As I slowly dig out from under the pile of unfinished work that has beset me
this year, I have discovered a wonderful artifcle that Eugene Subbotski, who
will soon
be coming to LCHC to spend a year, sent me a year or more ago about
Voltaire's use of gardens as a tool of thought and a medium of living. Its
by Adam Gopnik
who is always thoughtful, but in this case it comes closer to home since I
have argued for the utility of the garden metaphor as a way for
developmentalists to think
about culture and development. And it speaks as well to the kind of politics
that the metaphor suggests to Gopnik.
I think the article and discussion of the garden metaphor has an affordance
for our thinking about development that Gopnik does not consider because of
the context
in which he was writing, and that is the issue of how activity theory might,
or might not, be able to deal with such mega issues as environmentalism
raised on XMCA
this past week.
In any event, if among you are any who think this topic worth a look and who
also have a little time that can be spent in non-strictly-instrumental ways
to deal with
crises of the moment, I recommend the attached. And, of course, recommend
reading Evgenii Subbotsky's work as well!
mike
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