Chapter 2 - The Relational Habitus and Regulatory Processes

Summary

In Chapter 2, we offer a theoretical frame referred to as the relational habitus (RH), which can be used to conceptualize, observe, and document how meaning-making processes are co-constructed over interactional and historical time. The RH is an ecological ensemble of relations including self, tools, tasks, and others that is intersubjectively constructed and sustained over time in formal and informal learning communities. The RH helps explain how variances in the social organization of regulatory processes are related to the structure of activities in learning arenas, the interactional processes in activities, and movement in the social and psychological spaces of these arenas. The RH encompasses three interrelated aspects of intersubjectivity: (1) an orientation to others in cultural contexts, (2) mutual perspective-taking accomplished through communication, and (3) perspective-making during learning. These aspects explain how regulatory processes emerge from and change through meaning-making by the agential actions of individuals and the situational structuring of these actions.