A short note about the concept of "Activity Analysis" and the new logo of Activity Analysis Center

On November 22, 2024, I shared the basic model of Project-oriented Activity Theory with a friend. Later, I realized a spatial mapping exists between this model and the Activity Analysis & Intervention (AAI) Program.

The Basic Model of Project-oriented Activity Theory (2021)

In 2021, I wrote a book draft titled Project-oriented Activity Theory, introducing Andy Blunden's notion of "Activity as Formation of Concept" and "Project as Unit of Analysis of Activity." This led to the development of the Project Engagement toolkit.

The book also offers the basic model below to integrate two theoretical approaches from Activity Theory.

• The Activity System Model (Yrjö Engeström, 1987)
• Activity as Formation of Concept (Andy Blunden, 2010, 2012, 2014)

Engeström's model is ideal for analyzing traditional work projects, while Blunden's approach considers collaborative projects as the foundation of social movements and cultural innovation.

By curating these two approaches, the toolkit offers a cross-boundary solution, balancing individual and collective impact. This framework innovatively connects personal life themes and cultural themes, fostering a sustainable society.

More details can be found in the Project Engagement Toolkit.

The Activity Analysis & Intervention (AAI) Project (2023)

In 2023, I launched the Activity Analysis & Intervention (AAI) program for professional consultants interested in leveraging Activity-centered theoretical knowledge for consulting. The program considers three types of roles:

• Clients
• Consultants
• Coaches

The program includes two types of analysis:

• First-order Analysis
• Second-order Analysis

First-order Analysis: The Client-Consultant Circle

First-order Analysis uses Activity-centered knowledge to address clients' situational challenges and discover new opportunities.

Second-order Analysis: The Consultant-Coach Circle

This analysis focuses on enhancing consultants' personal knowledge through Activity-centered theoretical knowledge.

Spatial Mapping

The spatial mapping between the above two models features two layers:

• Lower layer: Activity
• Higher layer: Knowledge

This an amazing experience!

I had a similar experience on Dec 11, 2023 when I captured a significant insight below:

There is a Spatial Mapping between the Developmental Project Model and the Creative Life Curation Framework.

The insight led to a new framework!

More details can be found in Situational Note-taking: The Serendipity of Making A New Framework.

The new spatial mapping inspired me to reflect on the development of the concept of "Activity Analysis."

The Meaning of "Activity Analysis"

On October 11, 2023, I discussed the new meaning of "Activity Analysis" in Value Circle #4: From “ARCH” to “Activity Circle.”

Before launching the Activity Analysis & Intervention (AAI) Project (2023), I didn’t use the term “Activity Analysis” as a unique theoretical concept, but as a name for the knowledge center about Activity Theory and related theoretical approaches.

The Activity Analysis website is an upgraded version of the Activity U project which is a knowledge curation project of CALL.

The name of the website is inspired by two books. The word “Activity” is adopted from Perspectives on Activity Theory while the word “Analysis” is inspired by Frame Analysis.

• Activity: looking at human activities and social practices.
• Analysis: linking theory and social research.

The website is designed for people who want to conduct studies of human activities and reflect on their own daily life world with theoretical perspectives.

The idea of “First-order Analysis / Second-order Analysis” transformed the term “Activity Analysis” from a regular name into a theoretical concept.

On that day, I also considered using the theoretical concept of “Activity Analysis” to develop a new method.

What might this new method of “Activity Analysis” look like?

I drew inspiration from Eric Berne’s Transactional Analysis. Berne developed Transactional Analysis as a psychoanalytic theory and a therapeutic method. It involves analyzing social interactions (or “transactions”) to identify the ego state of the communicator (whether parent-like, childlike, or adult-like) as a basis for understanding behavior.

For me, the new method of “Activity Analysis” means a new approach to developing a person’s Tacit Knowledge such as Self, Mind, Life, and Mindset, by systematically analyzing their Activities.

Traditionally, Activity Theory has focused on understanding human activity and social practices, with less emphasis on individual adult development as a primary theoretical interest. By hosting the AAI program, the Activity Analysis Center creates a new avenue in the field of Activity Theory.

The AAI program also opens a new door to other knowledge centers dedicated to adult developmental processes. For example, Creative Life Theory, hosted by CALL (Creative Action Learning Lab), and Curativity Theory, provide valuable frameworks. These can be particularly useful when applied to Second-order Analysis within the AAI project.

This is the new mission of the Activity Analysis Center.

It just returns to the notion of “Life-as-Activity” I developed in 2020.

2020: Life as Activity

On November 29, 2020, I developed the Life-as-Activity framework (v0.3) and wrote a long article.

Do you notice the title of the picture above?

I added “Second-order Observation” as the title of the picture.

Theme, Concept, and Knowledge

The spatial mapping above refers to my notion of "the hierarchy of human activity and social practice" which I developed in September 2020.

Human activity and social practice are extraordinarily complex; this hierarchy is a great thinking tool for understanding them. In Activity U (VI): The Hierarchy of Human Activity and Social Practice, I curated various perspectives on the hierarchy of activity and practice, which I have summarized in the following table. You can also view the original file on Google Sheets.

Drawing on perspectives from activity theorists and other researchers, I identified eight levels within the hierarchy of activity and practice. The six middle levels are adopted from activity theorists, the top level from anthropologist Morris Opler (1945), and the low level from ecological psychologist James J. Gibson (1979).

I further categorize these eight levels into three types: logical level, actual level, and possible level. The term logical level can be understood as ideal level. I don’t have perfect terms to name these types. I think both “theme,” “activity network,” and “activity (or activity system),” are required primarily for analytical purposes. The Actual level refers to activity theorists' "units of analysis," such as "Function Block," "Operations," "Actions," and "Project."

A new animal within the list is “affordance” which refers to the possible level.

Notably, Level 7 ("Theme") represents an abstract level higher than the Activity. This level also encompasses Concepts and Knowledge.

I have applied this notion to many knowledge frameworks over the past several years.

For instance, I developed the World of Activity model in November 2022. See the diagram below.

The diagram highlights four keywords: Birth, Death, Heaven, and Earth.

• The Horizontal group represents the "Activity" of Life, referring to the situations of activity related to engagement.
• The Vertical group represents the "Theory" of Life, referring to the degrees of abstraction related to knowledge.

If we put them together, we get the following formula.

The World of Activity = The "Activity" of Life + The "Theory" of Life = "Activity Theory"

In this formula, the term "Theory" is interpreted as "Knowledge."

In November 2023, I developed four types of knowledge based on the Self-referential Activity model.

Self-referential Activity refers to a unique type of activity that supports self-reference development. Traditional Activity Theory only considers three components — Subject, Mediating, and Object — as its foundational model. I introduced a fourth component, Transforming, to represent the self-referential connection.

You can find more details in Self-referential Activity.

In November 2023, I also coined the term mental platform to develop a model about concept systems. Building on the Self-referential Activity model, I created a new framework called Self-referential Strategy to guide the development of mental platforms. See the diagram below.

The diagram identifies four types of personal knowledge.

• S-knowledge
• O-knowledge
• M-knowledge
• T-knowledge

S-knowledge referss to knowledge for self-awareness, self-improvement, self-regulation, life discovery, life strategy, etc. In the current context, it refers to Managing a Knowledge Project of Developing A Concept System.

O-knowledge refers to knowledge about the object of the work. For example, if the work involves building a house, O-knowledge includes understanding the process of building a house. Here, it specifically refers to understanding a Concept System.

M-knowledge refers to knowledge about using tools and methods. For instance, the skills needed to use tools for building a house. In this discussion, it means using specific tools and methods to understand a concept system.

T-knowledge refers to knowledge about transforming O-knowledge into S-knowledge. A critical aspect T-knowledge is the mindset of switching between Means and End.

More details can be found in Self-referential Strategy for Developing Mental Platform.

From December 2023 to January 2024, I developed the Ecological Formism Framework, which uses a 4*6 matrix to explore the complexity between Knowledge and Activity.

In this model, "Knowledge" is divided into four layers: Concept, Framework, Diagram, and Thematic Space.

More details can be found in Diagram Explained: Activity, Knowledge, and Moving on Diagrams.

A New Logo for Activity Analysis Center

The reflection above inspired me to design a new logo for the Activity Analysis Center.

The old logo, designed in 2022, featured a red circle symbolizing a meaningful whole: Activity.

The new logo draws inspiration from the AAI diagram and incorporates double circles: a red circle to represent Activity and a blue circle to represent Knowledge.

This updated logo conveys an essential message: the Activity Analysis Center is not only about Activity Theory but also about the Knowledge behind Activity. This represents the core meaning of the concept of "Activity Analysis."