I also have been thinking about those issues, Steve. LSV and colleagues
could only talk about them-- as they applied to other countries.
We tried hard to get discussion of Bernstein
going in connection with LCA discussion, but did not get very far. Perhaps
in a different, post-ISCAR environment we can get to class -- on of the ways
to link local actrivity systems to their large socio-cultural-historical
contexts?
mike
On 9/14/05, Steve Gabosch <sgabosch@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> I bring lots of questions with me to ISCAR. I really like the ones
> Natalia asked about development and the development of the higher
> psychological functions. Among others, I have questions that pertain
> to social class, and related one about something Ilyenkov called
> "collective self-awareness," that ultimately connect to Natalia's
> questions.
>
> I bring to Sevilla a particular interest in the role of social class
> in human development, the role of human development in the
> development of social class, and the role of social class in history,
> largely influenced by Marxist theory and practice, and my own
> experiences as a factory worker for some decades now. (BTW, for
> those of you that know I am a machinist at Boeing, yes, we are on
> strike!). Culture and activity emerge again and again at these
> junctures and transformations. But humans, especially when organized
> as politicized social classes, can become not just the objects and
> outcomes of historical development, they also can become the subjects
> and agents of historical motion. What happens when this happens to
> the working and toiling masses, such as in revolutionary upsurges and
> in socialist revolutions (Russia, Cuba, etc.)? What happens to the
> psychology of working people when they become not just the objects,
> but the *subjects* of deepgoing social change? What happens to
> working people when, to refer to Natalia's wonderful little
> discussion of Vygotsky the other day, society goes into its own
> "crisis of development"?
>
> What discoveries and insights and research work of the various
> tendencies in the general international Vygotsky school - which
> currently calls itself by the initials "iscar", an international
> society of cultural and activity researching - contribute to
> understanding this kind of process? Can such understandings
> contribute to helping working people participate in social "crises of
> development" and change history?
>
> I find myself asking the same kind of question from another angle by
> touching off from something Ilyenkov spoke of in his essay "The
> Concept of the Ideal": "The dialectics of the emergence of the
> collective self-awareness of the human race." What are the various
> trends within ISCAR (cultural-historical psychology, CHAT,
> sociocultural theory etc.) contributing to understanding this
> "emergence of collective self-awareness of the human race" that
> Ilyenkov spoke of? What role might this "emergence of collective
> self-awareness" play in human history?
>
> For me, the above lines of inquiry may also help lay the sociological
> and sociocultural theoretical foundations for the kind of dialectical
> materialist psychology that Vygotsky envisioned and opened the door
> to - a new psychology which would include a (non-linear,
> crisis-based) developmental, cultural and historical understanding of
> the relationships of the body, emotions and anxieties to the higher
> psychological functions, among other things. Who else in the ISCAR
> community is thinking along these lines? And who can help me
> formulate these complex questions I am asking more precisely and
> effectively?
>
> For me, this is a very exciting opportunity to be able to participate
> in this conference with these kinds of questions and many more - and
> I owe much to my xmca friends for making this possible.
>
> ~ Steve Gabosch, Seattle
>
>
>
> At 08:12 PM 9/11/2005 -0700, Natalia wrote:
>
> >Hi Mike and Dear ALL!
> >
> >Mike asked:
> > > So, what question concerning CHAT is on your mind?
> >
> >
> >My concern is that people from different fields apparently view
> >"development" in very different ways, thus creating confusion whenever we
> >are discussing development. We have had the same situation with
> "learning,"
> >but at least with learning we admit openly that we have different
> learning
> >theories. Development, what is development?
> >
> >I am always curious why people don't, for example, discuss the
> development
> >of higher psychological functions versus lower psychological functions?
> Is
> >Vygotsky's concept obsolete, not deserving, or falsified (if so, by
> whom?)?
> >
> >Cheers,
> >Natalia.
> >_______________________________________________
> >xmca mailing list
> >xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>
>
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