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Re: [xmca] crisis at age 17



Institutionalisation as factors in and responses to child development is a topic which Vygotsky rarely touches on, I grant. But his note from the beginning of "The Problem of Age" which I quoted was the one explicit reference to institutions as a response to or indicator of child
development is one.

In "The Development of Thinking and Formation of Concepts" (v. 5 p. 43) he says: "Class psychology in the child is created as a result of his working with those around him, or, stated more simply and directly, as a result of a common life with them, common activity, common interests. Let us repeat, class cohesion is formed as a result not of external
imitation, but by shared life, activity, and interests."

So I feel justified in presuming that Vygotsky also thinks that
institutionalised practices actively participate in child development, too. To my surprise the OED doesn't recognise "institutionalise" or "institutionalisation" as words in the English language. It was the chapter by Barbara Rogoff, "Developmental Transitions in Individuals'
Roles in Their Communities" in "The Cultural Nature of Human
Development" (which you pointed me to Mike) is where I draw the idea
from, truth be told.

Andy

mike cole wrote:
Andy--

I guess I am simply having trouble interpreting texts on xmca at the moment in general! Sorry

The issue of the "back end" of the transition to adulthood is not passe, of course! Quite the opposite, it is a new academic industry and a major life issue of millions of people around the globe in ways that were unanticipated by our forbearers. And it certainly is fraught! Both for participants and analysts. Ask any 35 year old unemployed BA living at home with parents or the parents or Ethiopian high school leaver who cannot find work!!

Does LSV use the term, institutionalized age-levels? The institutions part of this process ordinarily goes under-theorized by psychologists and I seem to have missed that.
mike

On Wed, May 25, 2011 at 8:18 AM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>> wrote:

    I did not mean to impute a framing of the question in those terms
    to you Mike, but I can't quite see why you describe the idea of
    what Vygotsky calls the "transitional period" ending in the
    "beginning of adulthood" as something passe and fraught. Is there
    a country in the industrialised world which does not have an age
    (or ages) at which the person qualifies to vote, drive cars, give
    informed consent, join the army, run for election, serve on juries
    - all those rights which characterise adult citizenship in a country?
    Vygotsky says these instituionalised age-levels "depend on
    enormous practical experience" (LSV CW 5p187) so it seems a fair
    conclusion to draw that there is some reality behind a
    hear-universally institutionalised idea, some basis in patterns of
    child development in the given society.
    Mind you, he also says "We do not include youth (i.e. the period
    between adolesence and adulthood) in the scheme of age periods of
    childhood for the reason that theoretical and empirical studies
    equally compel opposition to stretching child development
    excessively and including in it the first twenty-five years of
    human life. In the general sense and according to basic patterns,
    the age eighteen to twenty-five years more likely makes up the
    initial link in the chain of mature age than the concluding link
    in the chain of periods of child development." (LSV CW 5p196) But
    that is really not my concern. I am not writing a book on child
    development! :) It's those youth I am most interested in. The
    development which proceeds on the basis of a person's thinking and
    acting in concepts is a different kind of development than that
    which he or she goes through during childhood, and does not
    exhibit the same laws.

    Andy


    mike cole wrote:

        We also did not write about the transition to adulthood at
        what used to be called the beginning of adulthood, a frought
        notion indeed. There is not a large literature on that topic
        which is only pre-figured in the first edition of our textbook
        when we were allowed to include a life-span treatment of
        development.
        mike

        On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 10:42 PM, Andy Blunden
        <ablunden@mira.net <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>
        <mailto:ablunden@mira.net <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>>> wrote:

           Apologies Gregory. I slipped a note about Vygotsky in the
        middle
           of my commentary on Cole, whereas in fact, Mike did not
        refer to
           Vygotsky in this chapter.
           Culpa mia.
           Andy


           Gregory Allan Thompson wrote:

               Ivo and Andy,
               Also in the adolescence section of Mike's textbook is
               reference to William Damon. He has a wonderful 3-D
        graphic of
               the development of self-concept from infancy through
        adolescence.
               His writings on moral development are quite good too. The
               major point that I always appreciate is that moral
        development
               should not be considered separately from development of
               self-concept (Andy, you might appreciate the way in which
               development of self-understanding and development of social
               understanding are caught up with each other - the
        development
               of an I that is We?).
               Although I don't recall any explicit reference to
        Vygotsky, he
               draws on an Vygotsky's kin (according to some), the
        American
               pragmatists James Mark Baldwin and William James.
               Damon and Hart 1992. Self-understanding and its role in
        social
               and moral development. In Lamb, M. and Bornstein, M. (Eds.)
               Developmental Psychology: An advanced textbook. pp.
        421-464.

               Graphic is on p. 433.
               I'm happy to share a copy directly but prefer not to
               distribute widely.
               -greg
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-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
           *Andy Blunden*
           Joint Editor MCA:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=g932564744
        <http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title%7Edb=all%7Econtent=g932564744>
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-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    *Andy Blunden*
    Joint Editor MCA:
    http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=g932564744
    <http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title%7Edb=all%7Econtent=g932564744>
    Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/ <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/>
    Book: http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
    <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
    MIA: http://www.marxists.org

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--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
Joint Editor MCA:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=g932564744
Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
Book: http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
MIA: http://www.marxists.org


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