Direct Perception and Symbol Forming in Positioning

Abstract

Harreà’s positioning theory posits discourse as the concrete context within which selves are produced, but accentuates the dissociation between the physical engagement in a conversation and ‘location’ in a conceptual interpersonal space. The thesis that positioning involves selective attention, and that selected positions express ongoing transformations in the hearer’s experiential realm is expanded here initially by reference to Gibson’s direct‐perception theory. The concepts of indexical and symbolic affordances are introduced to describe the function of utterances in setting parameters for hearer’s behavioural and social‐relational engagement, respectively. This implicates a construct of ‘psychological value’ (i.e., the affective intensity and valence of elements of experience), as proposed by C. G. Jung. The essay draws attention to the idea of symbol forming as a process whereby abstract self/world relations are articulated in one’s actions and thoughts, and in which context the ‘reception’ of others’ actions and utterances as having positioning implications may be understood.

What makes a robot ‘social’?

“…A construal of 'social' that is closer to social scientific uses of the word enters the postGibsonian critique in its attention to culturally specific affordances, such as the eating-with affordance of a fork (Heft, 1989) and chopsticks (Jones, 1999 it's not a real pizza' (Alač et al, 2011: 905). As coined in Jones (1999), indexical affordances pertain to the denotative properties of utterances, gestures and images, a concept that can apply also to artefacts.…”

“…As coined in Jones (1999), indexical affordances pertain to the denotative properties of utterances, gestures and images, a concept that can apply also to artefacts. We may say here that in Alač's example the teacher instructs the children about the toy's indexical affordance -the fact that it can be used to represent a pizza although it lacks the material affordances of edibility.…”

Education policy: explaining, framing and forming

“…Positioning theory maintains that our 'selves' are made in discursive moments and not through our biological makeup. The social act sets out to solve social problems not merely describe them (Jones 1999). As Harré (1997, 182) notes,…”

Between the analytical and the critical: implications for theorizing the self1

“…Schopenhauer (1922Schopenhauer ( [1840) discussed Will as a property of the natural universe, regarding it as the dynamic underlying the lawful organization of all types of objective phenomena. Jung brings it into the organization of the experiential field (Jones 2001(Jones , 2002b surrounding the body. In this vein, Hauke (2000) compares Jung's psychic energy formulation to Nietzsche's doctrine of the will to power: Nietzsche's doctrine 'sounds like the precursor for Freud's concept of libidinal psychic energy except for one important difference' (p. 178).…”