Conceptual Deck: The SET Framework (2019)
Social Engagement Theory (SET) was developed by Oliver Ding in 2019 as a conceptual framework for analyzing "social engagement between two subjects." Its development was driven by the author's professional experience in creating mobile applications for one-to-one video communication, which shifted his focus from broader community dynamics to the intricacies of dyadic interactions.
The theory is heavily influenced by Roger Barker's Behavior Settings theory, and the acronym SET serves as a tribute to this intellectual lineage while also standing for "Social Engagement Theory." While originating from the study of optimized one-to-one social experiences, SET has evolved into a general-purpose framework for social analysis, emphasizing the multifaceted interplay of Action, Relation, and Settings.
The SET Framework (2019) is published as a bilingual package. The core component — a 159-slide conceptual deck — is written in Chinese. To make the framework accessible to English readers, Oliver used Google Notebook LM to generate several companion documents:
- #01 — A Comprehensive Briefing on Social Engagement Theory (SET)
- #02 — Theoretical White Paper: A Critical Examination of Social Engagement Theory: An Ecological Practice Approach to Contemporary Interaction
- #03 — A Study Guide for Social Engagement Theory (SET)
- #04 — Strategic Memo: Applying Social Engagement Theory (SET) for Next-Generation Platform Development
These documents take different forms — briefing, white paper, study guide, and strategic memo. Although they are not direct translations of the original file, they provide new and accessible ways to approach the framework.
If you are not familiar with Chinese, you can use AI tools such as Google Notebook LM to help you learn and apply the SET framework.
