[Xmca-l] Re: A question on Vygotsky and Imagination

[mike cole]

Thanks very much for bringing the life and work of Maxine Greene to the
group, Robert. I knew about her published work, but not about the
foundation, which is a fascinating idea.
mike


On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 8:49 PM, Robert Lake <boblake@georgiasouthern.edu>
wrote:

> Hi Shannon and Everyone,
> Speaking of imagination,
> *Our extended academic family suffered a tremendous loss today with the
> passing of Maxine Greene after a final bout with pneumonia. She was 96 and
> worked right up until the end, serving on a dissertation committee just a
> few weeks ago. Here is a little about her
> life.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxine_Greene
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxine_Greene>*
>
>
> On Fri, May 23, 2014 at 12:02 AM, Shannon Brincat <
> shannonbrincat@yahoo.com.au> wrote:
>
> > Dear all,
> >
> > I am new to this list ­ so thanks for your time.
> >
> > Presently, I am trying to write up an article on Vygotsky and
> imagination.
> > Essentially, my interest is to draw attention to a different way of
> looking
> > at, and deploying imagination in politics, and one that emphases its
> > creative potential. In my field, International Relations (IR) imagination
> > is
> > just ignored as something fanciful rather than intrinsic to human
> > cognition.
> >
> > I have pasted the abstract below. Any advice on secondary literature, or
> > even key aspects of Vygotsky’s work that you deem relevant, would be
> great.
> >
> > Once again, thanks!
> >
> > Shannon
> >
> >
> > This article seeks to demonstrate the political significance of
> > imagination and to reclaim this cognitive faculty as something intrinsic
> > to political life ins world politics. We focus on the psychological work
> of
> > Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (1896-1934) who, we argue, offers a
> > reconceptualisation of the faculty of imagination as a key part of human
> > cognitive development and as something central to creative activity.
> After
> > engaging with the limitations in Kant’s productive imagination, Husserl’s
> > phenomenological imagination, and Freud’s irrational understanding of
> > imagination, we emphasise three elements of Vygotsky’s analysis that
> > demonstrate the significance of imagination to politics that are
> routinely
> > denied in mainstream approaches to International Relations (IR). These
> > include how the faculty of imagination is developmental, interpenetrated
> > with reality, and dependent on social-history and culture. While we
> contend
> > that Vygotsky offers significant advances in how we can conceive and
> > approach the faculty of imagination in political thought, in the closing
> > section we identify three weaknesses. Firstly, while Vygotsky offers a
> link
> > between imagination and practice, and was concerned with progressive
> social
> > development, it offers only a weakly developed account of imagination¹s
> > link
> > to political praxis. Secondly, Vygotsky¹s account tells Us only of the
> > positively productive elements of imagination but he did not turn his
> > attention to the 똡arkside of imagination regarding the politics of fear,
> > 똮thering, and hate. Thirdly, Vygotsky provides only a thin account of the
> > intersubjective processes of imagination and offers only the beginnings
> of
> > a
> > theory that could embed imagination within social-relations. We close by
> > advancing a heuristic of imagination that can help us better understand
> > this
> > complex faculty of imagination and its relation to politics.
> >
> > Dr. Shannon K. Brincat
> > Griffith University Research Fellow
> > Room -1.09 | Building N72 | Centre for Governance and Public Policy |
> > School
> > of Government and International Relations
> > Nathan Campus | Griffith University | 170 Kessels Road | Nathan |
> Brisbane
> > |
> > Queensland | 4111 | Australia
> >
> > Global Discourse, Co-Editor
> > http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rgld20#.Ua53eCsd7pM
> >
> > New edited series available through Praeger
> > Communism in the 21st Century (3 Vols.)
> > http://www.abc-clio.com/product.aspx?isbn=9781440801259
> >
> >
> >
> >
>