TALE: A Journey of Engaging with the Theme of “Themes” (2017–2023)

From “Themes of Practice” to “Thematic Engagement”

TALE stands for Thematic Analysis Learning Engagement. As a knowledge center, TALE Center was launched to host the Thematic Engagement project.

The Thematic Engagement project was born from a dialogue between the following two knowledge frameworks:

• The Themes of Practice Approach (2019, 2021)
• The Project Engagement Approach (2021, 2022)

The Project Engagement Approach was inspired by Andy Blunden’s approach to Activity Theory: “Project as a unit of activity” and “formation of concept is activity”.

This post is a short note about my journey of engaging with the theme of “Themes”.

2017

In 2017, I wrote a series of articles about personal epistemology in order to discuss the relationship between Knowledge, Action, and Person. At the end of the series, I use Life Container and Life Themes to discuss the personal journey of knowing.

Career counseling therapists and psychologists also developed a theoretical concept called “life theme”.

I have read many books about the concept of Themes. I realized that this is an important interdisciplinary topic. The concept of Themes connects to Mind, Creativity, Action, and Practice.

2019

In 2019, I developed the idea of “Themes of Practice” in order to discuss the “meaning” of the meaningful whole for my book Curativity: The Ecological Approach to Curatorial Practice. I realized that “Theme” is an excellent tool for curating experiences and actions.

As an application of Curativity Theory, the above General Curation Framework represents the structure and dynamics of curatorial practice. The activity of curatorial practice aims to collect pieces of things into a meaningful whole in order to present a theme to a group of audience.

2020

In 2020, I reviewed the hierarchy of Activity and Practice in a previous article Activity U (VI): The Hierarchy of Human Activity and Social Practice. The outcome is an eight-level hierarchical model of human social practice. The top level is “Theme”.

Theme is at a higher level of abstraction than Activity.

2021

In April 2021, I started learning Genre Theory. I designed a new diagram for Themes of Practice and shared it on Twitter to discuss Genre Theory.

In June 2021, I wrote an 89-page file titled The Method of Theme Analysis which lists a set of ideas for discussing Themes of Practice:

• Hierarchy
• Naming
• Lifecycle
• Comparison
• Emergency
• Connection
• Tension
• Competition
• Perception

In July 2021, I conducted an empirical study titled Themes of Practice, Social Media, and Interpersonal Communication and wrote a 56-page report that introduced the following new sub-concepts:

• Self-perceived Themes
• Other-perceived Themes
• Shared Themes
• Authorship of Themes
• Mentionship of Themes
• Followship of Themes
• Pervasive Mentionship
• Proximal Mentioship

In August 2021, I collected over 440 pages of my writing about the topic and edited a possible book titled Themes of Practice: The Information Architecture of Social Life.

On June 28, 2021, I designed the above picture for a possible book and used “The Information Architecture of Social Life” as its subtitle. In fact, “The Information Architecture of Social Life” is the title of the first epilogue of Curativity.

2022

In Feb 2022, I worked on the Life-as-Activity framework and developed the “Moment — Project — Theme” hierarchy. I also considered “Potential Themes” as a type of Developmental Resource.

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

On March 18, 2022, I ran the first Thematic Spirit with a friend.

On July 2, 2022, I connected the notion of “Theme as Space”, the concept of “Thematic Space”, and the “Flow — Story — Model” metaphor.

By connecting the Project-centered Approach and the concept of “Thematic Space” together, we can find the following connection:

Life = Project = Thematic Space

While Life is a chain of projects, it can be understood as a journey of moving between various thematic spaces.

Each project has its primary themes and other secondary themes. By joining projects and leaving projects, we are practicing our significant Life Themes. Thus, these projects are Thematic Spaces too.

In September 2022, I launched the Thematic Engagement Toolkit (v1.0).

2023

In Jan 2023, I launched TALE (Thematic Analysis Learning Lab) as a new Knowledge Center in order to host the Thematic Engagement project.

In June 2023, I edited a possible book titled Thematic Exploration: The Early Discovery of Knowledge Engagement (book, v1).

For the Strategic Thematic Exploration framework, I made a distinction between “Theme” and “Concept”. While “Theme” emphasizes subjective experience and understanding, “Concept” is more about objective meaning and definition.

The Thematic Space can be smaller than the Conceptual Space or bigger than the Conceptual Space because it is a dynamic space. You can find more details in A Possible Theme called “Context (Mind)”.

This is a fantastic journey!

Related Links

2019: Themes of Practice

• Curativity Theory: The Ecological Approach to General Curation Practice — 2019
• How did I develop Curativity Theory? — 2019

2020: Themes and Human Activity

• HERO U — A New Framework for Knowledge Heroes (…Theme U…) — June 26, 2020
• Activity U (VI): The Hierarchy of Human Activity and Social Practice — Sept 29, 2020
• The Developmental Project Model (… Theme and Identity…) — Dec 13, 2020

2021: Themes and Career Development | Possible Themes

• Activity U (X): Projecting, Projectivity, and Cultural Projection — Jan 9, 2021
• Personal Innovation as Career-fit — May 25, 2021
• Curativity Theory for Personal Innovation (a Miro board) — June 15, 2021
• P4D Case Study #1: Airtable(Community List) (… Concept: Community Curation …)— June 20, 2021
• Career API Canvas (… Career Themes and Career Identity …)— June 26, 2021
• The ECHO Way (v2.0) — June 30, 2021
• The Career Theme Canvas — July 23, 2021
• Themes of Practice (2019–2021) — Aug 7, 2021
• The Creative Work Canvas — Oct 22, 2021

2022: Themes and Tacit Knowledge | Thematic Space

• The Notion of Thematic Spaces — Jan 5, 2022
• Slow Cognition: Three Canvases for Developing Tacit Knowledge — Feb 2, 2022
• Life Discovery: The “Present — Future” Fit and The ECHO Way (…Life U: Possible Themes…) — Feb 20, 2022
• Life Discovery: The “Experience — Theme” Ladder and Meaning — Feb 25, 2022
• Knowledge Discovery: The “Double Theme” Strategy — April 2, 2022
• Slow Cognition: The First Thematic Spirit — March 19, 2022
• Slow Cognition: This is just an accident (… Theme as Space …) — May 26, 2022
• #TalkThree 14: What’s “Thematic Space”? — July 6, 2022
• The Thematic Engagement Toolkit (v1.0) — Sept 15, 2022
• Slow Cognition: The “Activity — Opportunity” Thematic Dialogue — Sept 22, 2022
• Slow Cognition: The Echoes of A Thematic Dialogue — Sept 26, 2022
• #TalkThree 16: Concepts, Themes, and Culture — Oct 6, 2022

2023: Themes and Strategic Innovation | Theme (Concept)

• TALE: A New Knowledge Center — Jan 1, 2023
• TALE: A Possible Theme called “Expansive Activity Analysis” — March 29, 2023
• TALE: A Possible Theme called “Context (Mind)” — June 20, 2023
• Thematic Exploration: The Early Discovery of Knowledge Engagement (book, v1) — June 23, 2023
• TALE: One 10-day Road Trip, 21 Thematic Cards (… Situational Themes …) — August 7, 2023