This contribution discusses competencies needed for regulating systems with properties of multi-c... more This contribution discusses competencies needed for regulating systems with properties of multi-causality and nonlinear dynamics (therapeutic, economical, organizational, socio-political, technical, ecological, etc.). Various research communities have contributed insights, but none has come forward with an inclusive framework. To advance the debate, I propose to draw from dynamic systems theory (DST) and "4E" (embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended), cognition approaches, which offer a set of perspectives to understand what expert regulators in real-life settings do. They define the regulator's agency as skillfully imposing constraints on a target system and hereby creating context-sensitive openings for self-organizing dynamics, rather than "controlling" the system. Adept regulators apply multi-pronged and multitimescale constraints to achieve nuanced effects. Among other things, their skill set includes scarcely noted enactive processual competencies for "emergence management", which the intellectualistic and insufficiently ecologically situated accounts of the complex problem solving literature omit. To capture the nature of system regulation I advocate treating regulation dynamics and target system dynamics "symmetrically" by grounding regulator competencies in concepts from complexity theory.
Somatic practices frequently use imagery, typically via verbal instructions, to scaffold sensorim... more Somatic practices frequently use imagery, typically via verbal instructions, to scaffold sensorimotor organization and experience, a phenomenon we term "introjection". We argue that introjection is an imagery practice in which sensorimotor and conceptual aspects are co-orchestrated, suggesting the necessity of crosstalk between somatics, phenomenology, psychology, embodied-enactive cognition, and linguistic research on embodied simulation. We presently focus on the scarcely addressed details of the process necessary to enact instructions of a literal or metaphoric nature through the body. Based on vignettes from dance, Feldenkrais, and Taichi practice, we describe introjection as a complex form of processual sense-making, in which context-interpretive, mental, attentional and physical sub-processes recursively braid. Our analysis focuses on how mental and body-related processes progressively align, inform and augment each other. This dialectic requires emphasis on the active body, which implies that uni-directional models (concept 0 body) are inadequate and should be replaced by interactionist alternatives (concept 5 body). Furthermore, we emphasize that both the source image itself and the body are specifically conceptualized for the context through constructive operations, and both evolve through their interplay. At this level introjection employs representational operations that are embedded in enactive dynamics of a fully situated person.
My present reflections will center on a point the authors present as an afterthought, but that se... more My present reflections will center on a point the authors present as an afterthought, but that seems pivotal: mathematical knowledge is not comprised of perception–action loops alone. Instead, “guided coordination of sensorimotor and semiotic activity” is held to be essential. Shvarts and Abrahamson do not elaborate on how this happens. My aim is to sketch what an account giving equal weight to semiotic and embodied facets might look like, and to clarify why paying attention to the details of their interplay is crucial for evaluating ontological claims such as the monist position defended by the authors. I will presently address four questions: (a) why failing to tackle the semiotic pole explicitly is a risky methodological choice, (b) what literature we can draw on to address the embodied–semiotic relationship, (c) what empirical criteria ontological claims might hinge on, and (d) why a dialectic (and non-dualist) approach offers a credible alternative to monism.
Scholars are increasingly recognizing that creativity is grounded in the active sensorimotor enga... more Scholars are increasingly recognizing that creativity is grounded in the active sensorimotor engagement with the environment and materiality. Affordances – recognizable pointers to action opportunities in the ecology – provide a helpful prism for analyzing how this happens. Creative practitioners, as they seek aesthetic opportunities or innovation, depend on their sensitivity towards potentialities in their action space. Presently, we apply a high-zoom lens to a crafts process, giving our micro-genetic research design an affordance focus. By investigating one of the authors, a ceramicist and a practitioner-researcher, through her process of making of a vase, we tracked how affordances are responded to, developed, shaped, invited or, where necessary, rejected, as the ceramicist “routes” her creative trajectory. Several insights emerge: (1) The ceramicist’s decisions – initially about general directions, then about aesthetic details – unfold while engaging with the clay; they emerge in stepwise fashion, but with a holistic orientation. (2) Choosing among affordances requires parallel sensitivities to object functionality, aesthetics and creativity, as well as technical feasibility; adhering to the proper technical procedure that provides the very basis for creatively relevant affordances to later arise. (3) While the hands and eyes engage with short-lived affordances the ceramicist must keep in view higher-timescale affordances that ensure a good task progression for making a vase, and affordances for the material’s overall “workability”. (4) The ceramicist typically relates to momentary affordances in light of expected as well as imagined others, to ensure a coherent end product. (5) Affordances contribute to material creativity in more ways than typically recognized in the literature. They range from serendipitous “finds” to options developed with a large degree of creative autonomy; affordances may also be indirectly invited and practitioners strategically change probability distributions as well as providing an enabling background for generative action. Thus, a crafts practitioner brings forth unconventional affordances through active engagement, using a mix of exploration, strategy, and imaginative potential. Affordance theorists err when stressing the possibility to just “find” creative options or that perceptual acuity is the sole skill.
An affordance perspective highlights how resourceful the ecology is for creative actions of all s... more An affordance perspective highlights how resourceful the ecology is for creative actions of all sorts; it captures how creativity is grounded in materiality. In contrast to "canonical affordances" (i.e., "ready-to-hand," mundane instances), creative affordances point to unconventional or surprising action opportunities that are nonetheless valued. Our initial aim is to discuss how to frame the affordance concept to make it attractive for the study of creativity. We propose a dialectic position that reconciles aspects of the realism of ecological psychology with the constructivist view more typical of creativity scholars. We stress that novel options frequently depend on constructive actions; novelty cannot always simply be "found" or just waits to be used. Many creative opportunities only emerge from how person actively engages with the ecology. Our second aim is to explore specific ways that creativity is mediated through affordances, based on illustrations from crafts and dance. These suggest that affordances span various timescales and mediate in multiple ways, from noticing existing potentials, via active affordance shaping, to background activities that indirectly invite or enable novelty. In conclusion we discuss how a person's creative "vision," imagination and combinatoric ability, all fundamental creativity mechanisms, relate to affordances and how fruitful creative directions may be perceptually hinted at.
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 2022
As scholars have recently emphasized, creativity is not restricted to the individual mind; it can... more As scholars have recently emphasized, creativity is not restricted to the individual mind; it can happen in and through interaction. To evaluate the legitimacy of claims about "distributed creativity," we propose a compare-and-contrast approach to Argentine tango. Tango is an improvisational leader-follower dance of a formally constrained kind, yet one that also allows for a range of modes of being creative together in real-time interaction. Six dance couples were filmed while improvising and subsequently interviewed. Based on video vignettes of a few seconds duration, we microgenetically reconstructed the embodied "give-and-take" between partners, from which creative trajectories emerge. The spectrum of cocreative modalities ranges from creativity realized in interaction, but bearing some mark of the individual, to creativity, in which the interaction itself becomes an operative mechanism. Cocreation can happen in forms guided by a single person, yet jointly executed ("leader creativity"), in subordinate spaces that provide for some individual creative autonomy within a collective dynamic, in parallel or additive creative interaction forms, but also in genuinely multiplicative forms in which self-organizing interaction dynamics become a powerful causal factor that leverages creativity. To accommodate these various modalities, we argue for a dynamic-systemic account, which looks at interdependencies between micro-and macrolevels. Our framework recognizes different degrees of creative autonomy within interaction; it hereby avoids a dichotomy between individualistic accounts and interactionism with a purely collective-level focus.
The following paper is a summery of the final report of a research project on the European Public... more The following paper is a summery of the final report of a research project on the European Public Sphere. The project analyzed debates on the adoption of the European Constitution. One of the main research questions was: How do these debates contribute to the emergence of a European public sphere and thereby to the development of a European democracy? This question was addressed by analyzing media coverage of the adoption process and, especially, of the referenda on the European Constitution. The empirical analysis is based on the theory of radical democracy; thus the project also aims at bridging the gap between normative-theoretical considerations on the European public sphere and empirical work on this theme. understood as confined to discourses within and between political parties that can be observed by citizens but not directly influenced. Radical democracy (that is the normative outset of this paper) can be seen as directly opposed to this minimal concept of the democratic public sphere by understanding agonistic discourse as the core of democracy. While for elite democracy and understandings derived from this concept, the public sphere is mainly a form of control of government, in a more ambitious understanding of democracy power and, thus, government, has to be developed out of the public sphere. Therefore, radical concepts of democracy focus on critical, oppositional public spheres rather than on dominant public opinion. ________________________ The Referenda on the European Constitution: A Crucial Moment for the Development of a European Public Sphere? ________________________ Working Paper Nr. 24 | Page 3 of 27 Requirements for the contents of a democratic public sphere depend above all on the understanding of man and society by a political theory. Here, one can, e.g., name, on the one hand, the theory of deliberative democracy based upon the thought of Juergen Habermas (1989, 1996, 1998) that sees rational consensus as the ultimate goal of debates on the political. On the other hand, radical democracy understands the political 1 precisely as agonistic struggle that cannot be finally solved by a rational consensus. Obviously, this does not mean that no decision is made but that no decision can ever be ultimately legitimated. Therefore, every decision will lead, in due time, to new hegemonic struggles against its result. Conceptualisations of the public sphere differ in understanding this term as either singular or plural. This differentiation applies both to empirical assessments and theoretical-normative requirements. The term "public sphere" is frequently associated with the image of the Athenian agora where citizens gather in order to discuss their common concerns. While it is obvious that this picture is inadequate to modern mass states it is still (usually silently) assumed that a unified public sphere exists within nation states. This unified public sphere does not consist of real debates between all citizens but mediated exchanges of opinion via media and elite discourses are meant to derive from "public opinion" in the sense of shared norms and interests and, thus, to represent them. This understanding of the public sphere is based on an understanding of the people as a unified entity, the demos has to be a unity in order to be the sovereign of democracy. If citizens do not identify with their fellow-citizens as well as with their polity they will not be prepared to accept political decisions that go against their personal interests. In a non-essentialist understanding of political identity, the public sphere plays a crucial role in constructing such an identity. This assessment of the eminent impact of a public sphere is shared both by modernist authors like Juergen Habermas and post-modern authors like Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. 1.2 Why a European Public Sphere? The European Union has been founded as an economic projector , to put it more concretely, a project to reach political aims, namely the prevention of National Socialism and war, by economic means. But economy and politics are closely linked and economic harmonisation led (intentionally or not) to the ever closer Union taking over many competences of the Member States without having decision mechanisms similar to the ones on the national level. Due to this development, the "democratic deficit" of the EU became a key-term of literature on the European polity. Brought up by the European Parliament during the 80s (Zweifel 2002, 812) it has found its way into a significant part of political and scholarly analyses of the EU. Debates on the democratic deficit of the EU started with a critique of the institutional framework of the EU and its representative quality
A roadmap to qualitative research Synergy in Greek means 'working together'. We often use the not... more A roadmap to qualitative research Synergy in Greek means 'working together'. We often use the notion colloquially, but in the movement sciences it carries a technical meaning about coordination patterns: It implies a study of how elements in a movement or interaction system are temporarily coordinated for specific tasks (Latash 2008; Turvey 2007). Synergy scholars generally assume that behaviour emerges from a (non-hardwired and variable) interplay of elements, which are dynamically assembled to fit the task and the context. This implies an interdependent control of parts within wholes. Since the synergy concept is essentially 'scale-free', these parts can be neurons, muscle fibres, limbs, but also several individuals, depending on the research focus. This contribution proposes a qualitative inquiry into synergies that are created in interaction, i.e. where two individuals provide dynamic ecologies for each other. At this level we investigate how multiple bodies can coordinate 'as if they were one' as they accomplish particular actions together. The phenomenon is familiar enough. We routinely create interpersonal synergies as we engage in conversations, carry objects
In 2005, referenda about the EU’s constitutional treaty were held in several European countries, ... more In 2005, referenda about the EU’s constitutional treaty were held in several European countries, which resulted in a No vote in France and the Netherlands and which left the European polity both devastated and clueless. The present essay describes metaphors in British journalism beginning with the year before the referenda and ending a few months after them. In 675 examined newspaper articles from the Sun and the Guardian, mostly commentaries, diverse conceptual patterns are found that belong to five major headings (= metaphoric target domains): the EU as political entity, the EU constitutional treaty, the process of EU integration, the impact of the No votes on the European polity, and proor anti-constitution campaigning prior to the referenda. A software-assisted and full-scale survey of metaphors is undertaken to identify recurrent conceptual metaphor patterns. This is followed by a theoretical analysis that aims to exemplify how cross-buttressing tendencies in the metaphor field...
We introduce this special issue on ”Meaning making: Enactive, participatory, interactive, symboli... more We introduce this special issue on ”Meaning making: Enactive, participatory, interactive, symbolic” by first pointing out where cognitive-semiotic and ecological approaches agree: meaning is to be construed as a dynamic, multiscalar phenomenon. We then review the six papers in relation to one another, revealing both overlaps and sites of possible tension. We view these tensions as foci for further development of cognitive semiotics in its aim to be a truly transdisciplinary science of meaning.
This chapter discusses cognitive, sensorimotor, and interactional prerequisites for improvising t... more This chapter discusses cognitive, sensorimotor, and interactional prerequisites for improvising together in tango argentino. Tango is a highly structured and precise skill where the demands of interaction and expressiveness converge: improvisational choice, the leader’s selection from a knowledge base, is concurrently constrained by the interplay of sensorimotor and coordinative skills. Tango creativity is primarily combinatory; it creates serial structures within a matrix of decision points and traversable linkages. For breaking down what it takes to improvise together, three resources may be discussed. Two among these designate basic skills that are unspecific to improvisation (and thus equally needed when dancing tango choreographies), whereas the third kind of resource supplies improvisation- and creativity specific cognitive bases: (1) Individually, dancers ensure postural and configurational well-formedness, dynamic stability, action-readiness, and receptivity. (2) Interperson...
This paper explores conceptual tools whereby narratively competent adults conceptualize the struc... more This paper explores conceptual tools whereby narratively competent adults conceptualize the structure of literary events, as opposed to their scene content. My focus lies on how narrativity as a mode of thought is constituted through metanarrative discourse and what role embodied representations play in it. This global level of story cognition takes the form of conceptual metaphors such as TIME IS A PATH, CAUSALITY IS FORCE, or THEMATIC REALMS ARE SPACES/PLANES. Two kinds of evidence for this claim are combined: (a) linguistic metaphors for story gist, and, more extensively, (b) metaphorical gestures that accompany story summarization and commentary. Based on footage in which German literary critics discuss books, my specific task is to identify the various dimensions of story logic that gestures refer to. Overall, the data suggests that narrative form is systematically rooted in spatial logic and that dedicated structural devices dynamically co-evolve with the retelling of content....
Using a video-supported cognitive ethnographic and phenomenological approach, we address the inte... more Using a video-supported cognitive ethnographic and phenomenological approach, we address the interactively generated dynamic of bouts in Aikido. This "soft" martial art enables a defender to blend with and then redirect an attacker's aggressive energy so as to break his balance, while preserving an ethos of non-violence, mutuality, and respect. Our analysis explores the skills used to minutely adapt to the opponent, the causal-temporal structure of Aikido, notably the cumulative effect build-up and main decision points in a bout, as well as the perceptual cues from inter-body geometry, timing, and force dynamics that inform decisions. We then contrast different interaction scenarios by focusing on micro-events that shape defensive preferences. For a successful defense, technical modulations or even the preferred technique itself can be selected as the interaction unfolds ("decision-making-in-action"). For a closer look, we analyze the interplay of multiple parameters: flexibility of intention (i.e. early deciding vs. keeping options openlonger), technique (i.e. type of lever or throw), initial body symmetry, step combinations, spacing and timing relative to the attacker, degree of force, as well as possible skill differentials. We describe complex interdependencies between these parameters, which can be balanced in various ways as agents respond to the interaction dynamic.
This contribution discusses competencies needed for regulating systems with properties of multi-c... more This contribution discusses competencies needed for regulating systems with properties of multi-causality and nonlinear dynamics (therapeutic, economical, organizational, socio-political, technical, ecological, etc.). Various research communities have contributed insights, but none has come forward with an inclusive framework. To advance the debate, I propose to draw from dynamic systems theory (DST) and "4E" (embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended), cognition approaches, which offer a set of perspectives to understand what expert regulators in real-life settings do. They define the regulator's agency as skillfully imposing constraints on a target system and hereby creating context-sensitive openings for self-organizing dynamics, rather than "controlling" the system. Adept regulators apply multi-pronged and multitimescale constraints to achieve nuanced effects. Among other things, their skill set includes scarcely noted enactive processual competencies for "emergence management", which the intellectualistic and insufficiently ecologically situated accounts of the complex problem solving literature omit. To capture the nature of system regulation I advocate treating regulation dynamics and target system dynamics "symmetrically" by grounding regulator competencies in concepts from complexity theory.
Somatic practices frequently use imagery, typically via verbal instructions, to scaffold sensorim... more Somatic practices frequently use imagery, typically via verbal instructions, to scaffold sensorimotor organization and experience, a phenomenon we term "introjection". We argue that introjection is an imagery practice in which sensorimotor and conceptual aspects are co-orchestrated, suggesting the necessity of crosstalk between somatics, phenomenology, psychology, embodied-enactive cognition, and linguistic research on embodied simulation. We presently focus on the scarcely addressed details of the process necessary to enact instructions of a literal or metaphoric nature through the body. Based on vignettes from dance, Feldenkrais, and Taichi practice, we describe introjection as a complex form of processual sense-making, in which context-interpretive, mental, attentional and physical sub-processes recursively braid. Our analysis focuses on how mental and body-related processes progressively align, inform and augment each other. This dialectic requires emphasis on the active body, which implies that uni-directional models (concept 0 body) are inadequate and should be replaced by interactionist alternatives (concept 5 body). Furthermore, we emphasize that both the source image itself and the body are specifically conceptualized for the context through constructive operations, and both evolve through their interplay. At this level introjection employs representational operations that are embedded in enactive dynamics of a fully situated person.
My present reflections will center on a point the authors present as an afterthought, but that se... more My present reflections will center on a point the authors present as an afterthought, but that seems pivotal: mathematical knowledge is not comprised of perception–action loops alone. Instead, “guided coordination of sensorimotor and semiotic activity” is held to be essential. Shvarts and Abrahamson do not elaborate on how this happens. My aim is to sketch what an account giving equal weight to semiotic and embodied facets might look like, and to clarify why paying attention to the details of their interplay is crucial for evaluating ontological claims such as the monist position defended by the authors. I will presently address four questions: (a) why failing to tackle the semiotic pole explicitly is a risky methodological choice, (b) what literature we can draw on to address the embodied–semiotic relationship, (c) what empirical criteria ontological claims might hinge on, and (d) why a dialectic (and non-dualist) approach offers a credible alternative to monism.
Scholars are increasingly recognizing that creativity is grounded in the active sensorimotor enga... more Scholars are increasingly recognizing that creativity is grounded in the active sensorimotor engagement with the environment and materiality. Affordances – recognizable pointers to action opportunities in the ecology – provide a helpful prism for analyzing how this happens. Creative practitioners, as they seek aesthetic opportunities or innovation, depend on their sensitivity towards potentialities in their action space. Presently, we apply a high-zoom lens to a crafts process, giving our micro-genetic research design an affordance focus. By investigating one of the authors, a ceramicist and a practitioner-researcher, through her process of making of a vase, we tracked how affordances are responded to, developed, shaped, invited or, where necessary, rejected, as the ceramicist “routes” her creative trajectory. Several insights emerge: (1) The ceramicist’s decisions – initially about general directions, then about aesthetic details – unfold while engaging with the clay; they emerge in stepwise fashion, but with a holistic orientation. (2) Choosing among affordances requires parallel sensitivities to object functionality, aesthetics and creativity, as well as technical feasibility; adhering to the proper technical procedure that provides the very basis for creatively relevant affordances to later arise. (3) While the hands and eyes engage with short-lived affordances the ceramicist must keep in view higher-timescale affordances that ensure a good task progression for making a vase, and affordances for the material’s overall “workability”. (4) The ceramicist typically relates to momentary affordances in light of expected as well as imagined others, to ensure a coherent end product. (5) Affordances contribute to material creativity in more ways than typically recognized in the literature. They range from serendipitous “finds” to options developed with a large degree of creative autonomy; affordances may also be indirectly invited and practitioners strategically change probability distributions as well as providing an enabling background for generative action. Thus, a crafts practitioner brings forth unconventional affordances through active engagement, using a mix of exploration, strategy, and imaginative potential. Affordance theorists err when stressing the possibility to just “find” creative options or that perceptual acuity is the sole skill.
An affordance perspective highlights how resourceful the ecology is for creative actions of all s... more An affordance perspective highlights how resourceful the ecology is for creative actions of all sorts; it captures how creativity is grounded in materiality. In contrast to "canonical affordances" (i.e., "ready-to-hand," mundane instances), creative affordances point to unconventional or surprising action opportunities that are nonetheless valued. Our initial aim is to discuss how to frame the affordance concept to make it attractive for the study of creativity. We propose a dialectic position that reconciles aspects of the realism of ecological psychology with the constructivist view more typical of creativity scholars. We stress that novel options frequently depend on constructive actions; novelty cannot always simply be "found" or just waits to be used. Many creative opportunities only emerge from how person actively engages with the ecology. Our second aim is to explore specific ways that creativity is mediated through affordances, based on illustrations from crafts and dance. These suggest that affordances span various timescales and mediate in multiple ways, from noticing existing potentials, via active affordance shaping, to background activities that indirectly invite or enable novelty. In conclusion we discuss how a person's creative "vision," imagination and combinatoric ability, all fundamental creativity mechanisms, relate to affordances and how fruitful creative directions may be perceptually hinted at.
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 2022
As scholars have recently emphasized, creativity is not restricted to the individual mind; it can... more As scholars have recently emphasized, creativity is not restricted to the individual mind; it can happen in and through interaction. To evaluate the legitimacy of claims about "distributed creativity," we propose a compare-and-contrast approach to Argentine tango. Tango is an improvisational leader-follower dance of a formally constrained kind, yet one that also allows for a range of modes of being creative together in real-time interaction. Six dance couples were filmed while improvising and subsequently interviewed. Based on video vignettes of a few seconds duration, we microgenetically reconstructed the embodied "give-and-take" between partners, from which creative trajectories emerge. The spectrum of cocreative modalities ranges from creativity realized in interaction, but bearing some mark of the individual, to creativity, in which the interaction itself becomes an operative mechanism. Cocreation can happen in forms guided by a single person, yet jointly executed ("leader creativity"), in subordinate spaces that provide for some individual creative autonomy within a collective dynamic, in parallel or additive creative interaction forms, but also in genuinely multiplicative forms in which self-organizing interaction dynamics become a powerful causal factor that leverages creativity. To accommodate these various modalities, we argue for a dynamic-systemic account, which looks at interdependencies between micro-and macrolevels. Our framework recognizes different degrees of creative autonomy within interaction; it hereby avoids a dichotomy between individualistic accounts and interactionism with a purely collective-level focus.
The following paper is a summery of the final report of a research project on the European Public... more The following paper is a summery of the final report of a research project on the European Public Sphere. The project analyzed debates on the adoption of the European Constitution. One of the main research questions was: How do these debates contribute to the emergence of a European public sphere and thereby to the development of a European democracy? This question was addressed by analyzing media coverage of the adoption process and, especially, of the referenda on the European Constitution. The empirical analysis is based on the theory of radical democracy; thus the project also aims at bridging the gap between normative-theoretical considerations on the European public sphere and empirical work on this theme. understood as confined to discourses within and between political parties that can be observed by citizens but not directly influenced. Radical democracy (that is the normative outset of this paper) can be seen as directly opposed to this minimal concept of the democratic public sphere by understanding agonistic discourse as the core of democracy. While for elite democracy and understandings derived from this concept, the public sphere is mainly a form of control of government, in a more ambitious understanding of democracy power and, thus, government, has to be developed out of the public sphere. Therefore, radical concepts of democracy focus on critical, oppositional public spheres rather than on dominant public opinion. ________________________ The Referenda on the European Constitution: A Crucial Moment for the Development of a European Public Sphere? ________________________ Working Paper Nr. 24 | Page 3 of 27 Requirements for the contents of a democratic public sphere depend above all on the understanding of man and society by a political theory. Here, one can, e.g., name, on the one hand, the theory of deliberative democracy based upon the thought of Juergen Habermas (1989, 1996, 1998) that sees rational consensus as the ultimate goal of debates on the political. On the other hand, radical democracy understands the political 1 precisely as agonistic struggle that cannot be finally solved by a rational consensus. Obviously, this does not mean that no decision is made but that no decision can ever be ultimately legitimated. Therefore, every decision will lead, in due time, to new hegemonic struggles against its result. Conceptualisations of the public sphere differ in understanding this term as either singular or plural. This differentiation applies both to empirical assessments and theoretical-normative requirements. The term "public sphere" is frequently associated with the image of the Athenian agora where citizens gather in order to discuss their common concerns. While it is obvious that this picture is inadequate to modern mass states it is still (usually silently) assumed that a unified public sphere exists within nation states. This unified public sphere does not consist of real debates between all citizens but mediated exchanges of opinion via media and elite discourses are meant to derive from "public opinion" in the sense of shared norms and interests and, thus, to represent them. This understanding of the public sphere is based on an understanding of the people as a unified entity, the demos has to be a unity in order to be the sovereign of democracy. If citizens do not identify with their fellow-citizens as well as with their polity they will not be prepared to accept political decisions that go against their personal interests. In a non-essentialist understanding of political identity, the public sphere plays a crucial role in constructing such an identity. This assessment of the eminent impact of a public sphere is shared both by modernist authors like Juergen Habermas and post-modern authors like Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. 1.2 Why a European Public Sphere? The European Union has been founded as an economic projector , to put it more concretely, a project to reach political aims, namely the prevention of National Socialism and war, by economic means. But economy and politics are closely linked and economic harmonisation led (intentionally or not) to the ever closer Union taking over many competences of the Member States without having decision mechanisms similar to the ones on the national level. Due to this development, the "democratic deficit" of the EU became a key-term of literature on the European polity. Brought up by the European Parliament during the 80s (Zweifel 2002, 812) it has found its way into a significant part of political and scholarly analyses of the EU. Debates on the democratic deficit of the EU started with a critique of the institutional framework of the EU and its representative quality
A roadmap to qualitative research Synergy in Greek means 'working together'. We often use the not... more A roadmap to qualitative research Synergy in Greek means 'working together'. We often use the notion colloquially, but in the movement sciences it carries a technical meaning about coordination patterns: It implies a study of how elements in a movement or interaction system are temporarily coordinated for specific tasks (Latash 2008; Turvey 2007). Synergy scholars generally assume that behaviour emerges from a (non-hardwired and variable) interplay of elements, which are dynamically assembled to fit the task and the context. This implies an interdependent control of parts within wholes. Since the synergy concept is essentially 'scale-free', these parts can be neurons, muscle fibres, limbs, but also several individuals, depending on the research focus. This contribution proposes a qualitative inquiry into synergies that are created in interaction, i.e. where two individuals provide dynamic ecologies for each other. At this level we investigate how multiple bodies can coordinate 'as if they were one' as they accomplish particular actions together. The phenomenon is familiar enough. We routinely create interpersonal synergies as we engage in conversations, carry objects
In 2005, referenda about the EU’s constitutional treaty were held in several European countries, ... more In 2005, referenda about the EU’s constitutional treaty were held in several European countries, which resulted in a No vote in France and the Netherlands and which left the European polity both devastated and clueless. The present essay describes metaphors in British journalism beginning with the year before the referenda and ending a few months after them. In 675 examined newspaper articles from the Sun and the Guardian, mostly commentaries, diverse conceptual patterns are found that belong to five major headings (= metaphoric target domains): the EU as political entity, the EU constitutional treaty, the process of EU integration, the impact of the No votes on the European polity, and proor anti-constitution campaigning prior to the referenda. A software-assisted and full-scale survey of metaphors is undertaken to identify recurrent conceptual metaphor patterns. This is followed by a theoretical analysis that aims to exemplify how cross-buttressing tendencies in the metaphor field...
We introduce this special issue on ”Meaning making: Enactive, participatory, interactive, symboli... more We introduce this special issue on ”Meaning making: Enactive, participatory, interactive, symbolic” by first pointing out where cognitive-semiotic and ecological approaches agree: meaning is to be construed as a dynamic, multiscalar phenomenon. We then review the six papers in relation to one another, revealing both overlaps and sites of possible tension. We view these tensions as foci for further development of cognitive semiotics in its aim to be a truly transdisciplinary science of meaning.
This chapter discusses cognitive, sensorimotor, and interactional prerequisites for improvising t... more This chapter discusses cognitive, sensorimotor, and interactional prerequisites for improvising together in tango argentino. Tango is a highly structured and precise skill where the demands of interaction and expressiveness converge: improvisational choice, the leader’s selection from a knowledge base, is concurrently constrained by the interplay of sensorimotor and coordinative skills. Tango creativity is primarily combinatory; it creates serial structures within a matrix of decision points and traversable linkages. For breaking down what it takes to improvise together, three resources may be discussed. Two among these designate basic skills that are unspecific to improvisation (and thus equally needed when dancing tango choreographies), whereas the third kind of resource supplies improvisation- and creativity specific cognitive bases: (1) Individually, dancers ensure postural and configurational well-formedness, dynamic stability, action-readiness, and receptivity. (2) Interperson...
This paper explores conceptual tools whereby narratively competent adults conceptualize the struc... more This paper explores conceptual tools whereby narratively competent adults conceptualize the structure of literary events, as opposed to their scene content. My focus lies on how narrativity as a mode of thought is constituted through metanarrative discourse and what role embodied representations play in it. This global level of story cognition takes the form of conceptual metaphors such as TIME IS A PATH, CAUSALITY IS FORCE, or THEMATIC REALMS ARE SPACES/PLANES. Two kinds of evidence for this claim are combined: (a) linguistic metaphors for story gist, and, more extensively, (b) metaphorical gestures that accompany story summarization and commentary. Based on footage in which German literary critics discuss books, my specific task is to identify the various dimensions of story logic that gestures refer to. Overall, the data suggests that narrative form is systematically rooted in spatial logic and that dedicated structural devices dynamically co-evolve with the retelling of content....
Using a video-supported cognitive ethnographic and phenomenological approach, we address the inte... more Using a video-supported cognitive ethnographic and phenomenological approach, we address the interactively generated dynamic of bouts in Aikido. This "soft" martial art enables a defender to blend with and then redirect an attacker's aggressive energy so as to break his balance, while preserving an ethos of non-violence, mutuality, and respect. Our analysis explores the skills used to minutely adapt to the opponent, the causal-temporal structure of Aikido, notably the cumulative effect build-up and main decision points in a bout, as well as the perceptual cues from inter-body geometry, timing, and force dynamics that inform decisions. We then contrast different interaction scenarios by focusing on micro-events that shape defensive preferences. For a successful defense, technical modulations or even the preferred technique itself can be selected as the interaction unfolds ("decision-making-in-action"). For a closer look, we analyze the interplay of multiple parameters: flexibility of intention (i.e. early deciding vs. keeping options openlonger), technique (i.e. type of lever or throw), initial body symmetry, step combinations, spacing and timing relative to the attacker, degree of force, as well as possible skill differentials. We describe complex interdependencies between these parameters, which can be balanced in various ways as agents respond to the interaction dynamic.
This is a book project I plan to finish by late 2013; here is a preliminary table of contents. Th... more This is a book project I plan to finish by late 2013; here is a preliminary table of contents. The purpose of the book is to introduce a cognitive ethnographic approach to sophisticated interaction skills, present innovative empirical phenomenological methods that my team developed, and situate the results in the current theories of embodied, enactive, embedded, extended and distributed/team cognition as well as Ecological Psychology (notably affordance theory). Case studies material comes from pair dance (Tango argentino), martial arts (Aikido) and bodywork (Feldenkrais, Shiatsu).
"0. Introduction: Why affordance theory is less ecological and dynamic than it might be 2
PART I: A CONTEXTUAL THEORY OF PERCEPTION-ACTION CYCLES 8
1. Gibson’s heritage and beyond 8
2. Analytic dimensions 21
3. Sensing skills 24
4. Action skills 31
5. Imagery skills 36
6. Representational aspects for managing and enhancing the senses 42
7. Backdrops of embodied semiosis: The system level 48
PART II: MICRO-GENETIC CASE STUDIES 55
8. The phenomenological ethnography of skills 55
9. “Thin slices” of co-regulation 66
10. Nodes (decision points) 70
11. Conceptually enhanced sensing – the dynamic control space model 74
12. Expert concepts and principles 84
PART III: MACRO-PERSPECTIVES: INTEGRATION, LEARNING, AND SYSTEM COMPARISON 89
14. Apprenticeship 89
14. A comparison of systemic contexts: Affordance profiles in four disciplines 91
15. Zoom out: Affordances “in the wild” as an interdisciplinary challenge 98
"
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Papers by Michael Kimmel
"0. Introduction: Why affordance theory is less ecological and dynamic than it might be 2
PART I: A CONTEXTUAL THEORY OF PERCEPTION-ACTION CYCLES 8
1. Gibson’s heritage and beyond 8
2. Analytic dimensions 21
3. Sensing skills 24
4. Action skills 31
5. Imagery skills 36
6. Representational aspects for managing and enhancing the senses 42
7. Backdrops of embodied semiosis: The system level 48
PART II: MICRO-GENETIC CASE STUDIES 55
8. The phenomenological ethnography of skills 55
9. “Thin slices” of co-regulation 66
10. Nodes (decision points) 70
11. Conceptually enhanced sensing – the dynamic control space model 74
12. Expert concepts and principles 84
PART III: MACRO-PERSPECTIVES: INTEGRATION, LEARNING, AND SYSTEM COMPARISON 89
14. Apprenticeship 89
14. A comparison of systemic contexts: Affordance profiles in four disciplines 91
15. Zoom out: Affordances “in the wild” as an interdisciplinary challenge 98
"