[Xmca-l] CHAT and Community Psychology

[Andy Blunden]

Thanks for sharing that very interesting paper, Mike. From what I see, 
there is little justification for the dislocation between these two 
research communities - CHAT and Community Psychology. Their aims, 
sources and methods seem so similar and compatible.

I would just like to ask the authors a couple of questions.

* Do you take "activity setting" to be the optimal conception of "context"?

* What exactly do they understand by "activity setting"? You cite 
Vygotsky in a book edited by Wertsch, but I do not have that book. I 
associate "activity setting" with the current of CHAT around Mariane 
Hedegaard. It seems to me to be similar in meaning to "institution". 
Thus I quetion the efficacy of this concept for grasping social change, 
as opposed to just child development.

* Is "mutual understanding" is what you mean by "intersubjectivity"?

* I agree that participation in shared activities is the necessary 
condition for peope to achieve mutual understanding. But this is not 
necessarily the outcome, is it? It depends on the type of collaboration 
within the activity. EG White slaveowners and black slaves collaborated 
in the production of cotton in the Confederate States of America for 
many years, but this did not result in mutual understanding. So it seems 
that the notion of "shared actvities" needs further specification. Yes?

thanks
Andy

mike cole wrote:
> Dear Colleagues. Attached is an article by Cliff O'Donnell Roland Tharp
> that I thought of potential interest to XMCA members. It is being
> distributed to all after Cliff checked out that it would be ok with the
> publishers.
>
> The topic is community psychology and chat. The article is open for
> discussion.
>
> Some of you will remember that we had a special issue of MCA devoted to the
> work of
> Seymour Sarason, an important figure in community psychology. There were
> some replies
> of interest as well (1997, Vol 4, no. 3).
>
> When I came across Cliff's article, I thought that perhaps it would be a
> way to continue
> that conversation. It is written for community psychologists and perhaps a
> similar article
> for MCA-o-philes could be produced if of sufficient interest.
>
> Here is how Cliff introduces the piece:"The article for discussion is the
> final version that was submitted to the American Journal of Community
> Psychology and subsequently published in March 2012. The link to the
> publisher's version is
> http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10464-011-9434-1. The original
> publication is available at www.springerlink.com. The article advocates a
> greater integration of the concepts of culture and community by means of
> adopting key concepts from CHAT. The authors, O'Donnell and Tharp, welcome
> your reactions and comments.
>
> I am ccing some additional folks who do not read xmca so far as I know, but
> might like
> to join the conversation -- as well as the authors of course.
> mike
>
>   

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
Book: http://www.brill.nl/concepts
http://marxists.academia.edu/AndyBlunden