A paper co-authored by Mr. Yuto Ikehara of Planned Research Group A02 and Dr. Eiko Matsuda of the Publicly Offered Research Group has been released as a preprint (forthcoming in Cognitive Studies, Vol. 33, No. 4, 2026). The study grew out of an idea that emerged during a discussion at the Qualia structure area meeting. The full text is available here. We invite you to read it!

Paper Information

Authors: Yuto Ikehara and Eiko Matsuda

Title: 

Creating a New Performance in a Community of Practice: A Case Study of a Collaborative Cultural Anthropological Project on an Autobiographical Novel

Preprint: Author's accepted manuscript (forthcoming in Cognitive Studies, Vol. 33, No. 4, 2026)

URL: https://researchmap.jp/yuto_ikehara/published_papers/54756861?lang=en

Abstract

 From a perspective of integrating situated learning theory and performance psychology, this study examines the performance of a new identity within embedded social structures and aims to clarify the process and conditions through which a new practice was created. Specifically, it presents a case in which a collaborative research project, around an autobiographical novel depicting a laboratory devoted to artificial life, emerged at an academic meeting of a consciousness studies community. Based on this case, this paper makes the following arguments: (1) In this case, even without an intervention into practice such as a workshop, a new identity was performed through a sequence of events in the field, and a new practice developed. (2) The resources possessed by existing communities of practice, as well as resources available within the landscape of practice, enabled the creation of a new performance; (3) The newly created performance, in turn, redesigned the resources of the communities of practice so that they could also be used as resources for new practices; (4) The events in this case emerged from an "opening" that emerged through improvised performance, starting from contingent events within embedded communities of practice. In making these arguments, this paper brings into situated learning theory a perspective from performance psychology that focuses on improvised performance as it unfolds in the field, while adding to performance psychology a perspective on the emergence of new practices within embedded situations.

Keywords: legitimate peripheral participation, zone of proximal development, community of practice, landscape of practice, ethnography