ABSTRACT
Cole recently discussed a number of current attempts to conceptualize situation and practice as units of analysis. He focused on the notions of practice, activity, context, situation, and event. Mediated action as defined by Wertsch focuses on two elements, the individual and the mediational means. In this formulation, the collective, communitarian dimension is included only insofar as it is embodied in the mediating artifacts. A related dilemma is present in Lave and Wenger’s account of situated learning in communities of practice. Legitimate peripheral participation seems to have one dominant direction of movement, namely from the periphery of the novices toward the center dominated by the well-established, competent masters. Lemke offers the notion of networks of activities as a related route for reexamining transfer. Bateson’s account of double binds remains one of the most powerful insights into the issue. It presents noncooperation as a manifestation of inner contradictions of the practice in which the individual is engaged.
