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ERIC Number: EJ1262780
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0158-037X
EISSN: N/A
Dialectical Materialist Methodology for a Mind-in-Activity Approach to Work, Learning and Political Economic Consciousness
Sawchuk, Peter H.
Studies in Continuing Education, v42 n2 p148-162 2020
In this theoretical review article I discuss the relationship of dialectic materialism, Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and analyses of work, learning and political economic consciousness. The purpose is to help researchers reflect on how they might be more effective in their analytic work. Specifically, its goal is to help expand the comprehensiveness and recognition of the dynamism of phenomena of work and learning, and to support the claim of political economic consciousness as inherent to them. To do this I introduce and describe the purposes and meaning of dialectical materialist methodology. I then discuss practical procedures ('intentional dialectics': Ollman [(1993). "Dialectical Investigations." New York: Routledge] and the ordering of these procedures ('systematic-categorial dialectics': Smith [(1993) "Dialectical Social Theory and its Critics: From Hegel to Analytical Marxism and Postmodernism." Albany, NY: SUNY Press] in the treatment of empirical research on work and learning. Framing those discussions is a rationale for a robust appreciation of variation, heterogeneity and particularities in dialectical analysis of emergent work and learning dynamics which draws on what Adorno [(1973/2003). "Negative Dialectics." London: Routledge] refers to as 'negative dialectics'. No matter how effectively grasped, however, I maintain that dialectical materialist methodology requires suitable, substantive theory -- or rather an intermediate science -- such as CHAT in order to realise its full value in analyses of work, learning and political economic consciousness.
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A