The Supportive Cycle (v1.0)

A model for the Platform-for-Development framework

by Oliver Ding

2021

This article is part of Oliver Ding’s 2021 book draft, Platform for Development: The Ecology of Adult Development in the 21st Century.

The Platform-for-Development (P4D) framework starts from a unique theoretical assumption that the ideal unit of analysis for studying adult development in the age of platforms is a nested social structure: Platform[Project(People)].

The major theoretical resources behind the framework are Activity Theory (the project-oriented approach, Andy Blunden, 2014), Social Domains Theory (Derek Layder, 1997), Ecological Psychology (James Gibson, 1979), and Self-Determination Theory (Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, 1971, 2017). I was also inspired by Knud Illeris’ How We Learn (2007) and John Hagel’s The Power of Platform (2015).

This article introduces a new model called the Supportive Cycle for the framework. The model is based on the concept of Supportance.

Contents

1. Platform vs. Project
2. A Supportance-based Model
3. Case Study: TED(TEDx)
4. The #1 Supportive Movement
5. The #2 Supportive Movement
6. The #3 Supportive Movement
7. The #4 Supportive Movement
8. Toward a Platform Ecology
9. Summary