>Is it valid or illuminating, do you think, to inquire about the cultural
load of the theory in >its various forms and phases of development
relative to pervasive and enduring >themes in Western culture ? And, if
so, could one characterize it as a broadly Western >cultural construction
?
Yuriy Karpov, who studied under Davydov and is now in New York, addressed
exactly this issue in an article in the Jan. 1998 "American
Psychologist." He says that indeed Americans have selectively borrowed
from Vygotsky and adapted his ideas to American viewpoints. The article
is defintely worth reading, because Karpov spent the first part of his
productive years "over there" and knows how it is done back home, as well
as being thoroughly acquainted with the American version. The second
author is H. Carl Haywood of Vanderbilt.
My own ill-informed take on this, for what it's worth, is that Vygotsky
(and Luria) were very action- and application-oriented, but when their
ideas were promoted here it was with a more academic and theoretical
slant. Vygotsky seems to have been talking what he considered to be a
better-informed version of "common sense" as opposed to either German or
American academic psychology.
At any rate, read the article - it's worth its weight in gold for the
cross-culturally oriented.
BTW, Karpov is also a gentleman. I spoke with him on the phone for some
Russian-speaking friends of mine who are trying to start a Russian-style
(pedagogics) school here in Brooklyn, and he was quite helpful to them.
Rachel Heckert