft: Fragen und Antworten aus tätigkeitstheoretischer Forschung und Praxis. Berlin: Lehmanns Media, 2010.
  32. Greenstein D. Strategies for sustaining the university library. Portal: Libraries and the Academy, 2010. Vol. 10(2), pp. 121—125.
  33. Gutiérrez K.D., Jurow A.S. Social design experiments: Toward equity by design. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2016. Vol. 25(4), pp. 565—598.
  34. Hegel G.W.F. Hegel’s science of logic. New York: Humanities Press, 1969.
  35. Il’enkov E.V. Dialectical logic: Essays on its history and theory. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1977.
  36. Il’enkov E.V. The dialectics of the abstract and the concrete in Marx’s Capital. Progress: Moscow, 1982.
  37. Kelly A. Design research in education: Yes, but is it methodological?. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2004. Vol. 13(1), pp. 115—128.
  38. Leont’ev A.N. Activity, consciousness, and personality. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1978.
  39. Leont’ev A.N. Problems of the development of mind. Moscow: Progress, 1981.
  40. Levine A. Arguing for socialism: Theoretical considerations. London: Verso, 1984.
  41. Levitin K. One is not born a personality: Profiles of Soviet education psychologists. Moscow: Progress, 1982.
  42. Linebaugh P. Stop, thief!: The commons, enclosures, and resistance. Oakland: PM Press, 2014.
  43. Lompscher J. Lernkultur Kompetenzentwicklung aus kulturhistorischer Sicht: Lernen Erwachsener im Arbeitsprozess. Berlin: Lehmanns Media, 2004.
  44. Marx K. A contribution to the critique of political economy. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1971.
  45. Marx K., Engels F. The German ideology, including Theses on Feuerbach and Introduction to the critique of political economy. New York: Prometheus Books, 1998.
  46. van Oers B., Wardekker W., Elbers E., Van der Veer R. (eds.), The transformation of learning: Advances in cultural-historical activity theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 416 p.
  47. Perez C. Technological revolutions and financial capital: The dynamics of bubbles and golden ages. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2002.
  48. Polanyi K. The great transformation: The political and economic origins of our time. Boston: Beacon Press, 1971.
  49. Roth W.M., Lee Y.J. “Vygotsky’s neglected legacy”: Cultural-historical activity theory. Review of Educational Research, 2007. Vol. 77(2), pp. 186—232.
  50. Rubtsov V.V. Learning in children: Organization and development of cooperative actions. Commack: Nova Science Publishers, 1991.
  51. Ryle G. The concept of mind. 60th anniversary edition. New York: Routledge, 2009.
  52. Sannino A. Activity theory as an activist and interventionist theory. Theory and Psychology, 2011. Vol. 21(5), pp. 571—597.
  53. Sannino A. The principle of double stimulation: A path to volitional action. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 2015. Vol. 6, pp. 1—15.
  54. Sannino A. Double stimulation in the waiting experiment with collectives: Testing a Vygotskian model of the emergence of volitional action. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 2016. Vol. 50(1), pp. 142—173.
  55. Sannino A., Daniels H., Gutiérrez K.D. (eds.) Learning and expanding with activity theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
  56. Sannino A., Engeström Y. Co-generation of societally impactful knowledge in Change Laboratories. Management Learning, 2017. Vol. 48(1), pp. 80—96.
  57. Sannino A., Engeström Y., Lahikainen J. The dialectics of authoring expansive learning: Tracing the long tail of a Change Laboratory. Journal of Workplace Learning, 28(4), 245—262.
  58. Sannino A., Engeström Y., Lemos M. Formative interventions for expansive learning and transformative agency. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2016. Vol. 25(4), pp. 599—633.
  59. Sannino A., Laitinen A. Double stimulation in the waiting experiment: Testing a Vygotskian model of the emergence of volitional action. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 2015. Vol. 4, pp. 4—18.
  60. Sawchuk P., Duarte N., Elhammoumi M. (eds.). Critical perspectives on activity: Explorations across education, work, and everyday life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
  61. Scribner S. Vygotsky’s uses of history. In Wertsch J. (ed.), Culture, communication and cognition: Vygotskian perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985, pp. 119—145.
  62. Stetsenko A. The transformative mind: Expanding Vygotsky’s approach to development and education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. 434 p.
  63. Thuraisingam T., Hukam Parvinder K., David M.K., Nair V. Research culture of private universities in Malaysia: Using contradictions in activity theory. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 2014. Vol. 22(2), pp. 521—537.
  64. Timmis S. The dialectical potential of cultural historical activity theory for researching sustainable CSCL practices. International Journal of Computer—Supported Collaborative Learning, 2014. Vol. 9(1), pp. 7—32.
  65. Tolman C. The metaphysic of relations in Klaus Riegel’s ‘dialectics’ of human development. Human Development, 1981. Vol. 24(1), pp. 33—51.
  66. Victor B., Boynton A.C. Invented here: Maximizing your organization’s internal growth and profitability. Boston: Harvard Business Press, 1998. 272 p.
  67. Virkkunen J., Newnham D.S. The Change Laboratory: A tool for collaborative development of work and education. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2013. 294 p.
  68. Vygotsky L.S. Thinking and speech. In Rieber R.W. (eds.), The collected works of L.S. Vygotsky. Vol. 1. Problems of general psychology. New York: Plenum, 1987, pp. 39—285.
  69. Vygotsky L.S. The collected works of L.S. Vygotsky. Volume 3. Problems of the theory and history of psychology. New York: Plenum, 1997. 372 p.
  70. Wertsch J.V., del Río P., Alvarez A. Sociocultural studies: History, action, and mediation. In Wertsch J.V. (eds.), Sociocultural studies of mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, pp. 1—36.
  71. Zinchenko V.P. Vygotsky’s ideas about units for the analysis of mind. In Wertsch J.V. (ed.), Culture, communication and cognition: Vygotskian perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985, pp. 94—118.
  72. Zuckerman G.A. Developmental education: A genetic modeling experiment. Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 2012. Vol. 49(6), pp. 45—63.
  
About PsyJournals.ru

© 2007–2021 Portal of Russian Psychological Publications. All rights reserved

PsyJournals.ru in Russian

Publisher: Moscow State University of Psychology and Education

Catalogue of academic journals in psychology & education MSUPE

Creative Commons License Open Access Repository     Webometrics Ranking of Repositories

 RSS Psyjournals at facebook Psyjournals at Twitter Psyjournals at Youtube ??????.???????