Situational Note-taking: Creative Life, Thematic Space, and the Social Moves Project
This is a personal note!
On Nov 30, 2023, I edited a book (draft) titled Grasping the Concept: The Territory of Concepts and Concept Dynamics (Introduction, Table of Contents)
The project was part of my recent mental focus from Sept 2023 to Nov 2023. See the diagram below.
You can find more details in TALE: A new network of possible themes (August 24, 2023).
In Oct 2023, I reviewed the development of Creative Life Theory and edited a book titled Creative Life Theory: Building A Knowledge Enterprise.
A core idea of the book is the Creative Course Framework. See the diagram below.
The Creative Course Framework was inspired by Ping-keung Lui’s Theoretical Sociology. It was developed on April 18, 2023.
Yesterday I sent an email to Lui and reviewed the newest development of Creative Life Theory, especially the third-wave development.
From March 2023 to July 2023, I worked on the Mental Moves project. The outcome is a book (draft) titled The Attachance Approach to Ecological Creative Cognition.
If we use the Creative Course Framework to frame the Mental Moves project, then it is about the connection between “World of Works” and “Knowledge Center”. It is all about cognitive thinking and creativity.
On August 24, 2023, I started the “Social Moves” knowledge project which uses “Social Territory” as the primary concept.
The term “Social Territory” was inspired by Ping-keung Lui’s term “Social Territory” and his Subjectivist Structuralism which is part of his theoretical sociology.
I have claimed that “Knowledge Center” is a type of Social Territory. You can find more details in Knowledge Engagement: The Creative Course Framework.
I generally use “Social Territory” in the “Social Moves” knowledge project.
If we put “Mental Moves” and “Social Moves” together, we see a new unit of analysis of Social Cognition. While “Social Moves” are about Social Actions, “Mental Moves” are about related Mental Activities.
Social Cognition = Social Moves (Mental Moves)
This is the basic unit of the Social Moves project.
Though the Social Moves project was designed to develop Attachance Theory, we could use the Creative Course framework to frame the project. See the diagram below.
The Social Moves project is about the connection between “Knowledge Center” and “Creative Field”. It is all about social actions, not cognitive thinking.
In Sept 2023, I reviewed the development of Creative Life Theory. The diagram below represents its third-wave development.
It just started in July 2023. I considered the primary focus of the third-wave development as the creative dialogue between “Territory of Concepts” and “Platform Ecology”.
Grasping the Concept: The Territory of Concepts and Concept Dynamics has six parts:
- Part 1: Territory of Concepts
- Part 2: Concept Dynamics
- Part 3: Theme (Concept)
- Part 4: Social Cognition
- Part 5: Platform Genidentity
- Part 6: Slow Cognition
Some of the themes of the third-wave development of Creative Life Theory appear in the six parts.
The book also presents three important models about Concepts and Themes:
- The Meaning Matrix of “Theme (Concept)”
This model gives a general model for understanding the concept of “Concept” and other concepts such as “Self”, “Mind”, “Activity”, etc.
- The “Grasping the Concept” Model
Based on the Knowledge Discovery Canvas, the above model discovers four thematic areas of knowledge engagement.
- The Landscape of Evolving Concept System
I use “The Territory of Concepts” to refer to the Subjective Experience of Objectification of Concepts. It means we should make some real objects of concepts.
In the process of objectification, we, as the makers of these objects, will earn the subjective experience such as feedback from others, reflection on mistakes, excited moments, thematic conversations, capturing significant insights, comparing two concept systems, testing an object, expanding a concept system, moving between concept systems, etc.
The Landscape of Evolving Concept System gives us a framework for framing the complexity of the process of objecification.
It also offers us a framework for understanding the complexity of platform innovation and product innovation, especially technological platforms.
While the first-wave and second-wave development of Creative Life Theory focused on knowledge centers and theoretical platforms, the third-wave development moved to technological platforms.
Thematic Space Theory and Social Cognition
In the past several weeks, I also worked on the theme of “Creative Diagramming” and the theme of “Situational Note-taking”.
These two themes are about the concept of Thematic Space.
I realized that it’s time to call these ideas “Thematic Space Theory”.
As mentioned above, the concept of “Thematic Space” is related to the concept of “Attachance” and the concept of “Social Territory”.
For the Social Moves project, I need to find a way to connect “Thematic Space” and “Social Territory”.
In the past several weeks, I found several cases in the real-life world. For example, I made the diagram below on Sept 30, 2023. You can find more details in Value Circle #4: From “ARCH” to “Activity Circle”.
On Dec 1, I made the diagram below and sent it to Lui. I discussed the diagram of the “Thematic Space Theory (TST)” framework and the Project Engagement approach (v2.1).
The above TST framework uses “Variant > Quasi-invariant > Invariant > Invariant Set” as the foundation to define four types of entities for theoretical building.
- Invariant: Thematic Zones
- Invariant Set: Thematic Spaces
- Quasi-invariant: Thematic Areas
- Variant: Thematic Practices
I also use four diagrams as examples of these concepts.
The TST framework is part of a large framework that is defined by the “Variant > Quasi-invariant > Invariant > Invariant Set” framework. See the diagram below.
In the above diagram, we see five levels of analysis:
- Concept
- Frame for Work
- “Thematic Space Theory” (TST)
- Activity
- Affordance
The TST level or the Thematic Space level is a middle level that connects Activity and “Frame for Work”.
The whole diagram presents an ecological approach to social cognition.
Social Cognition, Life, and History
Moreover, the concept of “Thematic Space” is not only about creative cognition but also social cognition. In 2022, I developed a new ontology for the Project Engagement approach:
Life = Projects = Thematic Spaces = Events = History
In July 2022, I introduced the following diagram which is a new member of the Project Engagement approach (v2.1).
The concept of Life can be understood as Collective Life and Individual Life. We can use the concept of Project to understand both of them. A person’s real life is a set of real actions. The concept of Project is a way of curating these actions. On the other hand, Collective Life can be curated with Projects too.
While Life is the outcome of the diachronic unfolding of the chain of projects, history is the outcome of the diachronic unfolding of the chain of events.
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.
Moving between various thematic spaces will impact moving between various projects and vice versa.
Finally, we see a simple model of the development of life and history:
Life = Projects = Thematic Spaces = Events = History
In this way, the Life-as-Project approach echoes Andy Blunden’s notion that “a project is a concept of both psychology and sociology” (2014,p.15). The notion of “Engagement” has a new meaning which refers to moving between Thematic Spaces.
In 2023, I wanted to use the Mental Moves project and the Social Moves project to conduct empirical research about the ontological statement.
Related books (drafts)
- Creative Life Theory: Building A Knowledge Enterprise
- Mental Moves: The Attachance Approach to Ecological Creative Cognition
- Knowledge Discovery: Developing Tacit Knowledge with Thematic Space Canvas
- Knowledge Curation: Turning Pieces into A Meaningful Whole
- Life Discovery: Biography, Journey, Program
- Perspectives on Product Engagement
- Diagramming as Practice
- Diagram Blending: Building Diagram Networks
- Creative Life Curation: Discover Thematic Spaces of Creative Life
