Activities: Reality and Symbol

This book describes the content and process for exploring and studying the social, cultural, and personal meanings inherent in activities. Authored by Gail Fidler and Beth Velde, this text examines the potential of activities to reflect and shape social, cultural, and personal meanings; to communicate certain physical, affective, and cognitive responses. Activities: Reality and Symbol guides the reader to a better understanding of activities and their potential in our lives by examining the processes of investigating and discovering the dynamics of daily activities. By looking at activities as never before, this book successfully addresses activity for its own meaning, symbol and purpose.

This book is organized as a sequential, experiential learning process that includes structural assignments for interviews, personal reflections and group discussion. The beginning of the text presents an overview of the philosophy and the content focus of the book. Following chapters explain the symbolic process as giving meaning to the events and activities of daily life, and include an activity laboratory for experiencing symbol and metaphor. A detailed examination of activities, and a format for analyzing activities are explained. Final chapters apply prior learning to specific activities including play, games, sport, crafts, careers, and more.