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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Articles 1 - 6 of 6
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Known 'Bugs' In Cultural Historical Activity Theory, John G. Findlay
Known 'Bugs' In Cultural Historical Activity Theory, John G. Findlay
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
When Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) was first propounded by the Vygotskian school of Russian psychologists in the 1920s it offered a robust explanation of how human development is mediated by cultural as well as biological influences. Along the way, CHAT has acquired some "bugs" or usability difficulties by remaining isolated from other theories that have a common heritage. This paper explores how the theory may have evolved if Vygotsky was alive today. Revisions to CHAT are proposed that borrow from complexity theory, innovation theory, group dynamics and Flow theory to explain the evolution of minds, tools and cultures as a …
Government Business Process Analysis With Activity Theory, Peter A. J Larkin
Government Business Process Analysis With Activity Theory, Peter A. J Larkin
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
Activity Theory tells us that a motivated person or group performs an activity directed at an object in order to transform the object into desired outcomes to fulfil a need. It also tells us that instruments and the community mediate human activity. The New South Wales state parliament in Australia performs the activity of creating Acts and those Acts prescribe within them the objects of the Act and the desired outcomes. To achieve the desired outcomes, the Act will establish or constitute the necessary instruments. This paper describes an application of Yrjo Engestrom's Activity Theory model, or structure of human …
Vygotsky's Socio-Cultural Theory And The Zone Of Proximal Development, Irina Verenikina
Vygotsky's Socio-Cultural Theory And The Zone Of Proximal Development, Irina Verenikina
Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)
Vygotsky's life goal was to create a psychology adequate for the investigation of consciousness. He stated that consciousness is constructed through a subject’s interactions with the world. Consciousness is neither reducible to behaviour nor separate from it, but instead is an attribute of the organisation of practical activity. It is the process that organises behaviour. Vygotsky introduced the idea of externally mediated activity that involves the use of external means to reach a goal. This led to the idea that mental processes could only be understood if we understand the tools and signs that mediate them. Wertsch believed that it …
Book Review - Kate Langdon Forhan, The Political Theory Of Christine De Pizan, Louise D'Arcens
Book Review - Kate Langdon Forhan, The Political Theory Of Christine De Pizan, Louise D'Arcens
Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)
Christine de Pizan scholars are familiar with Kate Langdon Forhan’s many valuable contributions to the growing research into Christine’s political writings. In The Political Theory of Christine de Pizan Forhan seeks to bring Christine’s work to the attention of a new audience, political theorists, in order to ensure a place for her within the mainstream history of political theory. In so doing she continues the worthy task already underway in her translation of Christine’s Book of the Body Politic for Cambridge’s Texts in the History of Political Thought series, and her Medieval Political Theory reader, co-edited with Cary Nederman. In …
Interpretation And Skill: On Passing Theory, David I. Simpson
Interpretation And Skill: On Passing Theory, David I. Simpson
Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)
In this paper I want to explore Donald Davidson’s rejection of the use of the concept of language, when the knowledge of a language is taken as a sufficient and/or necessary condition for communicative understanding. After sketching the original presentation of the argument, I will then look at what I take to be the major weakness of that version – the argument against language as a necessary condition – and at Davidson’s more recent attempts to shore up the story in that area by way of the ‘triangulation’ thesis. After criticising that attempt, I will try to show that Davidson’s …
Website Usability In Context: An Activity Theory Based Usability Testing Method, Lejla Vrazalic
Website Usability In Context: An Activity Theory Based Usability Testing Method, Lejla Vrazalic
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
Traditional laboratory based usability testing methodologies are plagued with shortcomings which affect the results of the testing process and their validity. The results of a preliminary study of this type of usability testing with 34 users indicate two categories of key shortcomings. A new summative website usability testing methodology based on the notion of distributed usability and Activity Theory is presented as a means of overcoming these problems. This paper describes the theoretical foundations and development of the methodology which is currently being evaluated and refined.