The Ecological Practice Design Toolkit (V2, 2023)

Published in

CALL4

14 min readAug 17, 2023

The Ecological Approach to Everyday Life Innovation

On May 17, 2022, I edited a possible book titled Ecological Practice Design: The Lifesystem Approach to Everyday Life Innovation.

This name is a concept curation of six concepts. Each concept refers to a special meaning.

Ecological: It refers to the original source of the Ecological Practice Approach approach: Ecological Psychology.
Practice: It refers to a major theoretical resource of the Ecological Practice Approach: Activity Theory and social practice theories in general.
Design: It refers to a social practice of making something new creatively.
Lifesystem: It refers to the Lifesystem Framework.
Approach: It refers to a knowledge enterprise that contains theoretical concepts, operational concepts, frameworks, methods, etc.
Everyday Life Innovation: It refers to improving the quality of individual daily life.

The above six keywords define the boundary of the new book. I am not going to deal with complex system thinking since we have CAS (Complex adaptive system), Systems Dynamics, Activity System Model, etc.

The primary focus of the book is the Lifesystem Framework. However, I expand it with other relevant frameworks and theoretical concepts from the Ecological Practice Approach. Thus, I use “the Lifesystem approach” for the subtitle of the book.

Some numbers about the possible book:

5 parts
22 chapters
26 articles
Total 463 min read
Total 122, 695 words (about 245 single-spaced pages)

Today I want to update the possible book with a new subtitle: The Ecological Approach to Everyday Life Innovation.

Ecological Practice Design (v1, 2022) was curated around the Lifesystem Framework because I wanted to introduce the framework in a book.

However, Ecological Practice Design (v2, 2023) detaches the focus from the Lifesystem framework and attaches the focus to the theme of “Ecological Practice Design” because it represents more ideas from the Ecological Practice approach.

I will use The Ecological Practice Design Toolkit (v2, 2023) as the new name.

1. The Second-wave Development of the Ecological Practice Approach
2. The Landscape of Ecological Practice Design Toolkit (v2.0)
3. The Ecological Practice Approach and The Lifesystem Approach
4. Primary Concepts and Secondary Concepts
5. Theoretical Perspectives and Practical Perspectives
6. Knowledge Frameworks
7. Methods: Observation, Analysis, and Synthesis
8. Heuristics
9. Domains
10. Related Knowledge Centers

1. The Second-wave Development of the Ecological Practice Approach

From May 2022 to July 2023, I worked on developing some theoretical concepts of the Ecological Practice approach, especially the concept of “Attachance”, the concept of “Thematic Space”, the concept of “Genidentity”, and the unit of analysis of “Theme(Concept)”.

I also wrote three new possible books.

I am also planning to edit a new possible book titled Ecological Strategic Cognition: The Ecological Practice Approach to Strategic Cognition.

If we use the Creative Life Curation framework, we can say this is the second-wave development of the Ecological Practice approach.

In fact, my primary mental focus is TALE Center for the past several months. TALE stands for Thematic Analysis Learning Engagement. It was launched as a new knowledge center for hosting the Thematic Engagement project.

On March 30, 2023, I made a possible theme called “Life Coordinate”.

The Coordinate framework (v1.0) was used as an intermediate framework for developing operational concepts for the Lifesystem Framework (v1.0). See the diagram below.

After generating eight operational concepts, the outcome didn’t need to tell more details about the “Life Coordinate” framework.

The Lifesystem Framework (v1.0) was developed in 2020. In the past several months, I found a need to emphasize the “Life Coordinate” part of the Lifesystem framework.

For the TALE project, I wanted to detach the “Life Coordinate” concept from the Lifesystem framework (v1.0) and turn it from an intermediate framework into an independent theme.

The idea is very simple. I use Horizontal Tendency and Vertical Tendency to redefine the theme of “Life Coordinate”. The outcome is the diagram below.

The Life Coordinate Framework (v2) introduces more operational concepts which are part of the Ecological Practice approach originally.

This is a great milestone for the Lifesystem Framework and the Ecological Practice approach in general.

2. The Landscape of Ecological Practice Design Toolkit (v2.0)

I also developed some new ideas such as the Affordance — Supportance Cycle and the unit of analysis “Theme(Concept)” and “Context(Mind)”.

Now it is time to curate these new changes into the Ecological Practice Design Toolkit. See the diagram below.

The diagram is based on the Knowledge Discovery Canvas.

Approaches

The Ecological Practice Approach

Concepts

Affordance
Supportance
Curativity
Container (Containee)
Themes of Practice
Attachance
Genidentity

Perspectives

The Attach — Container — Detach Flow
The Subject — Potential — Object Focus
The Affordance — Attachance Chain
The Affordance — Supportance Loop
The Affordance — Supportance Cycle
The Ecological Zone
The X — Y — Z Echo
The Network — Container — Platform Move

Frameworks

Ecological Transformation
Infoniche Framework
Lifesystem Framework
SET (Structured Engagement Theory) Framework
Platform Genidentity Framework

Methods

Ecological Physical Method
Ecological Interaction Analysis
Creative Action Analysis

Heuristics

Creative Work Canvas
City Discovery Canvas
The Shaman’s Mandala
The Opportunity Formula

Domains

Hardware
Software
Mindware

Most items are not new, however, the major update is the “Perspectives” section. I list eight items with short names and full names. These “Perspectives” are based on the Configurations of Concepts. For example, the Affordance — Supportance Loop and the Affordance — Supportance Cycle are Configurations of the concepts of Affordance and the concept of Supportance.

We can use these Perspectives directly, or use them as resources to develop Frameworks. For example, Lifesystem Framework is based on the Affordance — Supportance Loop and the Subject — Potential — Object Focus.

3. The Ecological Practice Approach and The Lifesystem Approach

The Ecological Practice Approach was inspired by Ecological Psychology. I defined it as a meta-theory.

My work is inspired by James J. Gibson’s Ecological Psychology, Roger Barker’s Behavior Settings Theory, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecology of Human Development, and practice theories.

There are two goals behind the Ecological Practice approach:

1) Expanding Ecological Psychology from the native natural environments to the modern digital environments.
2) Expanding Ecological Psychology from perception-centered psychological analysis to social practice analysis.

The Lifesystem Approach is a theory for applying the Ecological Practice Approach to social practice studies. It can be seen as a specific theory.

The major difference between the Ecological Practice Approach and the Lifesystem Approach is human motivation, emotion, and social practices. While The Ecological Practice Approach focuses on the relationship between Things and their Containers, the Lifesystem Approach considers Human Life as the primary theme.

In fact, the name Lifesystem was inspired by an old document titled Life Theory.

In August 2018, I went on my first cruise trip from Galveston to Cozumel with my family. We sailed on Carnival Dream which is a cruise ship operated by Carnival Cruise Line. At 128,250 GT, the ship is a large cruise ship with various facilities such as a water park with multiple sides, an 18-hole miniature golf course, dining venues, outdoor recreation areas, etc. It can serve 3,646 passengers.

The ship is a large container.

During the trip, I took many pictures. In Feb 2020, I used one picture of a window as a cover image of a private document. See the above picture.

In Feb 2020, I wrote a 160-page private document titled Life Theory.

The “Life Theory” document is both a theoretical plan and a toolkit. As a theoretical plan, it describes the position and the direction of expanding the Ecological Practice approach to a social theory. As a toolkit, it curates six frameworks together. It is the beta version of the Ecological Practice approach.

4. Primary Concepts and Secondary Concepts

A theoretical approach is formed by a set of theoretical concepts under a unified worldview.

In a broad sense, the Ecological Practice approach has its philosophical roots in traditional Pragmatism and contemporary embodied cognitive science.

In 1942, Stephen C. Pepper pointed out that there are four root metaphors of world views or conceptual systems: formism, mechanism, contextualism, and organicism in World Hypotheses: a study of evidence. In 1987, Altman and Rogoff reviewed the world views of psychologists and suggested a similar typology: trait, interactional, organismic, and transactionalism.

According to Harry Heft (2012), the foundation of various ecological approaches to psychology is transactionalism, “Frameworks more sympathetic to ecological thinking had been simmering among psychology’s early writings, notably in William James’ radical empiricism and Kurt Lewin’s field theory, but became realized only in the 1960s through the works of James J. Gibson, Roger G. Barker, and others. These frameworks share many of the assumptions of the ecological sciences and, collectively, can be located within a transactional worldview.”

The major difference between the interactional worldview and the transactionalism worldview is their unit of analysis.

Interactional worldview: The unit of analysis is the individual viewed as a bounded, independent entity, operating separately from the surrounding, while subject to influences from outside its boundaries.
Transactionalism worldview: The unit of analysis is the person-environment dynamic system. The components of this system operate in a relational, interdependent manner, rather than as independent entities.

The Ecological Practice approach adopts the Transactionalism worldview and its unit of analysis is the thing-environment dynamic system.

In the past years, I kept a set of primary theoretical concepts as the core of the Ecological Practice Approach. See the diagram below.

Based on primary theoretical concepts, I also developed several secondary theoretical concepts. For example, the concept of Projectivity is an application of the concept of Attachance.

The concept of Thematic Space is inspired by the concept of Container (Containee) and Themes of Practice.

The concept of Infoniche is an application of the concept of Container (Containee).

Theme (Concept), Life (Self), Context (Mind), are applications of the concept of Container (Containee).

These two types of concepts are high-level abstract concepts. They can be used to develop Perspectives and Frameworks.

5. Theoretical Perspectives and Practical Perspectives

Primary Concepts and Secondary Concepts can be used to develop Perspectives.

I list eight items with short names and full names. These “Perspectives” are based on the Configurations of Concepts. For example, the Affordance — Supportance Loop and the Affordance — Supportance Cycle are Configurations of the concepts of Affordance and the concept of Supportance.

The Attach — Container — Detach Flow (link: 1, 2)
The Subject — Potential — Object Focus (link)
The Affordance — Attachance Chain
The Affordance — Supportance Loop (link: 1, 2)
The Affordance — Supportance Cycle (link)
The Ecological Zone (link: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
The X — Y — Z Echo (link: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
The Network — Container — Platform Move (link:1, 2)

We can use these Perspectives directly, or use them as resources to develop Frameworks. For example, the diagram below uses the “Network — Container — Platform” Move to understand the “Platformba — Project — Platform” triad.

We can also use two Perspectives together. For example, Lifesystem Framework is based on the Affordance — Supportance Loop and the Subject — Potential — Object Focus. See the diagram below.

You can find more details about the Lifesystem framework in Lifesystem: Modeling Ice Skating and Other Social Practices.

6. Knowledge Frameworks

A knowledge framework is a bridge that connects theory and practice. An ideal knowledge framework should contain two types of concepts:

Theoretical Concepts
Operational Concepts

Theoretical Concepts are adopted from Meta-theory or Specific Theory. Some frameworks don’t associate with any theories, they only have operational concepts.

Operational Concepts are framework-dependent concepts for guiding research and reflection. For example, the Lifesystem framework defines the following eight operational concepts:

Actor
Group
Intention
Result
Material
Information
Resource
Reward

These operational concepts are used to guide the research and reflection in order to understand the structure and dynamics of Lifesystems. You can find more details in Lifesystem: Modeling Ice Skating and Other Social Practices.

In the past years, I developed several frameworks for different purposes. See the list below:

Ecological Transformation Framework (link: 1, 2)
Infoniche Framework (link: 1, 2, 3)
Lifesystem Framework (link: 1, 2)
SET (Structured Engagement Theory) Framework (link: 1)
Platform Genidentity Framework (link: 1)

The above diagram is a case study of the Ecological Transformation Framework. You can find more details in Appropriating Activity Theory (Book).

7. Methods: Observation, Analysis, and Synthesis

In general, the Ecological Practice Approach adopts qualitative research as its primary method and it relies on ecological observation, participant observation, fieldwork, etc.

There are three methods behind the Ecological Practice Approach:

Ecological Physics Method (link: 1)
Ecological Interaction Analysis (link: 1)
Creative Action Analysis (link: 1, 2)

The method of Affordance Analysis (1, 2, 3) is part of the Ecological Physics Method.

The “5A” Slow Cognition Model is inspired by the concept of Attachance.

I didn’t develop a method called Supportance Analysis. However, you can find a framework called “Actualization of Supportances” in The Concept of Supportance. You can also read this short note: A Possible Theme called “Taking Supportances”.

8. Heuristics

I also developed some diagrams and canvases for applying some theoretical concepts of the Ecological Practice Approach.

Creative Work Canvas (link: 1)
City Discovery Canvas (link: 1, 2, 3)
Shaman’s Mandala (link: 1)
The Opportunity Formula (link: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

In order to design the Shaman’s Mandale, I used some terms to highlight some heuristic orientations for using theoretical concepts of the ecological practice approach.

Affordance: Material Adaptability
Supportance: Social Adaptability
Attachance: Sense of Boundaryless
Curativity: Sense of Wholeness

These heuristic orientations refer to the benefits of learning these concepts and mastering related skills.

The 3-layer structure behind the Shaman’s Mandala is “Lifemove — Lifeway — Lifeform” which is the hierarchical logic of the Ecological Practice Approach.

In fact, I found this 3-layer echoes my other models: The Life-as-Activity Framework uses “Moment — Project — Theme” hierarchical structure, The Context of Developing Tacit Knowledge uses “Flow — Story — Model” hierarchical structure.

For the Ecological Practice Approach, the term Lifemove refers to the layer of immediate embodied experience. The related concept is Affordance which means potential action possibilities offered by natural/physical/technical environments. I also use terms such as Moment and Flow to describe this layer.

The term Lifeway refers to the layer of human actions which means a layer of “do something” which is higher than the immediate embodied experience. The concept of Attachance emphasizes the meaning and value of Attaching acts and Detaching acts while the concept of Supportance focuses on potential action possibilities offered by social environments. I also use terms such as Project and Story to describe this layer.

The term Lifeform refers to the layer of cultural norms such as rules, laws, conventions, etc. The original meaning of the concept of Curativity refers to turning pieces into a meaningful whole. For the present discussion, it refers to the organizational movement between individual things and collective groups. I also use terms such as Theme and Model to describe this layer.

Finally, the Ecological Practice Approach uses the concept of “Themes of Practice” to describe the transformation between individual life themes and collective cultural themes. I claim that this concept is the primary theme of Life Strategy for Indie Creators. That means a creative person aims to create innovative life themes which grow into collective cultural themes.

Actually, the “Lifemove — Lifeway — Lifeform” hierarchical structure was defined in the “Life Theory” document in Feb 2020.

9. Domains

The Domains — Works mapping can be seen as a nested structure: Domains (Works). For example, an art curator’s work is an exhibition while the domain is the field of art. It’s clear that we are talking about social domains, not cognitive domains or others. Also, I use the term works to refer to final outcome of creative activities.

For the Ecological Practice Approach, I consider the following typology of meta-domains:

Hardware: physical material things
Software: digital virtual things
Mindware: cognitive mental things

These three meta-domains require different ways to apply the Ecological Practice Approach. The key is to define suitable sub-concepts of Container (Containee) for each domain.

For example, I recently used Thematic Space (Mental Elements) as a sub-concept to apply the concept of Attachacne to the Mindware meta-domain.

It inspired me to work on some projects about Ecological Creative Cognition and Ecological Strategic Cognition.

You can find more details in the following links:

Mental Moves (book, v1) — Introduction — July 31, 2023
Mental Moves (book, v1) — Table of Contents — July 31, 2023
A Possible Theme called “Ecological Strategic Cognition” — August 4, 2023

10. Related Knowledge Centers

From 2019 to the present, the Ecological Practice Approach has grown into a large knowledge enterprise. In order to manage different projects, I set up several knowledge centers. Each knowledge center works on its own primary theoretical concepts and related projects.

Curativity Center: It works on the concept of Curativity, the Knowledge Curation project, the Life Curation project, the Knowledge Engagement project, etc (link: 1, 2, 3, 4).
Platform Ecology Center: It uses the unit of analysis “Platformba{Platform[Project(People)]}” and the concept of Genidentity to guide related projects (link: 1, 2, 3, 4).

TALE (Thematic Analysis Learning Engagement): It was inspired by the concept of Themes of Practice and the Project Engagement approach (link: 1, 2, 3, 4).

The Ecological Practice Design Toolkit (v2) is managed by CALL (Creative Action Learning Lab).