[Xmca-l] Re: Time for a Generational Change

[Jay Lemke]

Eeeek! Just saw I have 230 unread messages in xmca!

A sign of my long absence/peripherality. But having put my THANKS to Mike
on the LCHC list, I want to repeat it here, and add a welcome in his new
role to Alfredo! who may find he is Pastor (as Mike says) to not sheep, but
cats. ;-)

[For non-English-native friends, "herding cats" is an old idiom in English
for a difficult task working with independent-minded people.]

Like so many of us here, I owe a great debt of thanks for the stimulation
and support of this community in its many virtual incarnations over so many
years.

I remember the labyrinthine and herculean efforts it took back in the late
80s to connect an early model PC to the old xlchc, via a primitive
telephone modem, some software called Kermit, and the university's IBM
mainframe computer ... it wasn't even the WWW back then or the internet,
just the NSFNet and TCP/IP. Just getting connected online to the listgroup
was an education in technology! But worth every frustrating tech-glitch and
Read the Manual (for an IBM mainframe?!) mystery to participate in a
wonderful intellectual community.

In solidarity,

JAY.


Jay Lemke
Professor Emeritus
City University of New York
www.jaylemke.com


On Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 1:40 PM, Ana Marjanovic-Shane <anamshane@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dear Mike,
>
> Thank you for such a wonderful period of my adult life - as Anne-Nelly
> said, more than 30 years!!! I hardly even got a computer in the 80s when I
> discovered you and your pioneering listserve XMCA!  It gave me a community
> and provoked me to think and to discuss issues for a long time, and to
> always stay a lurker!
> You created a spirit of true scholarship among so many people over such a
> long time. I especially appreciate the sense of being welcomed and
> recognized that you created for me and for everyone else.
>
> I want to also welcome Alfredo with a big applause! This is a difficult but
> incredibly gratifying role!
>
> Mike, thank you for so many years of intellectual provocation and
> stimulation!
>
> Ana
>
> On Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 9:37 PM PERRET-CLERMONT Anne-Nelly <
> Anne-Nelly.Perret-Clermont@unine.ch> wrote:
>
> > Hi Mike again-
> > good all days…Let’s keep remembering the best part of them . And let's
> > continue to open side tracks to overcome obstacles, as you did.
> >
> > Sorry to see that Springer has closed the link. Thank you for letting me
> > know.I attach here our introduction to the issue. And I’ll be happy to
> > forward the chapters (one or all), if asked to.
> >
> > Best greetings
> > Anne-Nelly
> >
> > -----Message d'origine-----
> > De : <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of mike cole
> > <mcole@ucsd.edu>
> > Répondre à : "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu
> >
> > Date : lundi, 24 octobre 2016 21:27
> > À : "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> > Objet : [Xmca-l] Re: Time for a Generational Change
> >
> > Hi Anne-Nelly --
> >
> > The nice thing about the newsletter was that we did not have to put up
> with
> > reviewing hassles of the sort discussed on xmca a few days ago. But of
> > course, it didn't count for careers, so Yrjo pushed us into formal
> > publications. Ah, for the good old days!  :-))
> >
> > I tried to reach the Springer article by when I clicked on that link, it
> > told me that I could pay 39+$ to read it! Lets hope my library can do
> > better.
> >
> > mike
> >
> > On Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 12:07 PM, PERRET-CLERMONT Anne-Nelly <
> > Anne-Nelly.Perret-Clermont@unine.ch> wrote:
> >
> > > Dear Mike,
> > > For an incredible number of years (34?), I have enjoyed following your
> > > impulses, seeing growing the network that you created around The
> > >Quarterly
> > > Newsletter of the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition; then came
> > > your creative socio-technical innovations (yours was the first
> electronic
> > > list that I have ever been affiliated to); and MCA, XMCA, etc.
> > > Many many thanks Mike.
> > >
> > > Amitiés,
> > > Anne-Nelly
> > >
> > >
> > > Prof. em. Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont
> > > Institut de psychologie et éducation Faculté des lettres et sciences
> > > humaines
> > > Université de Neuchâtel
> > > Espace L. Agassiz 1,  CH- 2000 Neuchâtel (Switzerland)
> > > http://www2.unine.ch/ipe/publications/anne_nelly_perret_clermont
> > >
> > > New
> > > publication: "Educational settings as interwoven socio-material
> > > orderings”.Springerhas just offered open access to our recent special
> > > issue of the European Journal of Psychology of Education - you are
> > >welcome
> > > to take a look & share thislink with colleagues & students:
> > > http://link.springer.com/journal/10212/31/1/page/1?wt_
> > > mc=10.CON434.SI_Edu_E
> > > UPE
> > >
> > >
> > > -----Message d'origine-----
> > > De : <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of mike cole
> > > <mcole@ucsd.edu>
> > > Répondre à : "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <
> xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu
> > >
> > > Date : lundi, 24 octobre 2016 19:35
> > > À : "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>,
> > > "lchc-l@mailman.ucsd.edu" <lchc-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> > > Objet : [Xmca-l]  Time for a Generational Change
> > >
> > > Hear Yee XMCA -O-Phytes.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Having removed myself from the active faculty of LCHC which is now in
> the
> > > capable hands of Angela Booker and Stephan Tanaka, the time has come
> for
> > >me
> > > to step back from the doings of MCA and XMCA.  At MCA the new editorial
> > > team of (in reverse alphabetical order, Jennifer Vadeboncoeur, Bonnie
> > > Nardi, Victor Kaptelinin, and Natalia Gajdamashko) has taken over as
> > > editors, and begun the process of carrying the enterprise into a new
> > > generation. I will remain as a kind of "editor for special projects"
> for
> > > the journal and will continue to participate in XMCA.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > But with respect to XMCA it is past time for me to give up what David
> > > Kellogg has called my "pastoral" role in seeking to coordinate and
> > >develop
> > > discourse focused around provocative articles that appear in the
> journal.
> > > The original idea was to provide authors with rapid feedback and public
> > > recognition instead of having to wait the 2-3 year cycle of replying
> via
> > >an
> > > authorized journal.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > The reality, as you know, is somewhat different - a mélange of topics
> > >that
> > > intersect, loop back on themselves, and leak out into the semiosphere.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Luckily, Alfredo Jornet has offered to try his hand at the pastoral
> role,
> > > and will be recognized on the journal masthead as *MCA Forum Mediator*.
> > > Alfredo brings to the task his early career in Spain, his later career
> in
> > > Norway, and his present career in Victoria. And all of this
> international
> > > experience before has started "his career." Brave soul. Alfredo and the
> > > editors are considering a variety of options for the future of the
> > >journal,
> > > including importantly, its status as a new medium promoting rapid
> > >exchange
> > > of the news between otherwise isolated scholars with complementary
> > > interests.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > My participation in xlchc and then xmca has been central to my adult
> > > education, and I appreciate what I have learned here more than words
> can
> > > suffice to explain. There are not so many academic ecologies in the
> > >world,
> > > so enduring those that do spring up seems a worthwhile way to promote
> its
> > > reproduction.... keeping in mind Phillip White's reminder that the
> future
> > > of development is not predictable at the level of everyday experience.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > As I see it, there are two major failures in this effort over the
> years.
> > > The first is the enormous imbalance in the gender representation of the
> > > participants. With a few periods where the exceptions ended up proving
> > >the
> > > rule, female voices have been conspicuously absent. Academic "guy talk"
> > >has
> > > dominated. Understanding and, if possible, re-mediating that sad set of
> > > circumstances seems like a major task for the future.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Second, MCA discourse does not accumulate. The discussions are more
> like
> > > chaining than the development of new concepts. As in the Sakharov -
> > > Vygotsky blocks experiment, we talk about green triangles then blue
> > > triangles then blue squares, each a legitimate line of inquiry, but
> > > constantly changing criteria/topics as we go. Every once in a while we
> > > ascend to the level of pseudo-concepts (these are the cases that evoke
> > >the
> > > most controversy it seems to me). My fond hope is that Alfredo and our
> > > sometimes engaged tech gurus will provide a more supportive environment
> > >for
> > > the creation of "truce concepts" -- agreement on a broad set of
> > > principles/empirical embodiments and a research program that identifies
> > >the
> > > limits of the theory and the most fruitful lines of inquiry.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Thus spake
> > >
> > > mike
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> > --
> *Ana Marjanovic-Shane*
> Dialogic Pedagogy Journal, Editor (dpj.pitt.edu)
> Chestnut Hill College, Associate Professor of Education
> e-mails: shaneam@chc.edu
>               anamshane@gmail.com
> US phone: +1 267-334-2905
> Serbian phone: +381 62 1904 110
>