{"id":7056,"date":"2006-10-22T21:26:50","date_gmt":"2006-10-22T21:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/10\/22\/wertsch-mind-as\/"},"modified":"2006-10-22T21:26:50","modified_gmt":"2006-10-22T21:26:50","slug":"wertsch-mind-as","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/10\/22\/wertsch-mind-as\/","title":{"rendered":"Wertsch, Mind as Action<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\u23f3 Approximate reading time: <\/span> 4<\/span> mins<\/span><\/span>\n

Wertsch,
\n James. Mind as Action<\/i>. New York: Oxford, 1998.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sociocultural analysis is best understood by taking into account "mental
\nfunctioning" as it relates to "cultural, institutional, and historical context[s]"
\n(3). Toward an integrative methodology for the human sciences (set against
\nthe APA’s 49 divisions and much disciplinary wrangling), Werstch proposes
\nmediated action<\/b> as a the pervasive object of study: an agglutination of
\nagent<\/b> (subject\/person) and agency<\/b> (instrument\/mediational
\nmeans\/cultural tools). Furthermore, he draws on Burke’s pentad and urges us, as
\nBurke did, to think in terms of ratios<\/b>, rather than reducing any element
\nto isolated treatment (15). The pentad provides a method, a "tool for
\nconducting inquiry about human action and motives" (14). Like Bronfenbrenner,
\nWerstch is concerned with the "individual-society antimony<\/b>"; he responds
\nto a similar problem in the tendency of controlled inquiry to sequester
\nindividuals from contexts<\/b> ("there is a general tendency among many
\npsychologists to focus exclusively on what Burke would call the agent" (16)).<\/p>\n

Next, Werstch sets out ten properties of mediated action. It is
\nespecially important to him that "analyses of action not be limited by the
\ndictates of methodological individualism<\/b>" (23). The analytical framework
\nfocuses on three central considerations: 1. agents and their cultural tools<\/b>,
\n2. mediated action or "agent-acting-with-mediational-means"<\/b>, and 3.
\nthe link between action and broader cultural, institutional, and historical
\ncontexts<\/b>. The ten basic claims or properties of mediated action (25):<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Mediated action is characterized by an irreducible tension between
    \n agent and mediational means<\/b> (25): agent is redefined. Ex. pole vaulting
    \n (27).
    \n Like Latour’s hybrid<\/i>, no?
    \n Also, Werstch introduced "semiotic mediation," like a multiplication problem.
    \n ^See problem below.<\/li>\n
  2. Mediational means are material<\/b> (30). Even when spoken (acoustic
    \n "sign vehicles"), mediational means are material.<\/li>\n
  3. Mediated action typically has multiple simultaneous goals<\/b> (32).<\/li>\n
  4. Mediated action is situated on one or more developmental paths<\/b>
    \n (34).<\/li>\n
  5. Mediational means constrain<\/b> as well as enable<\/b> action (38).<\/li>\n
  6. New<\/b> mediational means transform mediated action<\/b> (42).
    \n From Vygotsky: "by being included in the process of behavior, the
    \n psychological tool alters the flow and structure of mental functions" (43).<\/li>\n
  7. The relationship of agents toward mediational means can be characterized
    \n in terms of mastery<\/b> (46). W. prefers "mastery" and "knowing how" over
    \n "internalization." ^Consider this alongside Nardi and O’Day’s emphasis
    \n on both know-why and know-how (IE<\/i> 70).<\/li>\n
  8. The relationship of agents toward mediational means can be characterized
    \n in terms of appropriation<\/b> (53).<\/li>\n
  9. Mediational means are often produced for reasons other than to facilitate
    \n mediated action (58). Spin-offs.<\/li>\n
  10. Mediational means are associated with power<\/b> and authority<\/b>
    \n (64).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Werstch goes on to explore the function of narrative<\/b> as semiotic
    \nmediated action that represents the past (ch. 3) (W. is especially interested in
    \nturning this toward constructions of national history<\/b>). In chapter four,
    \nhe takes up mediated action that is more socially involved<\/b> (unlike pole
    \nvaulting, multiplication, and recounting past events). For this, he suggests the
    \nco-presence and co-evolution of intersubjectivity<\/b> (shared
    \nperspective) and alterity<\/b> (generative digression).<\/p>\n

    Finally, because Werstch expands mediated means to encompass language (like
    \nBruner’s "instruments of thought", the combination of tools and language) and
    \nalso contends that mediational means are always material. Because he also
    \ninvokes Gibson, this brings up a quandary rel. to affordances, which Gibson says
    \nmust be substantive. That is, how does language as a mediational means
    \nwork relative to the concepts of affordance and constraint? It’s not clear
    \nto me that language as a mediational means can yield affordances in quite the
    \nsame way Gibson sets it up.<\/p>\n

    Key terms: connectionist (8, 51), individual-society antimony (10), dramatism
    \n(12), circumferences (14), mediated action (17), ratio (17), mediational means
    \nand cultural tools (interchangeable) (17), appropriation (25, 53), anti-reductionistic
    \nstance (26), semiotic mediation (28), affordances (29), illusion of perspective
    \n(41), internalization (48), utterances (73), narrative (78), social
    \ninteractional and intermental (interchangeable) (109), individual and
    \nintramental (interchangeable) (109), intersubjectivity (111), alterity (111),
    \nreciprocal teaching (124), microdynamics (167).<\/p>\n

    "People often seem to think of the environment<\/b> as something to be
    \nacted upon<\/i><\/b>, not something to be interacted with<\/i><\/b>" (21).<\/p>\n

    "The major point to be made here is that mediated action can undergo a
    \nfundamental transformation with the introduction of new mediational means (in
    \nthis case the fiberglass pole)" (45).<\/p>\n

    "In contrast to the univocal function, which tends toward a single, shared,
    \nhomogenous perspective comprising intersubjectivity, the dialogic function<\/b>
    \ntends toward dynamism<\/b>, heterogeneity<\/b>, and conflict among voices<\/b>"
    \n(115).<\/p>\n

    "The general point to be made about intersubjectivity<\/b> and alterity<\/b>,
    \nthen, is not that communication is best understood in terms of one or the other
    \nin isolation. Instead, virtually every text is viewed as involving both<\/b>
    \nunivocal, information-transmission characteristics, and hence intersubjectivity,
    \nas well as dialogic, though-generating tendencies, and hence alterity" (117).<\/p>\n

    "In reciprocal teaching<\/b>, students as well as teachers take on the role
    \nof guiding other members of a group through the processes required to understand
    \ntexts (usually written texts)" (125).<\/p>\n

    "In the terminology of Burke’s pentad<\/b>, social reductionism amounts to
    \nfocusing exclusively on the scene<\/b> and failing to take the agent<\/b>
    \ninto account" (141). ^This is a reversal of the methodological trap concerning
    \nBronfenbrenner.<\/p>\n

    "So in the end, the discussion of the microdynamics of appropriation<\/b>
    \nin this case draws on at least three pentadic elements: agent<\/b>,
    \ninstrument<\/b> (i.e., cultural tools), and scene<\/b> (i.e., context)" (176).<\/p>\n

    "Methodological individualism<\/b> assumes that cultural, institutional,
    \nand historical settings can be explained by appealing to properties of
    \nindividuals, and social reductionism assumes that individuals can be understood
    \nonly by appealing to social fact" (179). <\/p>\n

    "Indeed, one of the reasons for choosing mediated action as a unit of
    \nanalysis is that it does not carve up phenomena into isolated disciplinary
    \nslices<\/b> that cannot be combined into a more comprehensive whole" (180).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u23f3 Approximate reading time: <\/span> 4<\/span> mins<\/span><\/span>Wertsch, James. Mind as Action. New York: Oxford, 1998.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[175],"tags":[699,1038,1381,394,772,1315,2006,1037,1382,1326,1383,1384,553,2010,1327,144,970,210,1385,1386,1131,1387,1362,1300],"class_list":["post-7056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-toolsinuse","tag-action","tag-affordance","tag-alterity","tag-bakhtin","tag-burke","tag-constraint","tag-cultural-tools","tag-gestalt","tag-intermental","tag-internalization","tag-intersubjectivity","tag-intramental","tag-language","tag-mediated-action","tag-mediation","tag-methods","tag-mind","tag-narrative","tag-pentad","tag-sociocultural","tag-tools","tag-utterances","tag-vygotsky","tag-zpd"],"yoast_head":"\nWertsch, Mind as Action - Earth Wide Moth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/10\/22\/wertsch-mind-as\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wertsch, Mind as Action - Earth Wide Moth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u23f3 Approximate reading time: 4 minsWertsch, James. 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Throughout most of the day on Saturday, I was thinking about matching select chapters from Heskett's Toothpicks & Logos (which is built into the question) with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Qualifying Exams"","block_context":{"text":"Qualifying Exams","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/category\/exammunition\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7057,"url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/10\/23\/heft-ecological\/","url_meta":{"origin":7056,"position":4},"title":"Heft, Ecological Psychology in Context","author":"Derek Mueller","date":"October 23, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Heft, Harry. Ecological Psychology in Context. Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum, 2001. Heft undertakes an ambitious project: to account broadly for the formation of ecological psychology as a viable and distinctive area of inquiry in the human sciences generally and in psychology more specifically. He reads the formation of ecological psychology through\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tools-in-use"","block_context":{"text":"Tools-in-use","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/category\/toolsinuse\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7052,"url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/10\/18\/bruner-beyond-t\/","url_meta":{"origin":7056,"position":5},"title":"Bruner, Beyond the Information Given","author":"Derek Mueller","date":"October 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Bruner, Jerome. Beyond the Information Given: Studies in the Psychology of Knowing. New York: Norton, 1973. Beyond the Information Given is an edited collection of Bruner's work. It compiles selected essays and addresses. For the purposes of the tools-in-use exam, I'm focusing on four chapters. Bruner sought to study childhood\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tools-in-use"","block_context":{"text":"Tools-in-use","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/category\/toolsinuse\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}