[Xmca-l] Re: Time for a Generational Change

[Leif Strandberg]

Dear Mike,

You and XMCA has been My universities, as Maxim Gorky wrote. Thanks for all the lessons and exciting activity you have been responsible for.

Leif
Sweden


24 okt 2016 kl. 21:36 skrev PERRET-CLERMONT Anne-Nelly <Anne-Nelly.Perret-Clermont@unine.ch>:

> Hi Mike again- 
> good all days…Let’s keep remembering the best part of them . And let's
> continue to open side tracks to overcome obstacles, as you did.
> 
> Sorry to see that Springer has closed the link. Thank you for letting me
> know.I attach here our introduction to the issue. And I’ll be happy to
> forward the chapters (one or all), if asked to.
> 
> Best greetings
> Anne-Nelly
> 
> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of mike cole
> <mcole@ucsd.edu>
> Répondre à : "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> Date : lundi, 24 octobre 2016 21:27
> À : "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> Objet : [Xmca-l] Re: Time for a Generational Change
> 
> Hi Anne-Nelly --
> 
> The nice thing about the newsletter was that we did not have to put up with
> reviewing hassles of the sort discussed on xmca a few days ago. But of
> course, it didn't count for careers, so Yrjo pushed us into formal
> publications. Ah, for the good old days!  :-))
> 
> I tried to reach the Springer article by when I clicked on that link, it
> told me that I could pay 39+$ to read it! Lets hope my library can do
> better.
> 
> mike
> 
> On Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 12:07 PM, PERRET-CLERMONT Anne-Nelly <
> Anne-Nelly.Perret-Clermont@unine.ch> wrote:
> 
>> Dear Mike,
>> For an incredible number of years (34?), I have enjoyed following your
>> impulses, seeing growing the network that you created around The
>> Quarterly
>> Newsletter of the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition; then came
>> your creative socio-technical innovations (yours was the first electronic
>> list that I have ever been affiliated to); and MCA, XMCA, etc.
>> Many many thanks Mike.
>> 
>> Amitiés,
>> Anne-Nelly
>> 
>> 
>> Prof. em. Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont
>> Institut de psychologie et éducation Faculté des lettres et sciences
>> humaines
>> Université de Neuchâtel
>> Espace L. Agassiz 1,  CH- 2000 Neuchâtel (Switzerland)
>> http://www2.unine.ch/ipe/publications/anne_nelly_perret_clermont
>> 
>> New
>> publication: "Educational settings as interwoven socio-material
>> orderings”.Springerhas just offered open access to our recent special
>> issue of the European Journal of Psychology of Education - you are
>> welcome
>> to take a look & share thislink with colleagues & students:
>> http://link.springer.com/journal/10212/31/1/page/1?wt_
>> mc=10.CON434.SI_Edu_E
>> UPE
>> 
>> 
>> -----Message d'origine-----
>> De : <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of mike cole
>> <mcole@ucsd.edu>
>> Répondre à : "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>> Date : lundi, 24 octobre 2016 19:35
>> À : "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>,
>> "lchc-l@mailman.ucsd.edu" <lchc-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>> Objet : [Xmca-l]  Time for a Generational Change
>> 
>> Hear Yee XMCA -O-Phytes.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Having removed myself from the active faculty of LCHC which is now in the
>> capable hands of Angela Booker and Stephan Tanaka, the time has come for
>> me
>> to step back from the doings of MCA and XMCA.  At MCA the new editorial
>> team of (in reverse alphabetical order, Jennifer Vadeboncoeur, Bonnie
>> Nardi, Victor Kaptelinin, and Natalia Gajdamashko) has taken over as
>> editors, and begun the process of carrying the enterprise into a new
>> generation. I will remain as a kind of "editor for special projects" for
>> the journal and will continue to participate in XMCA.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> But with respect to XMCA it is past time for me to give up what David
>> Kellogg has called my "pastoral" role in seeking to coordinate and
>> develop
>> discourse focused around provocative articles that appear in the journal.
>> The original idea was to provide authors with rapid feedback and public
>> recognition instead of having to wait the 2-3 year cycle of replying via
>> an
>> authorized journal.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> The reality, as you know, is somewhat different - a mélange of topics
>> that
>> intersect, loop back on themselves, and leak out into the semiosphere.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Luckily, Alfredo Jornet has offered to try his hand at the pastoral role,
>> and will be recognized on the journal masthead as *MCA Forum Mediator*.
>> Alfredo brings to the task his early career in Spain, his later career in
>> Norway, and his present career in Victoria. And all of this international
>> experience before has started "his career." Brave soul. Alfredo and the
>> editors are considering a variety of options for the future of the
>> journal,
>> including importantly, its status as a new medium promoting rapid
>> exchange
>> of the news between otherwise isolated scholars with complementary
>> interests.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> My participation in xlchc and then xmca has been central to my adult
>> education, and I appreciate what I have learned here more than words can
>> suffice to explain. There are not so many academic ecologies in the
>> world,
>> so enduring those that do spring up seems a worthwhile way to promote its
>> reproduction.... keeping in mind Phillip White's reminder that the future
>> of development is not predictable at the level of everyday experience.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> As I see it, there are two major failures in this effort over the years.
>> The first is the enormous imbalance in the gender representation of the
>> participants. With a few periods where the exceptions ended up proving
>> the
>> rule, female voices have been conspicuously absent. Academic "guy talk"
>> has
>> dominated. Understanding and, if possible, re-mediating that sad set of
>> circumstances seems like a major task for the future.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Second, MCA discourse does not accumulate. The discussions are more like
>> chaining than the development of new concepts. As in the Sakharov -
>> Vygotsky blocks experiment, we talk about green triangles then blue
>> triangles then blue squares, each a legitimate line of inquiry, but
>> constantly changing criteria/topics as we go. Every once in a while we
>> ascend to the level of pseudo-concepts (these are the cases that evoke
>> the
>> most controversy it seems to me). My fond hope is that Alfredo and our
>> sometimes engaged tech gurus will provide a more supportive environment
>> for
>> the creation of "truce concepts" -- agreement on a broad set of
>> principles/empirical embodiments and a research program that identifies
>> the
>> limits of the theory and the most fruitful lines of inquiry.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Thus spake
>> 
>> mike
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> <KontopodisClermontIntroEJPE.pdf>