Cultural Historical Activity Theory, An Introduction

Here's a few facts:

•Aka: CHAT

•A rhetorical theory (rhetoric= the art of speaking or writing effectively)

•How people act and communicate in the world specifically through the production of texts

•In other writing classes, mostly just taught a set of generalized rules

•Why is CHAT useful?: It allows us to investigate a writing activity from multiple perspectives

• Activity is situated in concrete interactions

•It is simultaneously improvised locally and mediated by historically-provided tools and practices

•People are socialized as they appropriate cultural resources

•This theory asks how: People, institutions, and artifacts are made in history

And here's the factors:

1. Production: tools and practices

2. Representation: ways people who produce a text conceptualize and plan it

3. Distribution: who a text is given to, for what purposes, using what distribution tools

4. Reception: how a text is taken up and used by others

5. Socialization: interaction of people and institutions in regards to the reception in particular

6. Activity: actual practices that people engage in as they create a text 

7. Ecology: environmental factors