Re: A week to go/YE--->Suomi

From: Judith Diamondstone (diamonju@rci.rutgers.edu)
Date: Sun Jun 03 2001 - 16:43:06 PDT


I'm just returned from upstate NY -- I was one of the two volunteers for
chapter 5 (Katherine, are you 'here'?); I have read LBE in bits, so I hope
others can contribute more synthetic comments on the project as a whole. I
want to point out, too, that, regrettably, YE's presence or absence from
UCSD makes little difference to the rest of us on xmca. I hope that he can
find a moment to contribute to the discussion 'here', perhaps on how his
thinking has changed since writing LBE.

I'll send a follow-up message within the hour with my comments/questions on
the chapter 5

Judy

At 09:54 AM 6/2/01 -0700, you wrote:
>
>Having reached a small gap in an otherwise overly packed set obligations,
>I tried going back this morning to see where the discussion of LBD 4 stood.
>But as luck would have it it, while the April archive is posted on lchc.ucsd.
>edu/xmca, May is not, and somehow the discussion "complexed" into Vygotsky's
>"crisis."
>
>I missed the transition. And any event, I am aware that our local academic
>year is coming to an end, Yrjo returns to the land of cell phones and the
>midnight sun, and our allotted time for reading LBE comes to an end.
>
>Reading through 4e (without recourse to earlier posts) I am impressed by the
>way it provides a lot pointers to what it means to talk about CHAT as an
>interdisciplinary undertaking, if not a new discipline (with lots of
pointers to its methodology).
>
>So, for example, I re-enjoyed the discussion of phenomenology and
>the delineation of the activity system which, retrospectively, I
>can see underpinning a lot of the work that has led to the "change
>lab" methodology which Yrjo and his colleagues curently use. And
>the connection of that method to Vygotsky's methodology of "dual
>stimulation" is strongly brought to mind. I have not read Altshuller,
>but found the discussion of his strategy for ferreting out contradictions
>consistent with the forms of participant observation that a number of
>us locally engage in. And Yrjo'
>s comment that " A genuine expansive cycle inevitably produces not
>only civilization (he is referring here to the 7 brother's story)
>but an ingredient of wildness" also fits the phenomenology of my
>recent experiences.
>
>His conclusion also resonates strongly for me:
>
>Reporting and assessing outcomes of expansive research is not easy.
>The voyage through the zone of proximal development is best followed
>and recorded by employing a set of multiple methods, ranging from
>phenomenological and anthropological observation of historical
>analysis of performances, conceptions and discourse practices. The
>sheer amount and variety of data collected make new types of report
>ing necessary.
>
>
>Amen to that. Hopefully members of this list will provide each other
>with positive examples of how these challenges can be met.
>
>Chapter 5? Is there a leader lurking in the wings? It seems to offer
>a lot of reprises on recent discussions both within and outside of
>LBE itself.
>mike
>
>



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