[Xmca-l] Re: Play and performance Article for discussion

[mike cole]

Hi Alfredo --

No, I just jotted down some notes from two opportunities to go through the
slides Yrjo showed. As David said, I remarked on my concern about a
theoretical focus that did not encompass social movements that the members
of ISCAR are likely to oppose strongly, current resurrgence of publicly
accepted rascism/fascism in the US being one of them.

I also commented on the problem facing young researchers coming into the
field and thinking about conducting intervention research that is at the
same time part of a social movement. It seems clear from my experience and
that of my colleagues who engage in design-based research in the CHAT
framework that such projects are the work of many years, in my case,
decades. How do young people coming into the field "make a mark" for
themselves when they are of necessity a part of a collective that extends
over many years?

I also raised an issue that I raised in the brief exchange with Zlatko
about his work on models of management. The theoretical terms in which
various different people are describing the process of learning and
development whether talking about children or institutions or social
movements appears to be distinctly similar in their basic properties. It
felt like I was hearing echoes from Zlatko and Yrjo of something like Heinz
Werner's "orthogenetic principle" :  "wherever development occurs it
proceeds from a state of relative globality and lack of differentiation to
a state of increasing differentiation, articulation, and hierarchic
integration."

David mentioned the first part of this process the other day in a comment
about development being differentiation.

Anyway, my brief take. It was not much of a communicative event from my
perspective. Missed being there to discuss!

mike

PS -Its at a time like this that you miss old friends. Joe Glick was my go
to guy for discussions of Werner.







On Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 10:26 AM, Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
wrote:

> David, interesting remarks.
>
>  I also thought Engeström's keynote was keeling bit too much on the
> technical side for being the venue and occasion it was, even for one like
> me who thinks that the analyses and cases he presented are really
> interesting and relevant.
>
> Mike, any chance you have some notes to share from your remarks following
> Yrjö's keynote?
>
> Alfredo
> ________________________________________
> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> on behalf of molly shea <mvshea@gmail.com>
> Sent: 19 September 2017 02:21
> To: ablunden@mira.net; eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Play and performance Article for discussion
>
> I would also like to see the presentation and remarks if it is recorded and
> someone is able to share them.
>
> Thanks,
> Molly
>
> On Sun, Sep 17, 2017 at 6:13 PM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:
>
> > Is there any way Mike's Skype talk and the other
> > contributions can be shared by slackers like us didn't go to
> > Quebec?
> >
> > Andy
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > Andy Blunden
> > http://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm
> > On 18/09/2017 8:48 AM, David Kellogg wrote:
> > > In Mike's Skyped remarks in Quebec on Yrjö Engeström’s presentation on
> > > social movements, Mike made the important point that it is not simply
> > > progressive movements which require study. From education studies we
> know
> > > that studying a phenomenon isn't necessarily a good way to promote it;
> > the
> > > two aims can be quite contradictory, in fact. So in many ways it's
> > probably
> > > more urgent to study reactionary and dangerous social movements, and
> when
> > > we do this, we sometimes find that the process of analysis and study
> > really
> > > does lead to a useful social movement (and that such social movements
> are
> > > more likely to be underpinned by the "breaking away" of Engeström's
> > earlier
> > > work than the material "ratchet" of his Quebec presentation).
> > >
> > > I was thinking of this remark in the light of three social movements:
> > >
> > > a) The mass strike currently sweeping Korean textile companies
> operating
> > in
> > > Vietnam.
> > > b) The demonstrations in Saint Louis against the police murder of
> Anthony
> > > Lamar Smith in 2011.
> > > c) Carrie Lobman's paper on taking the performance art of Newark kids
> to
> > > the boardrooms of New York bankers.
> > >
> > > I think a) and b) are indisputably instances of progressive social
> > > movements that have their immediate roots in fact-finding about
> > reactionary
> > > and dangerous social movements (Korean investment in Vietnam, and the
> > > increasing militarization of the US police force). But I find myself a
> > > little perplexed by c).
> > >
> > > I think Carrie is too, actually: in the beginning part of the paper,
> she
> > > presents her protagonists as country bumpkins somewhat out of their
> depth
> > > in the boardrooms, while in the second part it transpires that it is
> the
> > > bankers that are there to learn from the social movement of young
> actors
> > > rather than vice versa.
> > >
> > > I can see treating bankers as a social movement--a reactionary and
> > > dangerous one which directly profits from the kinds of inequality that
> > are
> > > the object of social movements a) and b). But if we are playing "Crazy
> > > Eights" with bankers, treating ourselves as human beings like
> themselves,
> > > wouldn't it be better to visit their homes rather than their
> boardrooms?
> > >
> > > (Note that some of the most effective demonstrations in Saint Lous--not
> > > necessarily the most violent, but certainly the most effective--have
> had
> > to
> > > do with laying siege to the home of the mayor!)
> > >
> > > David Kellogg
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Sat, Sep 16, 2017 at 5:53 AM, Alfredo Jornet Gil <
> a.j.gil@iped.uio.no
> > >
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > >> Dear all,
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> Issue 3 of Mind, Culture and Activity has been out for a while now and
> > it
> > >> is time to have one of the articles discussed here at xmca. We have
> > >> selected one that deals with a topic that interests me a lot and I am
> > >> confident will be interesting to many: the role of play and
> performance
> > in
> > >> personal development and social change.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> Carrie's paper starts with a beautiful vignette from a workshop
> bringing
> > >> youth from poor communities together with business people to jointly
> > play
> > >> and perform. The next section ?abruptly brings us back to Vygotsky's
> > >> writings about play, ?and these then serve as the backdrop to a
> revisit
> > to
> > >> the opening workshop. The analyses and the discussion invite us to
> > >> understand development "not as a set of stages that a people pass
> > through
> > >> on their way to adulthood, but as the collective creation of stages
> > >> (environments) where people can perform who they are becoming."
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> Carrie has been kind enough to accept joining us in the discussion,
> and
> > >> she will introduce her article much better in a few days, while we all
> > get
> > >> the time to read and bring up any questions or comments we might have.
> > I am
> > >> sending this early, though, ?to give people a few days in advance to
> be
> > >> able to start looking at the article, which I hope will catch the
> > interest
> > >> of many. Good read! And good weekend,
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> Alfredo
> > >>
> > >
> >
> >