Cultural-Historical Activity Theory and its Contemporary Import: Ideas Emerging in Context and Time.

Abstract

<p>Alexey N. Leontiev&rsquo;s legacy &ndash; as part of cultural-historical activity theory &ndash; is discussed as an open-ended, dynamic, and <em>continuously emerging</em> system of ideas. The meaning and import of these ideas are becoming transparent in the context of contemporary <em>conceptual revolution</em> in psychology. Various trends within this cutting-edge movement have converged on the notion of relationality &ndash; in opposition to traditional &ldquo;substance&rdquo; metaphysics that posits self-contained, independent entities as the exclusive analytical focus. CHAT is revealed to be a <em>pioneer </em>in this conceptual revolution, contributing conceptual advances such as on embodied, situated, distributed, and enacted cognition/mind and on a (non-dual) &ldquo;natureculture.&rdquo; In CHAT, human development is an open-ended, dynamic, non-linear, and ever-unfolding, that is, <em>emergent process</em> with no preprogrammed blueprints. This process is composed of embodied bi-directional interactivities of persons-acting-in-the-world, embedded in fluid contexts &ndash; soft assemblages contingent on situational demands and affordances. Moreover, CHAT foregrounds <em>collective dynamics </em>of meaningful shared activities extending through history as a unified onto-epistemology of human development and mind. In addition, CHAT also offers, in outlines, steps to move beyond the relational paradigm towards a transformative worldview premised on the notion of a simultaneous persons-and-the-world co-realizing.</p>