Participatory Sense-making Research Articles

Health care as participatory sense-making: an enactive perspective on relations between patients and health care providers

Health care as participatory sense-making: an enactive perspective on relations between patients and health care providers

The Normative Space of Musical Performance: Expertise and the Symbolic Body

Abstract This article proposes a communicative, imitative, and reflective account of musical learning and expertise. It starts from an affirmative yet critical reading of Høffding and collaborators, notably their idea of a musical arch, meant to bridge distinctions between low-level procedural enactment and high-level reflective cognition. While we embrace much of their analysis, we argue that they uphold tensions between these levels. Drawing on recent enactivist thought, phenomenological and hermeneutic resources, and developmental psychology, we propose a ‘linguistic turn’ that allows us to situate the enactive body in what has been called an ‘original communication-situation’. The original communication-situation encompasses procedural proto-linguistic behaviour and a reflexive level of linguistic co-intentionality procedurally coupled with other bodies. From this perspective, musical co-creation within the normative space of the musical arch is a dialectical actualization of vertical and horizontal experience, reflecting transformative accomplishments of symbolic bodies within a linguistic field of participatory sense-making. The normative space of musical performance is the result of emergent features of music as embodied social practice.

Gods of Participation

This paper is a theoretical discussion of how the relation between religion and morality – one of the main research areas in the cognitive and evolutionary sciences of religion (CESR) – may be rephrased in terms of 4E cognition. This aim is realized through redefining morality and religion in terms of participatory sense-making – a model of social cognition situated within the 4E framework. This paper explains the basic tenets of the 4E (embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive) approach to cognition. It clarifies how the notion of mental representations – pivotal for any theorizing within CESR – can be fitted within this model by adopting a radical enactive cognition view. It then proceeds to define participatory sense-making and demonstrate how morality as a system for regulating cooperative behavior fits this concept. Finally, it discusses the role of representations of gods’ moral concerns in reinforcing morality. It argues that focusing on the meaning-making potential of social interactions can elucidate where these representations come from and how they unfold.

Withdrawing the Performer. Facilitating Participatory Sense-Making

With "Withdrawing the Performer. Facilitating Participatory Sense-Making", Imani Rameses (Center Research Focus, PhD candidate PhD in Art), Charlotta Ruth (Angewandte Performance Lab), and Jasmin Schaitl (Angewandte Performance Lab) combine their approaches from visual arts, choreography, and cognitive neuroscience to examine participatory modalities in immersive performative settings through the lens of social cognition. They focus on the role of the facilitator, a nearly invisible and overlooked, but highly important part of any performative situation. Working with facilitator experts in a practice-based peer-to-peer exchange, the authors seek to understand different methods for reducing thresholds and modulating participatory situations.

Patients as Experts, Participatory Sense-Making, and Relational Autonomy

Although mental health professionals traditionally have been viewed as sole experts and decision-makers, there is increasing awareness that the experiential knowledge of former patients can make an important contribution to mental health practices. I argue that current patients likewise possess a kind of expertise, and that including them as active participants in diagnosis and treatment can strengthen their autonomy and allow them to build up important habits and skills. To make sense of these agential benefits and describe how patients might act as co-regulators of a therapeutic encounter, I look to the enactivist notion of “participatory sensemaking”.

Evald Ilyenkov and the enactive approach

AbstractThere is a growing interest in Evald Ilyenkov’s work and its significance for contemporary debates. This interest spans several disciplines. One key thread in Ilyenkov’s ideas concerns a perspective on the relation between biology and psychology. In rejecting crude reductionism and individualism, Ilyenkov put forward a view of mind and personhood as emerging from activity and social practice. In his rejection of brain-bound notions of the mind, Ilyenkov’s ideas bear interesting resonances with current work in 4E cognition. One particularly interesting resonance that has occasionally been noticed are the connections with the enactive approach to life and mind. However, beyond some hints at interesting convergences, there is to date no detailed comparison between the two views. The present article attempts to address this gap, examining both complementarities and possible tensions between the two approaches. Rejecting cognitive views detached from environmental and social processes, the enactive approach, as exemplified by De Jaegher and Di Paolo’s concept of participatory sense-making, emphasises the dynamic constitution of cognition through embodied and situated activities. The article draws parallels between Ilyenkov’s emphasis on historically and culturally situated activity, notably labour, and the enactive understanding of human bodies as dynamically constituted in human activity. The article explores the Ilyenkovian and enactive perspectives on the dialectics of ideality, challenging traditional dualistic views and proposing that the ideal emerges as metastable patterns in the ongoing interactions between world, practices, norms, and bodies. The article concludes by suggesting future research directions for the enactive approach, particularly in areas emphasised by Ilyenkov, such as labour and the mediation of material/cultural artefacts.

Material Engagement Shaping Participation of Children on the Autism Spectrum: Embodiment and Subjectivity in Small-Group Learning.

This study investigated the material engagement and their affordances for participation of children on the autism spectrum (AS) in small-group learning. Framed by a methodology called Idea Diary that fosters social interactions in classroom environments, our focus was on understanding how and when the construction and manipulation of the diary supported children's participation and knowledge construction in small groups. This investigation was guided by the intersection of the theory of subjectivity developed by Fernando González Rey and enactive accounts of cognition. This framework provided the view of the singularity in the communicative process of children on the AS and the necessary support for examining the mechanisms of engagement that led to children's participation. We present two case studies of 9-10-year-old boys. Data consists of the diaries produced and used by children and video recordings of children's interactions during small-group discussions. Our analytical approach included a qualitative semiotic analysis of the materials and a micro-analysis of the social interactions. The results showed, first, that children on the AS continuously engaged in the construction of the diary, expressing elements of their subjectivity-experiences, ideas and the system through which they interact with the world. Repetition framed children's productions and signalled engagement. Second, material engagement enabled participatory sense-making, which in this study appeared in creating new communicative resources between the child on the AS and their peers and in adapting the narratives, approximating children's perspectives in conversations. Although contextualised within a specific pedagogical practice, the study contributes to advancing our understanding of the role of material engagement in social participation in learning situations involving children on the AS, particularly relevant in educational psychology and education.

Community-based design through the enactive concept of participatory sense-making: the case of water care in the Moravia neighbourhood of Medellín, Colombia

ABSTRACT Community-based design has become established in the design scene due to its advantages and new values, of which there is ample evidence. In this article, we document a real case of a design process with a vulnerable community in the Moravia neighbourhood in the city of Medellín (Colombia) where the methodological elements and the values that predominate in this type of design processes are described. The preliminary results of the intervention yield very positive outcomes in relation to the original design objectives. However, the theoretical exploration of why these forms of design can be more effective when it comes to changing cultural practices has been scarcely studied. We believe that we can extend and adapt explanations from the theories of social cognition of enactivism, especially, with its concept of participatory sense-making to justify the creation of the new meanings and practices that community design offers. Indeed, we believe that the introduction of new artefacts situated in specific contexts that are conceived from a participatory conception, create new nodes of meanings that can be more successful in transforming practices in the communities participating in their own design processes.

Enacted institutions, participatory sense-making and social norms

This paper argues that institutions are higher-level autonomous systems enacted by patterns of participatory sense-making. Therefore, unlike in the standard equilibrium theory, institutions are not themselves thought of as behavioural patterns. Instead, they are problem domains that these patterns have brought forth. Moreover, these are not merely any patterns, but only those devoted to maintaining a specific strategy of problem solving, called the strategy of ‘letting be’. The latter refers to, following Hanne de Jaegher, a balance between underdetermination and overdetermination of individual behaviour by a collective. Such an understanding of institutions becomes an option once a hybrid ‘equilibrium + rules’ theory of institutions, such as the one proposed by Frank Hindriks, is supplemented with insights from enactivism. In this light, drawing a connection between these two areas is the additional, meta-theoretical goal of this paper. This connection is beneficial, I argue, in particular since it allows for a satisfactory, in-depth account of the normative character of institutions as well as their local character.

Eros In-between and All-around

In this paper, I focus on the concept of embeddedness as the background against which eros is a force and a power in and through interactions. To go beyond an internalist account of eros, I engage in a dialogue with some philosophical accounts of desire from an enactive perspective.This enables me to shed light on the location of the embodied tension as “in-between” lovers and “all-around” them. Crucial to this tensional account of embedded eros is the intertwining between self and others’ becomings in processes of participatory sense-making. Through participatory sense-making lovers make their worlds, creating new ways of being and knowing in the ensemble. I advance some steps towards an enactive ethics of eros where, I claim, the cultivation of the space in-between and all-around lovers is the key to avoid the traps of a degenerated form of eros.

Can I Join in? Understanding Children’s Participation in Play

Based on a design-based research project and ethnographic observations of children’s play in school and after-school activities, the paper analyses how children participate in play. Using participatory sense-making (De Jaegher & Di Paolo, 2007) the main contribution of this paper is to show diversity in sensory, playful participation in children’s play, and emphasise the importance of paying attention to the not spoken, sensory, embodied movements that children share when playing. The analysis illustrates that children participate in play through a sensory engagement, which is short, intense and not spoken, and by taking part in other children’s and adults’ participatory approaches.

Life After 'Life After Kant' Other Minds with Jonas and Merleau-Ponty

This paper examines two twenty-first-century developments in the enactive approach in philosophy and the cognitive sciences. The first is the surging interest in Hans Jonas, which begins with Weber and Varela's 'Life After Kant' (2002) and continues up to the present. The second is the 'social turn' that the enactive approach has taken, especially after De Jaegher and Di Paolo's (2007) work on participatory sense-making. We look at these two developments through the lens of the problem of other minds. We argue that they are incompatible due to a residual solipsism in Jonasian phenomenology. Ultimately, this leaves enactive theory with a choice between embracing Jonas or embracing the social turn in enactive theory. We recommend replacing Jonasian influences with those from the late work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. We argue that enactivism can evade the problem of other minds using Merleau-Ponty's discussion of 'flesh' and 'expression'.

Motor control and skill acquisition in pediatric physical therapy: an enactive proposal.

Theories of motor control and skill acquisition strongly influence and guide various fields of clinical practice. In last decades, changes in theoretical frameworks related to the conceptualization of brain plasticity, functional structures within the child, and environment have led to a revision of therapy approaches progressing from therapist-driven to child-initiated approaches. Even though theoretical frameworks and clinical practice are closely linked to the child's body, the profession has paid less attention to theories concerning the body's role and status in interpersonal relationships when fostering motor control and skill acquisition in children. In this theoretical paper we discuss the theoretical frameworks of motor control and skill acquisition that currently guide clinical practice. Through highlighting valuable contributions of these theories, we explore theoretical and practical benefits pediatric physical therapy can acquire by taking an enactive approach as a means to bring the child as a subject into focus. We rely on enactive concepts of embodiment, autonomy, and participatory sense-making in our exploration to provide an extended understanding of motor control and skill acquisition shaping our beliefs about what counts in therapeutic encounters in pediatric physical therapy.

The osteopath-parent-child triad in osteopathic care in the first 2 years of life: a qualitative study.

Enactivism and active inference are two important concepts in the field of osteopathy. While enactivism emphasizes the role of the body and the environment in shaping our experiences and understanding of the world, active inference emphasizes the role of action and perception in shaping our experiences and understanding of the world. Together, these frameworks provide a unique perspective on the practice of osteopathy, and how it can be used to facilitate positive change in patients. Since the neonatal period is a crucial time for development, osteopaths should aim to create a therapeutic relationship. Arguably, through participatory sense-making, osteopaths can help the baby build a generative model (with positive priors) to deal with stress and needs throughout their life. Since the literature considers that interactions with the environment, which enact the patients' experiences, depending on contextual factors and communication between patient and caregiver, this research explored whether there is a correspondence between the indications in the literature and clinical practice in the management of the mother/parent-child dyad during osteopathic care on children aged 0 to 2 years old. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of nine osteopaths with experience in the field of pediatrics. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, and constructivist grounded theory was used to conceptualize, collect and analyze data. Codes and categories were actively constructed through an interpretive/constructionist paradigm. The core category was the idea of the pediatric osteopath as a support for the family, not only for the child. Four additional categories were identified: (1) Preparing a safe environment for both children and parents, (2) Communication, (3) Attachment and synchrony, and (4) Synchronization. Through participatory sense-making, osteopaths manage contextual factors to establish an effective therapeutic alliance through the osteopath-parent-child triad to facilitate the construction of the child's internal generative model to promote healthy development. The therapeutic encounter is considered an encounter between embodied subjects, occurring within a field of affordances (ecological niche) that allows the interlocutors to actively participate in creating new meanings through interpersonal synchronization. Participatory sense-making and the establishment of a therapeutic alliance through the osteopath-parent-child triad are crucial to promote healthy development in the child.

A systematic synthesis of qualitative studies on parents' experiences of participating in early intervention programs with their infant born preterm.

Early intervention programs involving both the parent and the infant born preterm have demonstrated positive effects on developmental outcomes for the children. However, studies have also shown that parental engagement and adherence when implementing intervention programs can be challenging. The aim of this review was to provide a comprehensive description and new insights into key messages gleaned from the parent reports on participating in early intervention with their infant born preterm; knowledge vital to facilitate implementation of early interventions into clinical practice when using a model of direct parent involvement. Early intervention is broadly defined as a multi-interdisciplinary field provided to children from birth to five years of age to foster child health, wellbeing, development, adapting parenting and family function. For this systematic synthesis we define early intervention as programs with specific activities completed with the infant during the first year after birth. We assembled qualitative interview studies on parents' experiences with participation in early intervention and applied Malterud's qualitative systematic meta-synthesis to synthesize and translate the original findings across studies. In the analysis we applied enactive concepts of embodiment, autonomy, participatory sensemaking, and agency. 10 qualitative studies were identified and included. The systematic synthesis reveals how parents' successful and meaningful participation in early intervention programs were facilitated by their "active embodied doing." The "embodied doing" appeared as the basis for the parents' sense-making processes, development of confidence, and the ability for parents to see new possibilities for actions within themselves, with and in the child. In that respect, a perception of mutuality in the interaction between parent, infant and interventionist was central. Consequently, an important consideration when implementing early intervention into clinical practice is to promote embodied parent-infant interactions as well as trust between the parent and the interventionist.

Interactive agential dynamics

The study of active matter systems demonstrates how interactions might co-constitute agential dynamics. Active matter systems are comprised of self-propelled independent entities which, en masse, take part in complex and interesting collective group behaviors at a far-from-equilibrium state (Menon, 2010; Takatori & Brady, 2015). These systems are modelled using very simple rules (Vicsek at al. 1995), which reveal the interactive nature of the collective behaviors seen from humble to highly complex entities. Here I show how the study of active matter systems supports two related proposals regarding interaction and agency. First, I argue that the study of interactive dynamics in these systems evidences the utility of treating interaction as an ontological category (Longino, 2021) and challenges methodological individualism as the received explanatory primitive in the study of agency. Second, the methods used to research active matter systems demonstrate how a minimal approach to agency can scale up in studying interactive agential dynamics in more complex systems. The examples of coordination dynamics (Kelso, 2001) and participatory sense-making (De Jaegher & Di Paolo, 2007) are provided to show how understanding agency requires us to look beyond the individuals to the interactive agential dynamics that can guide, scaffold, or constrain their activity.

I and We: Hannah Arendt, Participatory Plurality, and the Literary Scaffolding of Collective Intentionality

ABSTRACT This article examines Hannah Arendt’s contribution to notions of the “We” and tests key Arendtian concepts through relation and juxtaposition with philosophical and literary texts from different periods, thereby complicating discussions of (1) how individuals participate in, shape, and are shaped by various forms of “We”; (2) how, within collective participation, individuals come to care about being themselves; and (3) to what extent literary texts enable and encourage processes of identity construction and (re)configuration. For Arendt, the “place in the world which makes opinions significant and actions effective” (2017, 387–88) is “the result of our common labor, the outcome of the human artifice” (2017, 393)—the shared practices and institutions that Wittgenstein calls “forms of life” (2009, 15). In this article, the authors argue that by exploring and critiquing “forms of life” literature can expand the range of activities we recognize as fostering “participatory sense-making” (De Jaegher and Di Paolo 2007, 465). The three literary provocations presented here—Callimachus’s “Hymn to Apollo,” Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain, and Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace—all interrogate the situated interactions of “I’s” and “We’s” that instantiate the “participatory plurality” of the shared world.

Of rhythm and movement: physical play and dance as (participatory) sense-making practices

ABSTRACT Drawing on the enactive account and the 4E’s approach to cognition, we discuss here how both physical play and dance improvisational practice can be seen as (participatory) sense-making processes. In this article, we will specifically focus on children’s physical play and dance improvisation since both activities are open-ended, creative and call immediate attention for the kinetic/tactile-kinesthetic dimensions of the body. Dance improvisation is defined here as the creation of movements in the here and now. Children’s physical play is defined as playful activities initiated by children that bring the kinetic/tactile-kinesthetic experience to the fore. We will argue that enactivism provides a rich entrance in analyzing children’s physical play and dance improvisation. In this article we first give a short introduction into the 4E’s approach to cognition, the enactive approach and the concept of participatory sense-making. We then discuss how children’s physical play and dance improvisation can be seen as special forms of participatory sense-making on the basis of five themes: decision-making-in-action, kinesthetic pleasure, coordination of action, creative potential and ambiguity. In the final section, we illustrate how the participatory model introduced in this article can be used by the enactive approach to explain higher-level cognitive processes in a broader sense.

(En)action research: practice transformation through processes of participatory sense-making in educational action research

ABSTRACT Scholars regard educational action research as contributing to change and developing sustainable teaching practices. The theoretical framework revolves around the idea that changes stem from human actions and draws inspiration from several philosophical traditions. However, the dynamo of transformation in the different approaches is generally a systematic self-reflective inquiry. In this study, we examine how changes of practice through educational action research emerge when the process is understood through the enactive theory of participatory sense-making. The point of departure for our methodological examination is an action research project on Movement Integration in Danish primary and secondary schools. Our analysis underscores that the process of dialogue and participation in action research gains impact by embracing joint movement-based actions. The study highlights that pre-reflective and movement-based inquiries may be a significant dynamo in the action research project’s effort to become deeply meaningful for the participants, to empower their participation and to make sustainable practice transformations possible. Applying the enactive framework in action research brings forward a methodological awareness about unnoticed dimensions of how participants make sense of action research processes, and the significance of being attentive to and working actively with 1) relation-making, i.e. how participants participate in each other’s sense-making by how they move in relation to each other; 2) time-making, i.e. how participants’ past experiences and future possibilities interblend with how they grasp a given matter; and 3) space-making, i.e. how sense-making is extended into space through the body’s location and actions in a given environment.

Participatory Sense-Making in Dance Improvisation

Participatory sense-making (PSM) provides a rich theoretical framework for theories in social cognition, providing a base for hypotheses that remain to be experimentally tested. Particularly, we are interested in exploring when synchrony arises between participating agents in social interactions. Additionally, we aim to see if altering the perceptual experiences of agents influences their ability to coordinate their intentions and behaviours. We propose a behavioural experiment that makes use of an existing dance improvisation paradigm to obtain measures of spontaneously arising coordinated behaviour. Then, we propose analysis methods, including instantaneous phase synchrony, to translate the behavioural observations into meaningful measures of coordination. We then present our expected results and discuss how they may contribute to the existing knowledge in social cognition. Additionally, we explore the implications of results that do not support our hypothesis, providing suggestions for future directions in testing hypotheses proposed by PSM.