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The Dialectic Room: A Meta-diagram for Innovation
Playing with Pairs of Opposite Themes
by Oliver Ding
Originally written on January 11, 2022; updated on October 30, 2025
The diagram above is a meta-diagram designed to apply dialectical logic to manage structural tensions. Its origin lies in the “germ-cell” diagram of Project-oriented Activity Theory (see the diagram below).
On January 3, 2021, I published an article titled Activity U (VIIII): Project-oriented Activity Theory, which introduced Andy Blunden’s Project-oriented theoretical approach to activity with a series of diagrams.
To develop the theoretical foundation of “Project as a unit of Activity,” Blunden draws on Hegel’s logic and Vygotsky’s theory of concept as key theoretical resources. This process is documented in three books: An Interdisciplinary Theory of Activity (2010), Concepts: A Critical Approach (2012), and Collaborative Projects: An Interdisciplinary Study (2014).
One of the three central notions in Blunden’s approach is the “germ-cell.” According to Blunden, “…in order to understand a complex process as an integral whole or gestalt, we have…
