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Chapter 3 - The Tasks of Reality and Reality As the Task

Connecting Cultural-Historical Activity Theory with the Radical Scholarship of Resistance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2023

By
Anna Stetsenko
Edited by
Nick Hopwood  and
Annalisa Sannino
Nick Hopwood
Affiliation:
University of Technology, Sydney
Annalisa Sannino
Affiliation:
Tampere University, Finland
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Summary

This chapter’s overall argument is that to advance cultural-historical activity theory, at this time of a severe sociopolitical and ecological crisis, it is imperative to amplify connections to the radical scholarships of resistance immersed in social justice struggles. I address how Marxism and Vygotsky’s approach directly align with this scholarship, on an array of positions, in contrast to approaches that do not prioritize such struggles. Using the transformative-activist stance (Stetsenko, 2017a) - premised on Marxist/Vygotskyan foundations, inclusive of a unified ethico-ontoepistemology - and while connecting to contemporary scholarship of resistance, I further the notion of agency in several steps (relevant also to motives). The core argument posits agency at the nexus of a seamless, ever-evolving/moving process of a mutual self-and-world co-realization, while problematizing reality as a task and gearing agency to the tasks of resistance. Additionally, the chapter sets the stage to interrogate charges of eurocentrism and anthropocentrism in Marx and Vygotsky.

Keywords

transformative-activist stanceethico-ontoepistemologyself-and-world co-realizationcollectividualradical-transformative agencynexuseurocentrism
Type
Chapter
Information
Agency and Transformation
Motives, Mediation, and Motion
 , pp. 56 - 83
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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