Activity Theory
“Activity theory considers the goal-directed, mediated activity of individuals within socio-cultural contexts. It provides a framework within which actions—including the creation of texts—can be understood as goal-directed work situated within social, cultural, and historical contexts” (2). Activity theory includes:
- Object: The goal(s) toward which activity is directed.
- Motive: A socially constructed desire to address social needs by accomplishing a goal.
- Activity: Collective action taken to realize a goal. Sascha Barab, Michael Evans, Eun-Ok and Baek (2004) characterized activity as “a coherent, stable, relatively long-term endeavor directed to an articulated or identifiable goal” (p. 204).
- Subjects: People engaged in an activity.
- Tool: A vehicle for a particular method of social action. Tools may be material, such as pens or pencils, or psychological, such as signs or symbols (Barab, Evans, & Baek, 2004).
- Labor: A social process, involving tools, for influencing nature. Labor defines relationships among the people who carry it out (i.e., a division of labor; Russell, 2004).
- Rules: Whether formal or informal, explicit or tacit, rules “shape the interaction of subjects and tools with the object. Of course, these rules can also alter, tacitly or explicitly, with changes in other nodes in the system, but the rules allow the system to be ‘stabilized-for-now’” (Russell, 2004, p. 315).
- Community: People who act on a common goal over a period of time form a community; communities, in turn, condition other elements in the activity system (Russell, 2004).
- Contradictions: Contradictions emerge from changes in an activity system and can place people at odds with each other or cause them to question their actions or beliefs. Quoting Yrjo Engeström, Russell observed that, “an activity system ‘is constantly working through contradictions within and between its elements’ (Engeström 1987)” (2004, p. 316). (2-3)
“Engeström defined outcome as the implication (intended or not) of activity… [He sees] activity as collective labor… Activity is built up from actions, which are carried out by individuals… Thus activity can be understood as occurring at the social level, and actions can be understood as occurring at the individual level…Leontiev also argued that our understanding of the world is mediated through language and, more specifically, communication, which is necessarily social” (4).