[Xmca-l] Re: Play and performance Article for discussion

[molly shea]

I would also like to see the presentation and remarks if it is recorded and
someone is able to share them.

Thanks,
Molly

On Sun, Sep 17, 2017 at 6:13 PM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:

> Is there any way Mike's Skype talk and the other
> contributions can be shared by slackers like us didn't go to
> Quebec?
>
> Andy
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Andy Blunden
> http://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm
> On 18/09/2017 8:48 AM, David Kellogg wrote:
> > In Mike's Skyped remarks in Quebec on Yrjö Engeström’s presentation on
> > social movements, Mike made the important point that it is not simply
> > progressive movements which require study. From education studies we know
> > that studying a phenomenon isn't necessarily a good way to promote it;
> the
> > two aims can be quite contradictory, in fact. So in many ways it's
> probably
> > more urgent to study reactionary and dangerous social movements, and when
> > we do this, we sometimes find that the process of analysis and study
> really
> > does lead to a useful social movement (and that such social movements are
> > more likely to be underpinned by the "breaking away" of Engeström's
> earlier
> > work than the material "ratchet" of his Quebec presentation).
> >
> > I was thinking of this remark in the light of three social movements:
> >
> > a) The mass strike currently sweeping Korean textile companies operating
> in
> > Vietnam.
> > b) The demonstrations in Saint Louis against the police murder of Anthony
> > Lamar Smith in 2011.
> > c) Carrie Lobman's paper on taking the performance art of Newark kids to
> > the boardrooms of New York bankers.
> >
> > I think a) and b) are indisputably instances of progressive social
> > movements that have their immediate roots in fact-finding about
> reactionary
> > and dangerous social movements (Korean investment in Vietnam, and the
> > increasing militarization of the US police force). But I find myself a
> > little perplexed by c).
> >
> > I think Carrie is too, actually: in the beginning part of the paper, she
> > presents her protagonists as country bumpkins somewhat out of their depth
> > in the boardrooms, while in the second part it transpires that it is the
> > bankers that are there to learn from the social movement of young actors
> > rather than vice versa.
> >
> > I can see treating bankers as a social movement--a reactionary and
> > dangerous one which directly profits from the kinds of inequality that
> are
> > the object of social movements a) and b). But if we are playing "Crazy
> > Eights" with bankers, treating ourselves as human beings like themselves,
> > wouldn't it be better to visit their homes rather than their boardrooms?
> >
> > (Note that some of the most effective demonstrations in Saint Lous--not
> > necessarily the most violent, but certainly the most effective--have had
> to
> > do with laying siege to the home of the mayor!)
> >
> > David Kellogg
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sat, Sep 16, 2017 at 5:53 AM, Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no
> >
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Dear all,
> >>
> >>
> >> Issue 3 of Mind, Culture and Activity has been out for a while now and
> it
> >> is time to have one of the articles discussed here at xmca. We have
> >> selected one that deals with a topic that interests me a lot and I am
> >> confident will be interesting to many: the role of play and performance
> in
> >> personal development and social change.
> >>
> >>
> >> Carrie's paper starts with a beautiful vignette from a workshop bringing
> >> youth from poor communities together with business people to jointly
> play
> >> and perform. The next section ?abruptly brings us back to Vygotsky's
> >> writings about play, ?and these then serve as the backdrop to a revisit
> to
> >> the opening workshop. The analyses and the discussion invite us to
> >> understand development "not as a set of stages that a people pass
> through
> >> on their way to adulthood, but as the collective creation of stages
> >> (environments) where people can perform who they are becoming."
> >>
> >>
> >> Carrie has been kind enough to accept joining us in the discussion, and
> >> she will introduce her article much better in a few days, while we all
> get
> >> the time to read and bring up any questions or comments we might have.
> I am
> >> sending this early, though, ?to give people a few days in advance to be
> >> able to start looking at the article, which I hope will catch the
> interest
> >> of many. Good read! And good weekend,
> >>
> >>
> >> Alfredo
> >>
> >
>
>