Appropriating Activity Theory #16: The Tool That Kept Changing Its Purpose
The tool kept changing its purpose. But it never stopped being a mediating tool. That, perhaps, is what Activity Theory would have predicted all along.
Appropriating Activity Theory
Appropriating Activity Theory #15: Before, After, and Watershed
After editing that chronicle, “watershed” became a new theme for me. I began to wonder whether similar dividing lines existed in my decade‑long journey of appropriating Activity Theory. This issue of the column is dedicated to that theme.
Appropriating Activity Theory #14: Self, Other, and Embodied Social Forms (2017, 2021, 2025)
Tracing the Self–Other relationship back to its ecological foundations — from the Thing-People Relation model of 2017, through the Typology of Relevance in 2021, the Activity Circle, the ACS development of 2026
Appropriating Activity Theory #13: Agency Frontier Behind the Hierarchy of Human Activity (2020)
When I sat down to write this issue's column, I found myself asking a question I hadn't asked before: Does the tradition of Activity Theory have anything analogous to the four boundaries of the World of Life?
Appropriating Activity Theory #12: Agency Resonance Behind the Project Network (2022)
The network resonates. And the insights that emerge from that resonance are different in kind from anything a single project can produce.
Appropriating Activity Theory #11: When Two Students Aren't Enough (2023)
These four threshold moments at the school have taught me something fundamental about agency and structure.
Appropriating Activity Theory #10: The LARGE Method (2018 - 2026)
Sharing the story of the LARGE Method and tracing its development over the years.
Appropriating Activity Theory #9: The ECHO Way (2021)
From a 2021 manuscript to a 2026 live dialogue: Following the continuous ECHO Journey as it expands from individual reflection to social projection.
Appropriating Activity Theory #8: Stage, Map, and Moves
The seed from 2017 has now grown into the History {Life[Self(Body)]} Framework (v3.0), a meta-framework for the Meta-frameworks project.
Appropriating Activity Theory #7: The Piano House and Activity as Container
The "Activity-as-Container" conceptual deck was part of a four-project creative journey from July 2017 to Feb 2018.