Peggy Bengel
Abstracts
Volume 4, No. 3 Mind, Culture, and Activity
---------------------------------------------------
Computers in Mediated Human Activity
Susanne Bodker
Aarhus University
This paper investigates an alternative place for the computer=20
with respect to human cognition. Instead of the computer as a=20
model of the human being, I will explore the computer in its role=20
as mediator of human activity based in activity theory. In=20
particular, I will discuss various metaphors for this role,=20
including that of a tool, and look at possible roles for the=20
computer in development of human work activity. I will=20
emphasise further the importance of and for design of this=20
alternative place. The paper will use an example from a computer=20
application in use in a real work setting to illustrate its points.
-----------------------------------------
Constructing and Deconstructing the Self: Comparing Post-
Vygotskian and Discourse-Based Versions of Social=20
Constructivism.
Anna Stetsenko, Igor Arievitch
Institute of Psychology, University of Berne
Constructing and deconstructing the self are the two=20
alternative ways to conceive of a human agentic individual that=20
coexist in the present-day socioconstructivist framework. Two=20
respective theoretical approaches employing the grounding=20
assumptions of social constructivism are analysed: (a) discourse-
based perspective that creates important epistemological=20
prerequisites for studying the self but at the same time dissolves=20
it in the linguistic or social reality of discourse, and (b) post-
Vygotskian perspective that turns to the methods of guided=20
formation and views these processes as a modus vivendi of a=20
developing self. We argue that the second perspective can=20
provide a non-reductionist account of the agentic self by taking=20
an active stance in co-constructing, changing and directing its=20
development. Actual post-Vygotskian lines of research (with=20
focus either on interpsychological or on intrapsychological=20
aspects of evolving selves) are compared and the ways to=20
synthesize their accomplishments are discussed.
----------------------------------------
Symposium
Seymour Sarason and the Creation of Settings
Michael Cole
University of California, San Diego
As Seymour Sarason tells the story in his autobiography,=20
=B3The Making of an American Psychologist,=B2 the interests that led=20
him to create the Yale Psychoeducational Clinic and later, his=20
monograph, =B3The Creation of Settings,=B2 came together in the late=20
1950's. Part of the context for undertaking the clinic arose from=20
discontent over the state of clinical psychology at the time. Part=20
of it came from deep concerns that those given the responsibility=20
for desegregating U.S. schools had no idea of what kind of=20
mischief they were likely to create by failing to understand how=20
forced bussing would conflict with the culture of the school. The=20
event that triggered the decision to create the center was a=20
conflict among professional fraternities and their associated=20
institutions: two different parts of the Yale University=20
psychology establishment, one located in medical settings that=20
drew upon psychoanalysis, the other located in community=20
health centers and clinics that drew upon general psychology=20
for inspiration and support. Powerless to provide resources for a=20
student through existing clinic arrangements, Seymour, in a fit=20
of anger, declared that the Psychology Department should start a=20
clinic of its own. And, as they say, it came to pass.
In his account of these events in his autobiography,=20
Seymour lists a number of the key ideas that organized his effort:
1. It would be a place where staff went out to be helpful in=20
existing community institutions rather than a place where=20
people came for help. Problems were sought in settings, not in=20
persons.
2. The community settings would be studied in the=20
historical and cultural context of the community, including its=20
political, economic, religious, and racial composition.
3. The study of change in the system itself would be a focus=20
of study.
4. Center staff were to be a blend of academic and non-
academic background experiences.
5. Schools would be a high priority institution within=20
which to work. The clinic work routine would include times of=20
reflection and self-criticism
6. Issues of financing such an institution would need to be=20
a part of the initial planning.
7. It would inevitably need to be a group effort.
Today the sort of effort that Seymour initiated, labored=20
over, and wrote about, is no less needed than if was forty years=20
ago. =B3Formative experiments=B2 and =B3design experiments=B2 and=20
=B3action research=B2 have gained a reasonable degree of=20
respectability in various parts of academic life. Yet for a variety=20
of reasons, the complaint that Seymour lodged in the 1950's =8Bthat=20
too little research had been carried out on the growth and=20
dynamics of alternative settings to deal with perceived human=20
problems, remains fully in force.=20
It is in the belief that there is a great deal to be learned=20
from Seymour's work on the creation of settings that this=20
symposium is based. The symposium contains three articles. The=20
first is a retrospective account by Seymour of his overall effort=20
vis a vis the creation of settings. His account is followed by two=20
commentaries, each by someone who has himself engaged in the=20
creation of settings, and who make Seymour's work the focal=20
point for interpreting their own attempts to create settings for=20
the promotion of human development.
-------------------------------------------------
Revisiting The Creation of Settings
Seymour B. Sarason
Yale University
I begin by briefly indicating the personal experiences=20
that stimulated me to write the book. I do so because I have come=20
to believe that crucial to the creation of a setting is the range and=20
substance of the leaders=B9 personal and cognitive past experiences=20
in and with complicated settings, and I would also include the=20
length of time of past experience. The shorter the time span of=20
past experience the more difficult the process will appear=20
independent of outcome judged by criteria of success or failure. =20
If I had to bet, I would have to say that the shorter that time span=20
the quicker the criteria for failure will be recognized and the=20
frequency of the death of the setting would be higher. I say that=20
not because a longer time span of past experience necessarily=20
indicates that appropriate conclusions have been drawn, or that=20
increased age means increased wisdom. What it does mean is that=20
the chances that conclusions appropriate to the creation of a=20
setting have been learned are somewhat higher. Overall,=20
however, the rate of failure is very high. The setting may=20
remain in existence but its initial purpose have long been=20
discarded or drastically changed. One could argue that there are=20
instances where these changed purposes should have been=20
discarded. The fact is that we do not know and probably will=20
never know because, as I shall later indicate, the creation of=20
settings is not likely to be an area of investigation.
-----------------------------------------------
The Creation of Mediating Settings
Luis C. Moll
University of Arizona
I met Seymour Sarason about six years ago when we both=20
served on the advisory board of a study conducted by mutual=20
colleague. It was a pleasure to finally meet him because his=20
work, especially his analysis of the culture of schools and of the=20
possibilities for positive change, had long influenced my own=20
research, and had inspired me, in great part, to develop=20
collaborative working arrangements with teachers as an=20
indispensable element of any attempt at change.=20
Among the first things he did was to ask me for copies of=20
our articles and reports, which I took as a terrific compliment,=20
for we agreed that local communities represent a resource of=20
enormous importance, especially in language minority=20
neighborhoods, for the schooling of children, a central theme of=20
our research. The work I describe below is a summary of that=20
research, and Seymour will not be surprised that the creation of=20
settings, a central strategy in our work with teachers, was also=20
anticipated in his writings, which continue to be a valuable=20
source of insights as we progress with our studies. To that work I=20
now turn.
-------------------------------------
Abstracts=20
Volume 4, No. 4 Mind, Culture, and Activity
Guest Editor's Introduction
David Russell and Charles Bazerman
As David Russell recounts in the review essay which=20
leads off this special issue of Mind, Culture, and Activity,=20
the teaching of writing at the university has in recent=20
years spurred a vigorous investigation of the writing=20
practices that pervade the academy, the professions, and=20
all the institutions of modern society, which depend on the=20
technology of writing. This investigation is distinctive=20
from literary approaches to written texts in that it has=20
turned from primary attention to the language of the text=20
(an interest shared with linguistics) or even the creative=20
processes of the authors (an interest shared with cognitive=20
psychology) to the cultural-historical activities that the=20
texts mediate. Writers, readers, and texts are seen as part of=20
complex social discursive systems, and the activity of text=20
and author are understood in relation to multi-dimensional=20
genres, extending in time and space through the mediation=20
of material inscriptions. The micro-level interactions of=20
people with texts are provisionally stabilized through=20
multi-dimensional genres, which give shape to macro-
level activities and which are in turn made and remade by=20
each new act of writing and reading.
As the intellectual, professional, and cultural forms=20
of work mediated by writing are often counted among the=20
most developed of human accomplishments -=20
accomplishments that create and transform the social=20
sphere in which we grow up and live - the study of writing
within complex systems of interaction then becomes a site=20
for the study of higher cognitive functions, in the=20
Vygotskian tradition. The study of the organized, situated=20
practices of writing that people come to participate in -=20
from the grandest treatises of science and literature to the=20
humblest of bureaucratic forms - can tell us much about
the enactment of power and influence in the modern=20
world as well as about the formation of the collective and=20
individual minds that inhabit this modern world. We hope=20
the essays in this special issue will make evident how=20
useful the study of writing can be for developing activity=20
theory.=20
-------------------------------------------------
Writing and Genre in Higher Education and Workplaces:=20
A Review of Studies That Use Cultural-Historical Activity=20
Theory
David R. Russell=20
Iowa State University
This essay reviews a tradition of North American=20
research on writing in higher education and workplaces=20
that draws on cultural-historical activity approaches.=20
Growing out of college composition courses, writing-
across-the-curriculum programs, and technical writing=20
courses, the research takes as its object the roles writing=20
plays in various activities=8Bparticularly those activities=20
where writing most powerfully mediates work: academic=20
disciplines, professions, and other large and powerful=20
organizations of modern life. Genre is an important=20
analytical category, defined not in terms of formal=20
features but in terms of typified rhetorical actions based in=20
recurrent social situations. Researchers use qualitative=20
and historical methods to trace the ways people create,=20
appropriate, and recreate dynamic genres to mediate a=20
wide range of social practices.=20
-------------------------------------------------
Navigating the Current of Economic Policy: Written Genres=20
and the Distribution of Cognitive Work at a Financial=20
Institution
Aviva Freedman
Carleton University
Graham Smart
Purdue University
Like navigating a ship (Hutchins 1993), conducting=20
monetary policy involves complex processes of distributed=20
cognition. The difference is that, in a governmental=20
financial institution like the Bank of Canada, much of the=20
cognitive work and its distribution are accomplished by=20
means of interweaving webs of genres of discourse. The=20
genres of the Bank enable both the forming and=20
reforming of policy as well as the constant reflexive self-
monitoring necessary for maintaining the robustness of=20
the institution and for achieving its goals. The genres=20
operate as sites for the communal construction of, and=20
negotiation over knowledge; and paradoxically, as=20
institutionalized artifacts, they both channel and codify=20
thinking at the same time that they function as sites for=20
change.
----------------------------------------
Genre as Tool in the Transmission of Practice over Time=20
and Across Professional Boundaries
Carol Berkenkotter and Doris Ravotas
Michigan Technological University
This paper is concerned with the processes through which=20
a central activity in the natural sciences, classification, is=20
instantiated in the writing practices of psychotherapists.=20
The authors examined several psychotherapists=B9=20
grammatical, lexical, and rhetorical strategies for writing=20
their initial evaluations of their clients' problems. Using=20
membership categorization device (MCD) analysis from=20
ethnomethodology, the authors examined several=20
therapists' written initial evaluations for their use of=20
microlevel categories and categorizations derived both=20
from clients=B9 own (oral) representations and the=20
therapists=B9 professional repertoire. The resulting analysis=20
suggests that clients=B9 emic, contextually- grounded=20
expressions are absorbed into a monological account=20
reflecting the therapist's professional interpretive=20
framework. The therapist thus translates the client's=20
concerns into a set of meanings compatible with the=20
classifications of psychopathology of the American=20
Psychiatric Association's =B3Diagnostic and Statistical=20
Manual IV (DSM IV).=B2 The resulting written account=20
supports a billable diagnosis thereby fulfilling its=20
institutional purpose. It fails, however, to serve another=20
important purpose to many therapists, which is helping=20
the therapist to guide the therapy process by providing a=20
record of the client's perspective of her lifeworld.
-----------------------------------------
Literate Activity and Disciplinarity:
The Heterogeneous (Re)production of American Studies=20
around a Graduate Seminar
Paul A. Prior
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Taking up a sociohistoric approach to writing as literate=20
activity in functional systems and to disciplines as=20
dynamic heterogeneous networks, I examine writing in=20
graduate education as a critical site of disciplinary=20
enculturation. Through an ethnographic analysis=20
centered on the literate activity of students and a professor=20
in an American Studies seminar, I work to integrate=20
participants' situated activity around a task (involving=20
field research and writing) with the historically=20
sedimented affordances of a few key mediational means. =20
The analysis particularly foregrounds heterogeneity, as=20
multiple microgenetic, ontogenetic, mesogenetic, and=20
cultural-historic trajectories are woven together to form=20
the deeply laminated functional systems of persons,=20
artifacts, practices, and institutions that (re)produce=20
American Studies and its interdisciplinarity.
-------------------------------------------
Discursively Structured Activities=20
Charles Bazerman
University of California, Santa Barbara
Talk helps organize the activities they are part of;=20
people maintain regularity of activity through the=20
typification of talk. Similarly, the recognizable similarity=20
among written texts (that is, recognition of genre), helps=20
maintain social and cognitive structure within activities=20
producing or using those genres. Enduring written texts=20
and systems of texts provide a conservative, reproductive=20
force on local activities. Events are particularly held=20
accountable with those texts that count as knowledge, and=20
thus knowledge-bearing texts are influential in the=20
organization of daily life. Further, disciplines concerned=20
with the production of knowledge represented in textual=20
form develop their structures of social and intellectual=20
practice in dialectic with the textual forms by which=20
knowledge is created and circulated. An examination of=20
the discursive organization of the fields of knowledge=20
production gives us tools for examining the roles=20
knowledge serves within modern culture and opens up=20
questions of how society is organized and how power is=20
distributed around the knowledges we produce.=20