Activity as Object-Related: Resolving the Dichotomy of Individual and Collective Planes of Activity

• Published in: Mind, culture and activity culture and activity, 2005-02, Vol.12 (1), p.70-88
• Main Author: Stetsenko, Anna
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activities; Adjustment (to Environment); Cognitive Structures; Cooperation; Culture; Developmental Psychology; Educational Principles; History; Individual Development; Learning Theories; Productivity; Social Environment; Social psychology; Sociocultural Patterns
• ISSN: 1074-9039; 1532-7884
• DOI: 10.1207/s15327884mca1201_6

This article suggests that the principle of object-relatedness, introduced by Vygotsky and expanded by A. N. Leontiev, can be used to conceptualize human subjectivity within a profoundly social view of human development. This is achieved by reformulating the premises of cultural-historical activity theory to include the notion that material production, intersubjective exchanges, and human subjectivity form a unified three-fold dialectical system. Focusing on the constant manifold transitions among components of this system as its modus vivendi reveals (a) individual and collective processes as being interrelated and co-evolving levels of activity, and (b) the practical relevance of human subjectivity alongside the human relevance of material practices. Such an expanded view posits human subjectivity on a continuum of regulatory mechanisms of social practice, to which both individual and social processes belong. It is further conceptualized as a form of practical transformative pursuits in the world, and as a lawful and necessary moment of human life endowed with the capacity to generate new activity cycles. The co-evolution of collective motives and personal goals, as well as the practical relevance of theoretical constructions, are used as illustrations.