Activity Theory: Exploring its History, Objectives, and Applications

This essay provides a detailed exploration of Activity Theory, originating from Soviet psychological theory. It discusses the theory's evolution, key figures, and applications in social sciences, professional training, and information systems. The essay outlines the core concepts, including the activity system, subject-object interactions, and the role of tools and community. It also examines the history of Activity Theory, highlighting the contributions of various researchers and the development of different strands. The objectives of the theory are explored, emphasizing the understanding of mental capabilities and the socio-technical system. Furthermore, the application of Activity Theory to information systems is discussed, including the work of Kari Kuutti and Bonnie Nardi, offering a comprehensive understanding of the theory's significance in analyzing human activity and consciousness.

Activity Theory
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Activity Theory
Activity Theory
Activity Theory
6th August 2019
About Activity Theory
Activity theory is mainly used in in the case of research and theories with relation to electric
Social Sciences. It has its root in the famous Soviet psychological activity theory which has been
pioneered by Sergei Rubinstein, Alexei Leont'ev, and Lev Vygotsky. These famous Scholars
have attempted to understand different human activities. They have introduced us with social and
systematic situated phenomena of human activities. According to them, human activities are
beyond reflexology paradigms. Activity theory is also beyond classical conditioning,
behaviorism, and psychoanalysis. Activity theory has gained its popularity as one of the
important psychological approaches and it can be applied in both the field of applied psychology
and theoretical aspects. Activity theory has also been popularly applied in the domains of
professional training, education, social psychology, autonomics, and work psychology. Activity
or it is something more than a descriptive method theory. It is also beyond predictive theory. It
entails the entire activity or what system including organizations and teams. It involves the
analysis of a single or multiple users and actors. It is responses to the history of the person,
environment, and role of the artifacts, culture, motivations, and several complexities in real-life
activities of human beings. One of the major advantages of activity theory is that it helps in
bridging the gap between social reality and the individual subject. It emphasizes both social
reality and individual activity through the means of mediating activity. The activity theory has
the unit of analysis which is the concept of collective, object-oriented, and culturally mediated
activities of human beings or the entire activity system. By the term system, we can understand
the subject, the objectives, mediating artifacts such as tools and science, community, rules, and
division of labor.
Activity theory aims at creating contradictions and tensions within the components of the system.
Bonnie Nardi who is an ethnographer and one of the leading theorists in activity theory has
mentioned that activity theory focuses mainly on practice that obviates the requirement in
distinguishing between pure science and applied science by understanding regular practice in the
real world situations, which is one of the major objectives of any kind of scientific practice.
Therefore, it can be said that the main objectivity of activity theory is to develop an
understanding of the unity of activity and consciousness. Activity theory is also term as Cultural-
Historical Activity Theory because it focuses on virtual form and communication which is
mediated through printed text and electronic means. Activity theory can also be considered to be

one of the significant aspects in qualitative research methodologies such as case study,
ethnography, etc.
Furthermore, an activity can be considered as a broader concept which is highly related to
interactions of human beings with the world. The interaction is defined as a process which has a
subject and an object. An activity can be represented as the function of subject and object. These
two key aspects fundamentally differentiate a particular activity from other means of
interactions. An activity on interaction always needs a subject and then the object. Every human
being needs to interact with other people and execute certain actions in which the subjects are
found to be mutually determining one another. The activity theory defines an activity to be a
generative force which helps in transforming both the objects and subjects. In the activity theory,
it has been highlighted that every subject has a need. An activity can be defined as a unit of life
of any material subject which exist in this objective world. Every subject has or needs which is
indispensable for surviving and to fulfill such need some activities or needed to be carried out.
Interactions are also needed to carry out activities and to achieve certain objectives. The theory
has also highlighted the fact that every living organism on this earth has some needs or motives.
The name of the subject can never be kept limited to do human beings. There are several other
entities such as teams animals and organizations which also have certain need-based agency.
Therefore it can be said that every entity can be e a subject of activity.
Activity theory also provides an effective method of analyzing and understanding a
phenomenon. It helps in identifying patterns which in turn helps in making inferences across
several interactions. Activity theory also describes and presents phenomena through rhetoric and
built-in language. Specific activity is always goal-directed and it indicates meaningful interaction
between an object and a subject through the use of several methods and tools. These methods or
tools are exteriorized forms of different mental processes which are manifested in psychological
or physical constructs. Activity theory also recognizes externalization and internalization of
cognitive processes which are highly engaged in the use of the tools. It also recognizes the
development or transformation of results from any interaction. Hence, we can understand the
activity theory is an important theory which helps in understanding the entire process of activity
or interaction and helps in gaining an understanding of the findings of the interactions.
History of Activity Theory
In the history of activity theory, several sources have provided subsequent evidence which
reveals that various intertwined and complementary strands of development are associated with
this theory. Three major strands associated with the line of development of activity theory
involve the Moscow Institute of psychology and some of the young Russian researchers such as
Luria, Vygotsky, and Leont'ev. The other strand involves the works of scientists like Nikolai
Bernstein and P. K. Anokhin. These famous Russian scientists focused on the
neuropsychological base of activity. The Western world has also been considered as the third
strand in the line of development of activity theory. The scientists were mainly concerned with
the concept of a neuropsychological aspect of the activity. The researchers such as
Ponomarenko, Zarakovsky, Zinchenko & Gordeeva, and many others where are highly
concerned with the systematic structural activity theory. Finally, G. Z. Bedny along with his
associates came up with systematic structural activity theory. This has been the important second
strand of a line of development of activity theory. The use of activity theory and its discussions

are primarily structured within the strand of the Scandinavian activity theory. This stand has
been established by Yrjö Engeström.
Objectives of Activity Theory
The main aim of activity theory is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the mental
capabilities of an individual. It negates an isolated individual because it considers an isolated
individual to be insufficient or inadequate unit of analysis. Isolated individuals cannot be
considered as an effective unit of analysis in understanding and analyzing the technical and
cultural aspects of human actions. Activity theory is mainly focused on the socio-technical
system. There are six major elements which are associated with the socio-technical system of the
activity theory. The six important aspects of the activity system include object-oriented, subject
or internalization, externalization or community, tool mediation or tools, division of labor, and
rules. The ways the social organization and social artifacts mediate social actions have been well
explained by activity theory. The objectivity of the theory is related to the objectiveness of the
items which are considered to be objective by the natural sciences. These items should have
some cultural and social properties. The internalization or subject property of the activity theory
refers to the users or actors who are involved in the activities. Buy activities, the conventional
notion of different mental processes are meant.
The externalization or community refers to the social context. Here, all the actors or users who
are engaged in the activity system are the main focus. The tool mediation or tools indicate the
concepts of the artifacts which are used by the users or actors in a system. These artifacts
influence the interactions between the structure of the system and the actors involved in the
system. They can also get changed with several accumulating experiences. The knowledge also
gets evolved along with physical shape. Culture influences the tools to a great extent. The use of
the tools in the transmission of the accumulated social knowledge is an important aspect. The
structure and the agents of the system are highly influenced by these artifacts or tools. Division
of labor means the hierarchical structure of any activity. It is also a social strata. The division of
activities indicates the division of labor among different actors or users in the system. Rules
indicate the guidelines or conventions which regulate several activities in the entire system.
The unit of analysis includes technical and cultural mediation of several human activities and
artifacts which are in use. It has already been discussed that activity theory does not consider an
individual who is isolated because goal-oriented and goal-directed actions are inadequately
observed in the case of isolated individuals. Activities which are mainly oriented and directed
toward conscious actions are considered by activity theory. But the constituents of activities tend
to change dynamically. The model which has been developed by Engestrom or the activity
system model is highly useful because it helps in understanding the ways different factors work
together and impact any activity. Certain objects such as knowledge, experiences, and physical
products are necessary to reach an outcome or result.
Different artifacts such as documents, tools, recipes, etc. are useful in mediating human
activities. On the other hand, activity is always meditated by a community or an organization.
There can be saved rules which a community can impose on activity. The subject is an integral
part of a community which is used to achieve the object. An activity also indicates a division of
labor. Therefore, we can find three activity levels. Community carries out certain activities which

are oriented towards the achievement of certain objectives for goals. The need is considered to be
a motive which might not be the personal or conscious social meaning of the activity. Secondly,
a group or an individual carries out certain actions which are oriented towards conscious goals or
specific objectives. In this case, goals and sub-goals and critical goals are important factors.
Thirdly, the operation structure is not conscious and typically automatic in the case of activity. It
is also not a concrete way in which action gets executed. There are several conditions which are
needed in operations structure to achieve the goals or objectives.
Application of Activity Theory to Information System
Kari Kuutti and Bonnie Nardi have derived the ways of applying activity theory to information
system. Nardi has explained the activity theory as define and powerful descriptive tool which is
more than a robust predictive theory. According to Nardi, the main aim of the activity theory is
to describe and analyze the unity of activity and consciousness. Activity theories have argued
that consciousness does not include cognitive acts such as classification, decision-making, and
remembering. It is certainly not related to the brain. Consciousness is highly related to daily
practice which an individual do in regular life. Nardi has also argued that the activity theory
focuses on proposing a robust notion of mediation which every human being experiences and
these experiences can be formulated or structured by the help of sign systems and tools. Activity
theory focuses on consciousness which unifies intention, attention, reasoning, memory, and
speech. It also focuses on the significance of consciousness and motives which highly belongs to
every human being. The consciousness and motive of humans include distinguished ways of
thinking and seeing things differently. Later on, the explanations and discussions of Nardi et. al.
have been connected with cognitive science which reveals that activity theory is more than a
social theory of consciousness. Therefore, activity theory defines consciousness as a mental
functioning which includes generalizing, classifying, deciding, and abstracting. It is a product of
the social interactions of an individual with the other individuals and also focuses on the use of
several tools. Mental functioning is the major lookout of the activity theories in defining
consciousness.
Over the last decade, there has been an exploration of the use of activity theory in the domain of
information systems. The research stream has emphasized on changes which are mediated by
technology and implementation of technological resources and the ways technology disrupts
improves changes and modifies work activity. In the studies of organizational change and
improvement and the role of technology in mediating such changes and understanding the ways
technology disrupting work activity, it has been understood that information system plays an
eminent role in the modern environment. Information science-based studies apply activity
theory-based approaches to understanding the behavior of information in the domain of
Information and Communication Technology. The activities theory has also helped in the
deployment of several IT systems. It has also helped in framing the study on information and
communication technology in its development settings.
Application of Activity Theory
Social media have been the major concern in the mountain environment which has also been
used in mediating conflicts. The application of activity theory in this domain has also increased
the interests of several theories and practitioners. In the current work routine, the role of

automation has been highly recognized. Activity theory, in this case, helps in developing several
solutions to issues concerning empirical projects. It also helps in idealizing and analyzing models
to simplify the contingencies and complexities of real-life actions. The System Structural
Activity Theory or SSAT has also been connected to the activity theory to design and analysis
the fundamental elements of human activities such as tools, trends, objects, methods, and results.
Abilities, experiences, and skills of human beings have also been involved in the analysis. The
Systematic Structural Activity Theory has helped in developing techniques for both quantitative
and qualitative approaches in describing work activity. The design-oriented analysis of SSAT
mainly focuses on the interrelationship between self-regulation of activity and the structure of
work activity along with the configuration of the material components of such activities.
Activity theory of learning is a fundamental and generalized theory for learning which has been
developed on the basis of activity approach. Activity theory has been the fundamental base of
activity theories of learning. The three major principles of the paradigm of activity include
object-relatedness and meaningfulness, interrelations between external and internal components
of human activity, and tool mediated nature of the human activity. Three-levels of activities
structure indicates activity action and operation. This structure results with a particular activity
which can be connected with a particular motive for need. Action is always linked with a
particular goal or objective. The operational structure is always related to some specific
conditions. The principles of activity theory are object-relatedness, hierarchical structure of
activity, externalization, and internalization, tool mediation, and development. These Principles
are the important pillars of the foundation of activity theory. Goal orientation of the activities has
always been given focus by this theory. The hierarchical structure of activity helps in
constituting the activities according to the changes in conditions. The theory has also focused on
the dynamic changes taking place and that it is of the human beings and other entities are also
changing based on the changes in the situations and conditions. The theory also focuses on
mediation, accumulation, and mediation of experiences and the computation and compilation of
the same.