Concept formation and conceptual change are central topics in studies of human learning. However, these topics are studied predominantly in laboratory and classroom contexts in which the focus is on individual learners and the concepts to be acquired are neutral, well known and defined by the researchers or instructors ahead of time. The formation of functional concepts in work and other collaborative activities “in the wild” has only recently been identified as a research challenge (special issue of Mind, Culture, and Activity; 3/2012). Embedded in activities, concepts need to be understood as complex, emergent, contested and volitionally charged constructs that have serious practical consequences for communities.

The objectives of this session are: (1) to take a step forward in the development of the newly formulated research field designated as concept formation in the wild, (2) to open up analyses of agency as an important aspect of learning and concept formation, and (3) to bring together for comparison and exchange empirical analyses of four different cultural contexts of concept formation and learners’ agency embedded in human activities.    

Cultural-historical and activity-oriented theories (Vygotsky, Davydov, Hutchins, Nersessian) regard concept formation as crucially dependent on the construction and use of cultural artifacts, specified as material anchors, models, or signs. On the other hand, only Vygotsky builds an explicit connection between concept formation and volition with his principle of double stimulation. In collaborative activities the formation of future-oriented concepts and agentive action to construct the future in practice go hand in hand. We may speak of future-oriented perspectival concepts or possibility concepts. These qualities point toward an important, yet practically unexplored connection between concept formation and agency. Transformative agency may be understood as the capacity to form and implement intentions that go beyond and transform the accepted routines and given conditions of the activity in which the subjects are involved. In the session, concept formation is discussed as an agentive process. This is a novel perspective on concept formation that requires ambitious theoretical, methodological and empirical work. 

The four papers of the session focus on diverse cultural practices and settings of informal learning. The paper by Annalisa Sannino and Anne Laitinen presents findings from an experimental study investigating how Vygotsky’s principle of double stimulation works among individuals and groups as a foundational mechanism that generates volitional action and efforts at concept formation. The paper by Swapna Mukhopadhyay presents a study of concept formation and agency at an intersection of tradition and modernity among boat builders in a fishing village in India. The paper by Irene Vänninen and Marco Pereira Querol presents a study of collective concept formation and agency among Finnish greenhouse tomato growers fighting pests that challenge the growers’ traditional individualist modes of working. Finally the paper by Yrjö Engeström, Anu Kajamaa and Jaana Nummijoki presents as study of concept formation and agency among the workers and clients of municipal home care of the elderly. The discussant will be Professor Bernard Schneuwly (University of Geneva), a leading Vygotskian scholar.