[Xmca-l] Re: ISCAR experiences, reflections, etc

Wed Sep 6 04:40:31 PDT 2017

Antti,

I think the development of a tradition of practice (such as 
Marxism) means continually returning to the original sources 
and *digging deeper* into them, while responding to the 
problems thrown up by the present world. What Vygotsky 
ridiculed was not just the re-assertion of the original 
sources, but their mindless and superficial repetition. 
Whenever Marxism has fallen into crisis, it has sparked a 
"return to Marx" - not to go back to an original truth, but 
to look again at what was being taken for granted, and find 
new sources of inspiration. Vygotsky did this in his reading 
of /Capital/ in particular.

Andy

(PS Nice to hear your voice on this list, Antti)

------------------------------------------------------------
Andy Blunden
http://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm
https://andyblunden.academia.edu/research
On 6/09/2017 3:29 PM, Antti Rajala wrote:
> Hi,
> In ISTP (Theory & Psychology) conference in Tokyo a couple of weeks ago
> there was a session on Vygotsky and Marxism, in which a similar issue was
> raised: whether the Marxist research should be continually updated as a
> living tradition or be more original to the sources. Wasn't it Vygotsky
> himself who emphasized the former position in his essay on the Crisis of
> Psychology when he mocked people who were just picking citations from Marx
> book and pretending that's Marxist psychology.
>
> On Wed, Sep 6, 2017 at 1:44 AM, Rod Parker-Rees <
> R.Parker-Rees@plymouth.ac.uk> wrote:
>
>> Hi Alfredo,
>>
>> Yes, my feeling is that it is better if different people are able to
>> pursue different paths so they are able to develop (and hopefully share)
>> different perspectives. One of the things we take away from a conference
>> (as, in different ways, from other forms of interaction) is a richer sense
>> of the ways in which other people see things differently. Knowing a bit
>> about how others see things helps to enrich the possibilities available to
>> us - so we become more than just our own selves.
>>
>> All the best,
>>
>> Rod
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@
>> mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Alfredo Jornet Gil
>> Sent: 05 September 2017 21:59
>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: ISCAR experiences, reflections, etc
>>
>> I think I got this e-mail back from the server, here I try again.
>> ________________________________________
>> From: Alfredo Jornet Gil
>> Sent: 05 September 2017 19:07
>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>> Subject: Re: ISCAR experiences, reflections, etc
>>
>> Jaakko, yes, I agree with you those in between sessions, and the after
>> sessions too, are part of the best these type of congress offers. I am
>> happy I could enjoy some of that with you in Quebec! It was a real pleasure.
>>
>> Rod, yes, it would have been so great meeting you too.  In any case,
>> concerning perezhivanie and other notions, I am glad thta you bring this
>> distinction between those who seek to defend some 'core, true meaning', and
>> those who attempt to bring those notions into new uses etc. This seems to
>> be at the heart of the field today, and definitely resonates with
>> discussions having gone on here. I don't think, (nor probably do you) that
>> in most cases the dichotomy is that straightforward; rather, there seems to
>> be a tension between one's efforts to build on a given body of scholar work
>> in a coherent manner, and one's goals of addressing real, contemporary
>> problems. I feel that here at xmca we tend to be very strong on the former
>> effort, but could be better in the latter. Just my sense. Cheers, Alfredo
>> ________________________________________
>> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>> on behalf of Rod Parker-Rees <R.Parker-Rees@plymouth.ac.uk>
>> Sent: 05 September 2017 11:17
>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: ISCAR experiences, reflections, etc
>>
>> Dear Alfredo,
>>
>> I am sorry I did not get the opportunity to meet you at ISCAR.
>>
>> The highlight of the conference for me was the opportunity to explore a
>> wide range of different perspectives on key aspects of cultural-historical
>> research. The first meeting of the round-table discussion group focusing on
>> perezhivanie was well attended and somewhat chaotic, as a lot of people set
>> out their own understanding of the significance of this concept. Here there
>> was only time for an initial presentation of positions - and the beginnings
>> of exploration of disagreements but the topic was also addressed in many
>> paper presentations and the second and third round-table meetings were
>> smaller, allowing more extensive discussion, which I thought was
>> particularly valuable in clarifying why perezhivanie is such a useful (and
>> flexible) concept.
>>
>> Discussions at the conference illustrated the tensions between those who
>> seek to defend a core, 'true' meaning (through careful historical analysis
>> of documents and arguments) and those who want to loosen the boundaries of
>> what 'counts' as perezhivanie so that the concept can be used in new ways
>> and in new contexts. Having the opportunity to take conversations forward
>> beyond initial disagreement helped me to see the 'agreed' meaning
>> (znachenie) of perezhivanie as a fluid, dynamic product of continuing
>> interactions - both influencing and influenced by the particular
>> refractions of individual interpretations (smysl). Our 'own' understanding
>> is immeasurably enriched by opportunities to encounter and engage with
>> other people's perspectives - not just what they think and know but also
>> what they care about! My understanding of the writing of Fernando Gonzalez
>> Rey, Anna Stetsenko, Barbara Rogoff, Nikolai Veresov and many others will
>> be informed by what I have learned from seeing how they present their own
>> understandings but also, in different but equally important ways, from
>> seeing how they engage with other people and with other people's ideas.
>>
>> All the best,
>>
>> Rod
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@
>> mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Alfredo Jornet Gil
>> Sent: 02 September 2017 19:36
>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>> Subject: [Xmca-l] ISCAR experiences, reflections, etc
>>
>> Dear all,
>>
>>
>> I am still at Tampere, where the EARLI conference finished today, just one
>> day after ISCAR ended. Unfortunately, I committed to attending both
>> conferences and could only be the first days in Quebec. Still, I was
>> fortunate enough to catch up with many colleagues, to share some of my
>> work, and get to hear about that of many others that are doing great things
>> around the globe.
>>
>>
>> One (not so) surprising discovery I made was the huge amount of people
>> that actually lurks into this list, but who nonetheless very seldom if ever
>> write (whether for lack of time to delve into the sometimes quite long
>> posts/themes, or simply because they prefer to read than write). We all
>> knew and had talked about this, but it was quite remarkable the amount of
>> people I met (not only in ISCAR, but also here in Europe (EARLI).
>>
>>
>> So, now that I have met some of you, and that you have got to see and hear
>> more of ISCAR than those of us who had to leave earlier or could not join
>> at all. What was your highlight of the congress and why? It would be lovely
>> if some of you would take a step forward and tell us a bit of what you
>> found most interesting, what you found was missing, what you found should
>> have not been.
>>
>>
>> In can be the first: One of my favourite moments was listening to Fernando
>> G. Rey present without slides or any other device, passionately talking
>> about child development and claiming, "... for the first need of the child
>> is that of contact with other people"... I also very much enjoyed seeing
>> Mike in a several meters wide screen commenting on Engeström's Keynote,
>> rising the longest ovation I got to hear during my brief three days in
>> Quebec.
>>
>>
>> These are just anecdotes, but I would love if you could tell us more on
>> how it went for you, what you found there, for us who could not be there. I
>> think it would be very much appreciated by many, while we get the time to
>> have a look at the issue on unit analysis, and prepare the discussion on
>> the article from the last (third) MCA issue.
>>
>>
>> Alfredo
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>