The “Frame for Work” Project (2024)

Oliver Ding

Published in

Curativity Center

9 min readAug 22, 2024

Knowledge Frameworks and The Richness of Variant

I designed the above picture for the “Frame for Work” project on April 1, 2024.

The “Frame for Work” theme was born on Jan 30, 2023.

The above picture was designed as a Thematic Card highlighting a particular theme.

If you compare the above two pictures, you can find tiny differences between them.

One is for representing a Project while the other one is for representing a Theme. You can find more details in TALE: Possible Themes v.s. Possible Books.

I intended to make a distinction between possible themes and possible books and other projects on visuals.

You can see the principle: the TALE logo is replaced with my name.

Sometimes, I also changed the sub-title. That means I changed the meaning of the theme a little bit. Let’s see two sub-titles of “Frame for Work”:

Jan 30, 2023: An Ontology of Knowledge Frameworks
April 1, 2024: Knowledge Frameworks and The Richness of Variant

What’s the creative journey behind this change within over one year?

The possible theme “Frame for Work” was born on Jan 30, 2023.

It is a by-product of a thematic conversation about “Strategic Exploration”.

I used “a possible configuration of a theme network” to describe the structure of the things inside the thematic space. Moreover, I developed the notion of “Ecological Formism” with the following distinction:

Possible: many possible configurations of a theme network
Actual: a particular configuration of a theme network
Representation: a diagram of a particular configuration

This is a major outcome of the project from my perspective. On Jan 30, 2023, I realized that the further task is to develop a new ontology of knowledge frameworks after publishing the post about the Field of Meta-learning (v1.0).

In order to remember this significant insight, I made a cover image and used “Frame for Work” as a new possible theme.

The “Frame for Work” Thematic Card was designed to highlight the notion of “Ecological Formism (Nov 2022)” which refers to a framework that defines the following categories:

Variant
Quasi-invariant
Invariant
Invariant Set

On May 10, 2023, I wrote a short post to reflect on the theme.

TALE: A Possible Theme called “Frame for Work”

An Ontology of Knowledge Frameworks

medium.com

In Dec 2023, I made major progress on the “Frame for Work” project.

I redefined the “Ecological Formism” framework
I used the “Ecological Actualism” framework to explain the Ontology of Knowledge Frameworks
I used the “Ecological Formism” framework to explain the Hermeneutics of Knowledge Frameworks

A New View on Knowledge Frameworks

These changes were part of the journey of building an integrated ecological framework to social cognition. It was the primary theme of a possible book Social Moves: The Attachance Approach to Social Cognition.

The diagram below shows three layers of the Attachance Approach to Social Cognition.

Ontology: Social Moves (Mental Moves)
Realism: the Ecological Actualism framework
Hermeneutics: the Ecological Formism framework

The Ecological Formism framework is an epistemological framework that frames five units of analysis from four types of knowing.

The “Variant > Quasi-invariant > Invariant > Invariant Set” schema defines four types of knowing.

The “Frame for Work” level is about the emergence of knowledge frameworks. The diagram below is a case study of the “Frame for Work” level. You can find more details in Frame for Work: The Hermeneutics of Knowledge Frameworks and Ecological Formism.

In Jan 2024, I expanded the Ecological Formism Framework to six units of analysis. The new member is “Diagram”.

The six units of analysis both use the “Variant > Quasi-invariant > Invariant > Invariant Set” schema to define four types of knowing. However, there is no strict one-to-one correspondence between each row.

The “Concept” level is about the transformation between themes and concepts.
The “Framework” level is about the emergence of knowledge frameworks.
The “Diagram” level is about the External Visual Representations of knowledge frameworks.
The TST level (the “Thematic Space” level) is a middle level that connects “Activity” and “Framework”.
The “Activity” level is about different patterns of actions.
The “Affordance” level is related to the Operation level of Activity.

You can find more details in Social Moves: An Integrated Ecological Approach to Social Cognition.

In the Ecological Formism Framework (v1.1), the “Concept” level only talks about the hierarchy of a single theme or a single concept. I use the term “Theme Network” and the term “Concept System” to describe their networks.

What’s the relationship between the “Concept” level and the “Framework” level?

Some “Concept Systems” are developed for understanding some particular activities or social practices, these kinds of “Concept Systems” are called “Knowledge Frameworks”.

All knowledge frameworks are concept systems, but not all concept systems are knowledge frameworks. In other words, Knowledge Frameworks are a sub-set of Concept Systems.

What’s the relationship between the “Framework” level and the “Diagram” level?

Knowledge Diagrams are External Visual Representations of Knowledge Frameworks. There is no strict correspondence between Knowledge Diagrams and Knowledge Frameworks. Some knowledge frameworks can be represented by using tables, not diagrams. Some diagrams such as meta-diagrams are only about spatial structure, not about particular domain knowledge.

There is also a loose correspondence between “a network of knowledge frameworks” and a “Diagram Network”. We could use a Diagram Network to develop a Network of Knowledge Frameworks.

You can find more details in Diagram Explained: Concept System, Diagram Network, and Knowledge Frameworks.

Frame for Work vs. Frameworks

What’s the difference between “Frame for Work” and “Knowledge Frameworks”?

As mentioned above, I used “Frame for Work” as a Theme. I also changed my understanding of the theme. Eventually, I used “Frame” as a metaphor to refer to a series of “Frames”.

Social Cognition is not only about Knowledge but also Activity. There are different types of “Frames” behind Knowledge and Activity.

Frame 0: Rules, Knowledge, Belief, and other things that frame our activities of “Making Knowledge Frameworks”
Frame 1: Knowledge Frameworks
Frame 2: The social context of the Activity, such as Domains, Law, Rules, Social Norms, etc.
Frame 3: The physical environments of the Activity, such as place, weather, material tools, resources, etc.
Frame 4: A particular person’s mind, knowledge, skills, beliefs, life situations, etc.

This is a rough typology. It points out the range of the metaphor of “Frame”.

I have written some articles about my own experiences of the theme. For example:

Social Moves: Weaving the Mind and Clarifying the Order (Dec 7, 2023)
Situational Note-taking: “Frame for work” and “Framework” (Jan 2, 2024)

Frame as Concept System

The recent development of the “Frame for Work” theme is the connection between “Frame” and “Concept System”.

As mentioned above, there are many types of “Frame”. If we don’t consider “Frame 3: The physical environments of the Activity”, then all other types of “Frame” can be understood as “Concept System”.

From 2021 to 2024, I wrote a trilogy about “Concept Development”.

There are many knowledge projects behind these three books, I’d like to divide them into three phases.

Phase 1: Appropriating Activity Theory (2020–2022)
Phase 2: Running Knowlege Centers (2022–2023)
Phase 3: Evolving Concept System (2023–2024)

I learned the notion of “Activity as Formation of Concept” in Phase 1 and applied it to Phase 2. In Phase 3, I expanded my ideas from a Single Concept to a Concept System.

The “Frame for Work” project (2024) will focus on the level of “Concept System”.

“Frame for Work” and “Evolving Knowledge Enterprise”

In April 2024, I introduced the “Evolving Knowledge Enterprise” model. You can find more details in The Landscape of Evolving Knowledge Enterprise.

It is a 3 dimensions x 3 hierarchical levels model.

3 Dimensions

Mental Platform
Material Container
Behavioral Network

Mental Platform

Knowledge Elements
Knowledge Frameworks
Knowledge System

Material Container

Themes
Representations (such as Diagrams)
Things

Behavioral Network

Circles
Projects
Social Network

The Middle Loop

Knowledge Frameworks
Representations (Such as Diagrams)
Projects

What’s the relationship between the “Frame for Work” project and the “Evolving Knowledge Enterprise” model?

See the middle layer of the model.

This is the middle layer of the model. It only focuses on the following entities:

Knowledge Framework
Project
Representation

This is the key to building a successful knowledge enterprise.

We can see this model as a “Frame” for a Work of “Building A Knowledge Enterprise”.

“Frame for Work” and “Predictive Model”

The “Frame for Work” project also has a relevant connection with the “Anticipatory Activity System (AAS)” Framework, especially the concept of “Predictive Model”.

The “Anticipatory Activity System (AAS)” Framework was inspired by Activity Theory and Robert Rosen’s Anticipatory System theory.

According to Robert Rosen, “An anticipatory system is a natural system that contains an internal predictive model of itself and of its environment, which allows it to change state at an instant in accord with the model’s predictions pertaining to a later instant.” In contrast, a reactive system only reacts, in the present, to changes that have already occurred in the causal chain, while an anticipatory system’s present behavior involves aspects of the past, present, and future.

The core idea is the “internal predictive model” and the model can predict the Self and the Environment.

What do predictive models look like?

Robert Rosen’s theory is a general theory. Since my framework also considers Activity Theory and other theoretical resources, I have to develop my own ideas of Predictive Models.

In 2022, I wrote a book (draft) titled Advanced Life Strategy: Anticipatory Activity System and Life Achievements. I made a distinction between General Predictive Model and Particular Predictive Models for the Life Strategy project.

The General Predictive Model refers to a person’s mind and knowledge.

For a particular project, a person will develop a particular model to help her model the development of the project. In other words, she will use a model to predict the future of the project.

“Modeling A Project” is one of five movements of the Anticipatory Activity System. See the diagram below.