TALE: The Dynamics of Thematic Space (v2.0)

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TALE500

13 min readJan 24, 2023

Using a thematic space to develop a knowledge framework

TALE stands for Thematic Analysis Learning Engagement. TALE was launched as a new knowledge center for the Thematic Engagement project.

Thematic Engagement refers to the “Person — Theme” relationship and interaction.

There are various concrete activities and projects under the abstract notion of Thematic Engagement. We will introduce some examples one by one.

This post is part of a series called “Thematic Conversation”. I will discuss the notion of “Thematic Conversation” while running a real “Thematic Conversation Project” with my friend Daiana Zavate.

You can visit the links below to follow our conversation:

Jan 17 — Oliver — How to Set Annual Themes for 2023?
Jan 18 — Daiana — Personal Project on Strategic Exploration: Thinking differently requires doing things differently
Jan 18 — Oliver — TALE: Start A Thematic Conversation
Jan 19 — Daiana — Strategic Exploration: Peeling onions without shedding tears
Jan 20 — Oliver — TALE: The Challenge of Thematic Conversation
Jan 23 — Daiana — Strategic Exploration: Breaking Symmetries
Jan 23 — Oliver — TALE: How to develop a framework for a possible theme called “Slow Talk”?

The newest focus of the conversation has been moved to Developing a Knowledge Framework around a possible theme. This article will highlight some key points about this issue.

1. A Thematic Space as a Workfield

I consider Developing a Knowledge Framework as a long-term development of thoughts around a knowledge theme. I also used the term “Slow Cognition” to describe the issue of “a long-term development of thoughts”. You can find more details in The Slow Cognition Project and related methods.

On Oct 12, 2022, I wrote an article to reflect on my journey of running an independent research project called Once Upon A Whiteboard. The outcome is the “5A” Slow Cognition Model.

I use the following five keywords to summarize my creative pattern behind the journey :

Aspirations
Aspects
Approaches
Attachances
Achievement

In the article, I also introduced a new term called “Workfield”.

Inspired by the term “Workshop”, I coined a new term called “Workfield”.

What’s the difference between Workfield and Workshop? While Workshop has a clear temporary boundary, Workfield rejects the notion of a temporary boundary.

The notion of Workfield is more about the “interactive space between the subject (a person…) and the object (a thing)”. It’s an object-centered spatial boundary, in other words, it is a Container.

If the object (a thing) is a knowledge theme such as “Strategic Exploration”, then the “Strategic Exploration” Thematic Space is a Workfield, or the primary space of a Workfield.

In this way, we can adopt the “Subject — Workfield — Object” model and the 5A Slow Cognition model to discuss Developing A Knowledge Framework.

2. Developing Tacit Knowledge

One year ago, I wrote an article titled The Notion of Thematic Spaces and introduced a canvas about the structure of Thematic Spaces. I also discussed the Dynamics of Thematic Space.

The article led to a book (draft) titled Knowledge Discovery (Book): Developing Tacit Knowledge with Thematic Space Canvas.

The above canvas is the primary canvas of the book. I also discussed the “Frameworks — Insights” Mapping on April 12, 2022.

The article also introduced a typology of frameworks.

The canvas and the typology are very useful for the global view of Developing Tacit Knowledge.

However, if we focus on Developing Knowledge Frameworks, we need to understand more details of the dynamics of Thematic Spaces.

3. The Dynamics of Thematic Spaces (v2.0)

Now let’s re-discover the Dynamics of Thematic Spaces from a new perspective: Developing Knowledge Frameworks.

I will use Daiana Zavate’s “Strategic Exploration” thematic space as an example for our discussion.

As mentioned above, we will use the “Subject — Workfield — Object” model for our discussion. In fact, there is a model behind it. See the diagram below.

The above diagram is the basic model of the Ecological Practice Approach. It doesn’t offer us more details about the container.

However, it tells us that there is a tendency around the container:

Attach (something) to the container
Some “Offer—Act” Events within the container
Detach (something) from the container

Based on the basic schema, we can make a rough model for developing a knowledge framework around a knowledge theme.

4.1 Calling

This is the beginning of the journey. At this time, we have some ideas about our aspirations, but we don’t have a name for them. In other words, we don’t have a possible theme for our journey.

Why don’t we have a name for the journey?

When someone calls us and gives us a challenge, most of the time we don’t have a ready solution immediately.

If the challenge matches our deep life aspirations, the call will become a meaningful creative trigger that guides us to a new journey.

For example, Mani Vannan’s asked me the following question on Jan 22, 2023:

Hi Oliver, Which of your models will you use to improve communication and enhance understanding?

It inspired me to rethink my knowledge frameworks. In the past several years, I worked on theories about Activity, Relevance, Affordances, Concepts/Themes, and Anticipation. I didn’t directly work in the field of Communication Research.

However, I made some knowledge frameworks about thematic controversy, collaborative projects, slow cognition, etc. Mani Vannan’s question encouraged me to curate these frameworks together.

I didn’t have an existing thematic space about it. I had to make a new one.

4. 2 Naming

Once we want to explore something, we frame a creative space in our minds. However, we don’t know where the mind is.

If we have a name for the creative space, we can touch it and grasp it.

A possible theme is a name of a creative space. I mentioned three functions of annual themes in a previous post: TALE: How to Set Annual Themes for 2023

Direction: Annual Themes don’t point to a particular place, but set a rough direction.
Boundary: Annual Themes don’t claim a particular content, but set a boundary for your journey.
Meaning: Annual Themes connect Past, Present, and Future together by linking with other themes.

On Jan 18, Daiana Zavate selected “Strategic Exploration” as one of her 2023 annual themes.

4. 3 Curating

From the perspective of Curativity Theory, a simple idea of the journey of knowledge engagement is about “Filling the Container”.

A new possible theme frames a new thematic space for creative work. In the beginning, the new thematic space is an empty container. The rest of the journey is filling the empty container and developing a meaningful order for the new whole.

In order to fill the thematic space, you can do various things.

In the past several days, Daiana curated a set of ideas into the “Strategic Exploration” thematic space.

On Jan 19, Daiana added the notion of “Storytelling” to the “Strategic Exploration” thematic space.

4. 4 Configuring

While filling the empty container, we have to develop a meaningful order for the new whole.

For developing knowledge frameworks, we have to give a frame to a group of notions.

I used “a possible configuration of a theme network” to describe the structure of the things inside the thematic space.

A Theme Network is a dynamic complex. We can perceive many possible configurations from a theme network.
If we perceive a configuration and believe it is very useful for the present situation, then we can turn this configuration into a situational framework.
If the situational framework is not only useful for the present situation but also suitable for other situations, then we can turn the framework into solid knowledge for a community of practice.
The diagram below is a possible configuration of Daiana Zavate’s theme network.

The term “possible configuration” means many possibilities. What we have to do is perceive them and select one from them.

4. 5 Continuously Curating

The “Curating — Configuring” process is endless. We will add more and more notions into the thematic space. New materials will change the order of the existing configuration, we have to modify it and make a new one.

On Jan 23, Daiana added “Collaborative Learning” and “Strategic Design” to the “Strategic Exploration” thematic space. You can find more details in the original post Strategic Exploration: Breaking Symmetries.

4. 6 Detaching

The ideal end of the process is producing a possible book that represents the outcome of the journey.

We can also use the typology of frameworks to define our goal.

5. The “Curating — Configuring” Process

Are there some principles or rules for managing the dynamics of the thematic space?

For the early stage, I have some rough ideas for further discussions:

Separate the theme network into two layers: secondary themes and their sub-themes
At the early stage, focus on configurations
Move to mechanisms or other aspects later
Maintain a simple network of secondary themes
Use secondary themes to explore possible configurations
Optimize the existing configuration visually and conceptually
Watch the change in the theme network
Pay attention to some hard rules such as “if you use Meta-X, you should use X too” and “Subjectivity is part of Intersubjectivity”.

For the following stages, I’d like to use the typology of frameworks to reflect on the journey. Some types of frameworks require some methods and techniques.

For example, I used the “Double Theme” Strategy for some projects. If we use two words to name a theme, then each word can be considered a theme.

In order to understand the theme deeply, we can run a thematic dialogue. For example, I made the “Life — Strategy” thematic dialogue for the Life Strategy project in 2022. You can find more detail on a mini website.

The “Life — Strategy” Thematic Dialogue is a Knowledge Curation project which aims to curate various knowledge resources from the following two fields:
Life Development, especially Adult Developmental Psychology
Strategic Thinking, especially Organizational Strategic Management
We use a framework to design the “Life — Strategy” Thematic Dialogue. Based on the framework, we generate four dimensions for the “Life” Thematic Space and the “’Strategy” Thematic Space. The last step is connecting these two thematic spaces.

The “A— B” thematic dialogue is a technique for understanding the “A-B” theme. It’s not necessary for every project.

I’d like to highlight a unique aspect of Daiana’s “Strategic Exploration” project.

The theme “Strategic Exploration” has a unique meta-theme: Exploration.

According to Daiana, “Exploration” means “thinking differently” and “doing things differently”. It means we have to embrace any possibility.

Now, let’s respond to Daiana’s newest post Strategic Exploration: Breaking Symmetries.

6. “Strategic Exploration” v.s. “Strategic Design”

In Strategic Exploration: Breaking Symmetries, Daiana introduced a set of ideas. The primary idea is “Strategic Design”.

In Strategic Design, Building Meaning is a work of alignment of multiple instances — theoretical and practical — to solve certain challenges and derive new frameworks that can enable new actions and possibilities. It follows a long thread of developments, exchanges, and reframings before it reaches a stable state that can be shared with others outside the process.

Though Daiana talked about “Building Meaning”, we need to think about the relationship between “Strategic Design” and “Strategic Exploration”.

For example, we can consider the following two solutions:

A. “Strategic Exploration” is a sub-practice that is part of the “Strategic Design” practice.
B. “Strategic Exploration” is a perspective. We can use it to reflect on several practices such as “Strategic Design”, “Adult Learning”, etc.

In fact, this issue is about the “THEORY — PRACTICE” hierarchy. We need to place themes on the hierarchy and find their relationship for further development.

6. “Building Meaning” and “Strategic Design”

In Strategic Exploration: Peeling onions without shedding tears, Daiana discussed “Building Meaning” and “Meta-learning”.

In Strategic Exploration: Breaking Symmetries, Daiana connected “Building Meaning” with “Strategic Design”.

In Strategic Design, Building Meaning is a work of alignment of multiple instances — theoretical and practical — to solve certain challenges and derive new frameworks that can enable new actions and possibilities. It follows a long thread of developments, exchanges, and reframings before it reaches a stable state that can be shared with others outside the process.

This paragraph describes the process of “Building Meaning” in the “Strategic Design” practice. See the diagram below.

Inspired by Daiana’s notion of “Thinking differently requires doing things differently”, I use “Thinking” and “Doing” to name two zones of “Building Meaning”.

7. Three Zones: “Meta”, “Thinking”, and “Doing”

Now we can add the new diagram to the original diagram. The outcome is a three-zone model.

In the original diagram, we discover two types of processes:

The process of “creation”
The process of “building meaning”

The above discussion points out there is a new type of “building meaning”. If we merge them together, we can see three zones of the field of Meta-learning.

The “Doing” Zone
The “Thinking” Zone
The “Meta” Zone

I just use these words to roughly name these three zones. We can find better words to rename them later. The change of their name doesn’t change our discovery of three zones.

The three zones schema refers to three-level abstract layers.

The “Doing” Zone: the daily routine practices and concrete actions about a particular work such as the “Strategic Design” practice.
The “Thinking” Zone: the subject’s cognitive activity within the “Strategic Design” practice.
The “Meta” Zone: the subject’s cognitive activity with knowledge such as concepts, models, frameworks, and other epistemic tools.

Each zone has its own object, outcome, and subject. Each process has its own mechanism. For example, Daiana discussed her experience of the “Meta” Zone in the following paragraphs.

The ongoing trends now advocate for more Transdisciplinarity as a way to bring experts together and share their Conceptual Heterogeneity in a given context in a way that is meaningful to the whole. The challenge is to build frameworks that are flexible yet robust enough to hold a heterogeneous dialogue without losing the relevant meaning and the quality of certain knowledge along the way.
While I rely on an extensive number of frameworks to meet different types of needs and clients with expert knowledge, even if I gain access to their knowledge, I might not be able to distill its value.

She also mentioned her routine of the “Thinking” zone:

My task is to create the means for Collaborative Learning to happen and keep the momentum through the right questions and stories so we build meaning together in a way that we can all understand and use.

Moreover, these three processes work together and influence each other. It is a challenge to discover this complex mechanism.

8. “Self Development” and “Team Creation”

Daiana also discussed the notion of “Collaborative Learning”. Since the model uses “Meta-learning” and “Conversation”, we do have to add the notion to the model.

As mentioned above, we need to “Maintain a simple network of secondary themes”.

We can use many notions to discuss facts, experiences, and rough ideas. However, we don’t have to add all notions into the theme network.

From Daiana’s description, we can discover a new theme called “Self Development”.

On the basis of Collaborative Learning, I am able to continue to build meaning in a more empowering way. I will highlight two main ideas that make learning meaningful:
1. Serving as a prerequisite for Creation
2. Acquiring depth and variety to strengthen my role as a Strategic Designer

She pointed out that there are two types of outcomes. The first one contributes to Team Creation while the second one contributes to a particular team member’s Self Development.

This is a significant insight.

We have to incorporate it into the original model. See the updated diagram below.

The Field of Meta-learning has three zones: “Doing”, “Thinking”, and “Meta”. Each zone has one unique process that is defined by different objects, tendencies, objectives, roles, and mechanisms. Each process interrelates with all the others.

The meta-learning happens within the internal process of each process and interactions between these processes.