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- Vol 4 RE: App D
concept formationcomplex activity systemstheoretical conceptsdouble stimulationtransformative agencyconceptual developmentJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Engeström proposes a research agenda for studying concept formation outside laboratories and formal lessons, where communities create culturally new concepts while confronting persistent practical problems. Drawing on cultural-historical activity theory and dialectical accounts of concept development, he advances five guiding ideas.
Key ideas
Concepts form within historically evolving collective activity systems; different kinds of concepts must be distinguished; theoretical concepts develop by ascending from an abstract germ cell toward a concrete system; concepts in practice are polyvalent, contested, and dynamic; and concept formation is intertwined with transformative agency generated through double stimulation. Concepts are therefore not merely static labels acquired by individuals. They can become future-oriented instruments that reorganise a shared activity, its relationships, and its possibilities for action. Research should follow concepts longitudinally across discourse, material tools, social relations, and organisational boundaries.
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For education, the agenda connects classroom learning with wider productive activities and asks how learners participate in creating concepts capable of transforming the situations they address.
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Edition abbreviations
- TE
- Teacher Edition
- PE
- Practice Edition
- RE
- Research Edition
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