Enactivism theorizes thinking as situated doing. Mathematical thinking, specifically, is handling imaginary objects, and learning is coming to perceive objects and reflecting on this activity. Putting theory to practice, Abrahamson’s embodied-design collaborative interdisciplinary research program has been designing and evaluating interactive tablet applications centered on motor-control tasks whose perceptual solutions then form the basis for understanding mathematical ideas (e.g., proportion). Analysis of multimodal data of students’ handand eyemovement as well as their linguistic and gestural expressions has pointed to the key role of emergent perceptual structures that form the developmental interface between motor coordination and conceptual articulation. Through timely tutorial intervention or peer interaction, these perceptual structures rise to the students’ discursive consciousness as “things” they can describe, measure, analyze, model, and symbolize with culturally accepted words, diagrams, and signs – they become mathematical entities with enactive meanings. We explain the theoretical background of enactivist mathematics pedagogy, demonstrate its technological implementation, list its principles, and then present a case study of a mathematics teacher who applied her graduate-school experiences in enactivist inquiry to create spontaneous classroom activities promoting student insight into challenging concepts. Students’ enactment of coordinated movement forms gave rise to new perceptual structures modeled as mathematical content.

Personal construct and family systems theories can profit from an exchange of ideas concerning the relationship between their personal and interpersonal aspects of construction. This article examines three possible points of contact between the two orientations. First, we suggest that personal construct psychology could profit from addressing the important contributions of the family context to the development of each individual’s system. Second, we address the impact of the person’s constructions on the larger family system. Third, we suggest that the family system itself develops a system of shared constructions that define and bind its identity and interactions. Each of these areas of interface carries implications for therapy, and specific intervention techniques corresponding to each of these are discussed.

Shaun Gallagher applies enactivist thinking to a staggeringly wide range of topics in philosophy of mind and cognitive science, even venturing into the realms of biological anthropology. One prominent point Gallagher makes that the holistic approach of enactivism makes it less amenable to scientific investigation than the cognitivist framework it seeks to replace, and should be seen as a “philosophy of nature” rather than a scientific research program. Gallagher also gives truth to the saying that “if you want new ideas, read old books”, showing how the insights of the American pragmatists, particularly Dewey and Mead, offer a variety of resources and tools that can be brought to bear on modern day enactivism. Here, I suggest that the adoption of enactivist thinking would undermine the assumptions of certain scientific positions, requiring their abandonment, rather than simply making it more difficult to conduct research within an enactivist framework. I then discuss how Mead’s work has been used previously as a “pragmatist intervention” to help resolve problems in a related 4E endeavour, Gibson’s ecological psychology, and make a case for the inclusion of radical behaviorism as another pragmatist resource for 4E cognition. I conclude with a plea for further enactivist intervention in studies of comparative cognition.

The concept of self-organization is reviewed and its implications are explored in relation to management processes and social systems. A world view is taken, emphasizing a descriptive distinction of levels associated with the physical, biological, social, and mental. Self-organization principles, it is argued, are operative in all levels of such a stratified scheme, but they are manifest in different mechanisms and different embodiments. \\Management, planning, design, and other “intervention” type of activities are among the processes through which self-organization is manifest in the social domain. Ultimately they have to do with maintaining, enriching, and amplifying the potential variety of the systems concerned. The operationally critical question involved, it is suggested, is not whether management activities are “man-made” or “natural,” spontaneous” or “planned,” but rather, whether they enhance or supress the potential variety of a system under consideration.

This article is based on an ethnographic research carried out from 2004 to 2008 in Spain. It is about the understanding of the companionship for minors with correctional and educational intervention in Juvenile Court.
The first ethnographic affiliation aspired to become “medium” in search of an humanistic epistemology which admits its physical, psychological, sociological and political dimensions and shapes a critical deconstruction of certain scientific representations of educational phenomena. The epistemological evolution was the following: Phenomenology, Constructivism and Complexity.
The fieldwork was thought as “situation-in-life”: the whole research and the progressive research subject construction were driven by this “situation-in-life” itself.

This paper introduces the idea of, and necessity for, a 'third-order cybernetics'. It does this through the critique and problematisation of the ontology of the observer as elaborated within a second-order cybernetics. The necessity for this third-order is directly generated from our work as strategy consultants and our needs to evolve an effective, coherent and ethical consultancy practice. The paper draws primarily on the writings of Lacan and Maturana to provide the epistemological presumptions upon which we generate a new characterisation of, and approach to, the business organisation. This new approach for the understanding of the business organisation is presented as an 'Economy of Discourses'. This Economy is a description of the effects of a third-order in the second-order observer's invention of himself as subject. We have formulated this approach as an aid for diagnosis, intervention and prognosis in our work with business organisations. We include two case studies, one of a chemicals-based manufacturer, the other of a large accountancy practice. In these two cases we seek to unpack and illustrate the way in which it is possible to use the new approach, and to highlight the principles which allow the consultant maximal movement and effectiveness in relation to his client system. We end by outlining the implications of our approach for an ethics of consultancy.

This paper presents a model for an ergonomic intervention with developmental and autopoietic aims. It is based on the organizational change of an entity in charge of the signalling devices maintenance for the Parisian subway. Its developmental goal is to empower actors to redesign their work processes in an enabling, autonomous and sustainable way based on the emerging needs of a cross-functional activity that is to be imagined. The intervention was conceived and equipped as a formative process. The methodology put in place is called the “Developmental Laboratory” (DL). The DL impels two levels of cross-functional inquiry. The DL1 concerns the production work or even the redesign of maintenance processes (functional dimension). The users have jointly constructed new more able organizational solutions (processes, tools, methodologies, forms of coordination and management, etc.). The DL2 deals with the practices underlying the previously organizing process (metaflective dimension). In other words, the results and processes in DL1 were investigated in DL2. The users were therefore mobilized in co-design and formalization of new organizing standards and routines. The place of the real work analysis and the roles of Enabling Ergonomist are investigated. These appear to be key elements to translate the developmental potential of the actors (Ergonomist included) and their practices into actual productions.

Key words: organizational autopoiesis, developmental laboratory, processes participatory design, enabling interventions.

The newest trend in the world of education leads to a shift from a paradigm centered on curricular content to a paradigm centered in the students’ learning processes. Teachers will now have to plan, implement, mediate and evaluate educational intervention practices with the purpose that each learner develops the ability to transfer knowledge(s) to a myriad of contexts. Now, in their role of companion-mediators, besides learning about theories and techniques, teachers will also need to try out new strategies and adopt other attitudes, on a trial and error basis, in order to succeed in deeply involving students in their formation process. As part of the activities of the Diploma Program “Transition towards the learning centered paradigm” carried out in the framework of the Permanent Program of Teacher Education at the Autonomous University “Benito Juárez” of Oaxaca (UABJO), three teachers-researchers observed and were observed in their teaching practices. As a result of both peer observation and peer accompaniment reflecting on the conditions of the “teaching-learning environments”(TLE) that encourage or limit the students’ involvement in class, the teachers manage to reflect on peer observations of their own teaching practices. Consequently, teachers changed aspects of their TLE and, once more in accompaniment, the teachers assess the effects of such changes on the students’ attitudes. The second-order observation is the methodological tool used to describe and analyze the classrooms’ reality.

Key words: long life training, accompaniment training environment, second order observation, undergraduate education, teaching learning environments.

Applied systems-thinking involves the use of systems methodologies and concepts to facilitate intervention in social situations. In this area, a body of knowledge has been accumulated to promote informed use of systems methodology. Still, how human experience is considered and used in intervention is limited to what methodologies prescribe or what facilitators do with it. In this paper, we revisit the ideas of autopoiesis and in particular the research project pursued by one of his original authors (Francisco Varela). Following Varela’s intent to develop a middle way in science, we reflect on how applied systems thinking could take a step back regarding how human experience is integrated into intervention. We conclude the paper with a number of suggestions to make applied systems-thinking more permeable and sensitive to human experience and therefore open to compassionate thinking and action.

Key words: Francisco Varela, autopoiesis, applied systems-thinking, human experience, systems methodology.

The paper departs from conventional wisdom in traffic engineering to address the issue of traffic safety from a behavioural and social science perspective. It demonstrates how traffic users can learn to improve their own understanding and behaviour, through a well-designed small-group intervention process. The approach relies on the capacity of traffic users to support each other in improving their appreciation of traffic complexities and cope with it better through a process of self-guided learning. The process involved exposing five different groups of traffic users to different versions of a multi-stage group exercise and assessing the effects over a period of time. The main findings were the following: (i) The very fact of going through one of the group exercises seems to produce some self-reported goal-fulfilment and behavioural improvement, irrespective of the actual design of the process; (ii) Group processes promoting appreciation of traffic complexity and goal setting appear to trigger self-guided learning and behavioural change. The experience strongly indicates the potential of well-designed processes in bringing about desirable improvements in traffic behaviour. However, in order to achieve any significant effect at the larger social scale, the process needs to be replicated at multiple centres, on a regular basis. Relevance: The article adopts the stance of second-order cybernetics in recognising the capacity of traffic users to support each other in improving their appreciation of traffic complexities and eventually create a safe traffic environment through a process of self-guided learning. It draws attention to a notion of “improvement” from the viewpoint of the traffic users themselves, rather than one determined externally.