Concept formation in the wild may be understood as dialectical interplay of evolution and design. Formative interventions such as the Change Laboratory operate in zones where evolution and design meet. Their message may be condensed as “Do not try to dictate the shape of change; get involved in it and allow your own preconceived ideas be transformed in the process.” This requires first of all participatory analysis of the historical development of the contradictions at hand. It is the contradictions experienced and identified by the participants, not the vision of the interventionist, that give direction to the change effort. The second condition is object-orientation. When the object is kept in focus and given a voice, the interventionist’s preconceived ideas are challenged and often fade into the background.

In cultural-historical activity theory, the move from orientation to action is connected to the experiencing of contradictions as personally significant conflicts of motives. Our study builds on the theory of transformative agency by double stimulation (TADS). We conducted a Change Laboratory intervention with adolescents to support them to work on their motive conflicts and to construct and implement projects they found significant. With the help of Sannino’s model, we analyse the evolution of students’ projects as efforts to move from mental future orientation to practical and material future-making. In our data, the conflict of motives and the creation of second stimuli emerged as the most critical steps in the TADS process. We argue that it is time to make the shift from studying young people’s future orientations as private mental phenomena to fostering and analysing future-making as material public actions that generate use-value and have an impact beyond the individual.

In this chapter we articulate how transformative agency via double stimulation in cultural-historical activity theory can be a form of emancipatory agency from below among those most historically excluded and marginalised. Generated in a six-year-long formative intervention focussing on African land restitution, we show that the emergence of emancipatory transformative agency involves responsive mediation in which second stimuli, suitable to arising contradictions and conflict of motives, need to be co-developed as the formative intervention process unfolds. Emancipatory transformative agency by double stimulation (ETADS) pathways involve complex and parallel forms of movement over time that are not necessarily linear. The chapter reveals that ETADS pathways emerge as communities take ethical-political ownership of co-directing the emancipatory direction of their own development in the formative intervention process. In the process they challenge deep-seated oppressions of longue durée, transform power relations, build intergenerational solidarity and make decisions that advance the common good.

This is a study of transformative agency in a formative intervention supporting homelessness workers to cultivate successful innovations presented by their colleagues in five workshops. Transformative agency emerges when mediational means are put into use to solve paralyzing conflicts of motives. The study builds on an activity-theoretical framework merging innovation-related and transformative agency by double stimulation approaches. A qualitative method was specifically created for this study to categorize what we call umbrella innovations and their components as sub- and standalone innovations. The analysis shows that the innovations were linked together to serve as second stimuli, which provided a joint platform for solving conflicts of motives and for expansive peer-learning. The presentations of the innovations during the workshops enabled fruitful movement from limiting situations to future-oriented transformation processes. The expansive peer-learning process pushed the transformative agency formation forward by generating dialogue between participants through questioning and re-defining central issues.

Following the description of cultural-historical activity theory in Chapter 6, this chapter provides a narrative case example of a formative intervention in early childhood education leadership practice using the principles and practices of Change Laboratory. Research data from five time points during the Change Laboratory intervention illustrate the work of two teachers responsible for leading the development of curriculum and pedagogy in the center.