by Oliver Ding
August 26, 2026
A theorist is someone engaged in the development of a theoretical enterprise, whether within an established theoretical tradition or through the development of an independent knowledge system.
A theoretical enterprise is more than a theory understood as a static body of knowledge. It is an evolving thematic enterprise through which a theorist develops concepts, models, frameworks, methods, and related knowledge projects around a sustained area of inquiry. Theory is not simply something a theorist possesses or applies; it is something that develops through theoretical activity.
My Theoretical Journey
For the past decade, I have been engaged with Activity Theory as a theoretical tradition. My engagement has included studying its concepts, exploring its historical and contemporary development, and experimenting with how its theoretical resources can be brought into dialogue with other intellectual traditions.
At the same time, I chose theoretical activity itself as a particular type of activity for sustained inquiry. Rather than looking only at what theories say, I became interested in how theories develop: how theorists engage with existing knowledge, discover new questions, appropriate and transform conceptual resources, develop frameworks, and weave different resources into evolving theoretical enterprises.
This inquiry has resulted in a number of theoretical frameworks and book projects. Three resources are particularly relevant for theorists who are interested in exploring their own theoretical activity.
Three Resources for Theorists
1. Theory as Enterprise
From: Wonder and Wander: Revealing the Evolving Knowledge Enterprise (2025)
Introduced in my 2025 book draft Wonder and Wander, the Theory as Enterprise framework provides a way to understand the evolving structure of a theoretical enterprise through two components:
- Map: A three-layer map describing the structure of an evolving thematic enterprise, incorporating the Evolving Knowledge Enterprise model as one of its layers.
- Model: A four-level model, drawing on core concepts from the Ecological Practice Approach, to explain the dynamic complexity of an evolving knowledge enterprise.
The diagram below represents these two components. The Map appears on the right, while the Model appears on the left.
The separation between Theme, Map, and Model allows the Theory as Enterprise framework to remain open and developmental. While I use the Ecological Practice Approach to construct the four-level Model, others are welcome to draw on different theoretical approaches to construct alternative Models.
More details can be found in Wonder and Wander (book, v1.0, 2025).
2. Strategic Themes of Knowledge Strategy
From: Castle and Forest: The Landscape of Concept-related Knowledge Engagement (2025)
The Strategic Themes of Knowledge Strategy model identifies twelve recurring themes through which theorists and other knowledge actors engage with concepts and knowledge systems:
Developed through the evolution of the Knowledge Discovery Canvas, the model moves beyond knowledge discovery to map the strategic activities through which a knowledge enterprise develops.
For theorists, these themes provide a vocabulary for recognizing different kinds of theoretical activity. Developing a theory may involve integrating existing theories, creating new concepts, validating propositions, exploring new directions, objectifying tacit insights, curating a knowledge system, projecting a theoretical project, or constructing a narrative around its development.
The model therefore offers a strategic map of theoretical activity rather than a model of theory itself.
More details can be found in Castle and Forest (book, v2.0, 2025).
3. Weave the Theory
The Weave-the-Theory Model is a model for understanding the development of theoretical activity over time.
It conceptualizes theoretical development through the interplay of two diachronic movements — Creativity / Proliferation and Curativity / Unification — together with two synchronic dimensions — Aspects and Approaches. Their intersections generate four key weave-points in theoretical development: Theme, Model, Concept, and Principle.
The model provides a structural way to examine how theoretical work develops: how themes generate new directions, how models organize emerging structures, how concepts take shape through engagement with existing and emerging materials, and how principles eventually emerge from the longer process of creating, curating, and weaving theoretical work.
Rather than treating a theory as a finished system of propositions, the model approaches theory as a developing activity. It can therefore be used to examine theoretical work at different scales, from an individual's long-term theoretical enterprise to the development of a collective theoretical tradition.
The model is accompanied by the Weave-the-Theory Toolkit, a set of analytical tools developed through its application to concrete cases.
Weave the Theory: The Art of Theoretical Activity and Knowledge Ecology is a collection of case studies demonstrating the Weave-the-Theory Model and its accompanying toolkit in practice.
The book operates at two levels. First, it documents the development of the author's own theoretical enterprises, using the model to revisit and analyze how theories and frameworks emerged, developed, and transformed through years of theoretical activity. In this sense, the book is also a reflexive case study: the model is used to examine the very kind of theoretical activity through which the model itself was developed.
Second, the book applies the model to Activity Theory as a developing theoretical tradition. The cases examine the development of the tradition as well as the theoretical enterprises of individual contributors, including Engeström, Nardi, and Spinuzzi. These cases demonstrate how the same analytical model can operate across different scales — from individual theoretical enterprises to a multi-generational theoretical tradition.
The book therefore serves not simply as an introduction to the model, but as a demonstration of theoretical activity analyzed from within theoretical activity itself. The model, the toolkit, and the cases have developed together through this process of analysis.
In this sense, Weave the Theory is both a study of theoretical activity and an example of theoretical activity.
v1.0 - August 26, 2026 - 942 words