The Platform for Development (P4D) Framework (v1.0)
By: Oliver Ding
Tags: Resource Based Economy, Platform Thinking, Development, Social Change, Platform

These three dimensions also roughly correspond to John Hagel’s typology of platforms.

Connect users to resources — Content

Connect individuals to communities — Social

Move people to act together — Action

We have to notice that three dimensions are abstract ideal aspects. In real life, some developmental resources have two or three aspects. So, I am not claiming that there are only three categories of developmental resources.

2.3 Themes of Practice

Anthropologist Morris Opler (1945) developed a theoretical “themes” for studying culture. Career counseling therapists and psychologists also developed a theoretical concept called life theme. If we put culture themes and life themes together, we see a “great debate” of social science: “individual — collective”.

In 2009, I coined a new trem Themes of Practice and developed it as a new theoretical concept for my book Curativity: The Ecological Approach to Curatorial Practice. I recently used the WXMY diagram to represent the idea of Themes of Practice, the result is the diagram below.

I consider the notion of Themes of Practice as a “process” type of concept, not a “substance” type of concept. Thus, it is not a new category of themes, but a transformational process between individual life themes and collective culture themes. It refers to both concept and action. It connects mind and practice. It indicates the transformation of both person and society.

For the “Platform for Development” framework, “Themes of Practice” connects individual actions and developmental resources offered by Platforms. On one side, various resources can be sorted by themes. On the other side, people perceive potential resources and take actions which refer to themes too.

2.4 Project as Situational Context

The triangle of developmental resources inspired me to turn the 5A framework into a new triangle. The result is the following diagram. As mentioned early, the 5A framework is inspired by two theoretical resources: Derek Layder’s Social Domains Theory and activity theorist Andy Blunden’s idea “project as a unit of activity”.

Project as Situational Context (Oliver Ding, 2020)

The above triangle uses “Purpose, Program, and Position” to describe three important aspects of Project. I’d like to point out that this is not the original claim of Andy Blunden’s approach. What I am looking for the “Platform for Development” framework is a concept which can describe the informal and flexible social activities.

If we put Project and Platform together, I’d like to claim that Project is embedded social context or situational context and Platform is the setting of Project. Without any Project (informal and flexible social activities), a Platform is only a Tool which helps People take individual actions.

2.5 Identity in Practice

The center of the triangle is “Identity” which refers to “Identity in Practice”. To be honest, it is too technical to use this style to name new concepts. However, it is hard to describe what I want to say by only using one word “Identity”. I want to claim that there are two types of Identity, the identity of person and the identity of activity (project).

The concept of “Identity in Practice” refers to the dialectical relation between these two types of Identity within practice. A person is attracted by an activity (project) through its Identity and his Identity could be shaped by the activity. On the other side, the actions of the person also could shape the Identity of the Activity.

There are two theoretical resources behind the concept of “Identity in Practice”. First one is Theory in Practice which was presented by Chris Argyris and Donald A. Schon in 1974. In that book, the authors distinguished between “Theories-in-Use” and “Espoused Theory”. According to Argyris and Schon, “When someone is asked how he would behave under certain circumstances, the answer he usually gives is his espoused theory of action for that situation. This is the theory of action to which he gives allegiance, and which, upon request, he communicates to others. However, the theory that actually governs his actions is his theory-in-use, which may or may not be compatible with his espoused theory; furthermore, the individual may or may not be aware of the incompatibility of the two theories.”(1974, p.7) Inspired these ideas, I found there two ways of understanding “Identity”, one is “Identity in Practice” and other one is “Espoused Identity”. The concept of “Identity in Practice” argues that one’s identity is defined by his actual actions. The concept of “Espoused Identity” refers to what the person says about his identity and others’ thinkings and sayings about the person.

The second one is ecological psychologist James J. Gibson’s notion “To perceiving the world is to coperceive oneself”. Identity is about self-knowledge. Inspired by Gibson, Ulric Neisser developed the concept of “Ecological Self” in his essay “Five Kinds of Self-Knowledge” (1988). Neisser argued that there are five distinct forms of self-knowledge: ecological and interpersonal perception, conceptualization, memory, and private experience. “Identity in Practice” is related to ecological and interpersonal perception. According to Neisser, “It is through ecological self-perception that we are aware of our immediate situation: of where we are and what we are doing. Through interpersonal self-perception we are aware of our ongoing social interactions: of who we are with and what is going on.”(1993) A person’s actual actions are related to the real environment and others. By perceiving the environment/others and the person’s action with the environment/others, we become more aware of “Identity in Practice”.

2.6 The Platform for Development (P4D) Framework (v1.0)

The final outcome is the diagram below which integrates two triangles together. Now we have a systematic way for discussing “Platform for Development”. The framework highlights eight key components and aspects of platforms which are considered as social and cultural contexts and environment of individual life development.