>
>http://communication.ucsd.edu/MCA/Paper/index.html
>
>Winter 2000 / 2001 Discussion Papers
>Are We Ready for a Single, Integrated Theory?, By Michele Minnis and Vera
>P. John-Steine
>Essay review of Perspectives on Activity Theory, Edited by Yrjö Engeström,
>Reijo Miettinen, and Raija-Leena Punamäki
>
>Agency and Culture, By Carl Ratner
>This article analyzes two viewpoints concerning the relation of agency and
>culture. One viewpoint construes agency as a personal trait that operates
>outside of culture and is designed to liberate the individual from
>cultural constraints. I explore this viewpoint in the work of several
>eminent cultural psychologists. I critique it as a regression to asocial
>individualism which cultural psychology was designed to correct. I propose
>an alternative conception of agency as a cultural phenomenon. Espoused by
>Durkheim, Marx, Boas, and Bhaskar, this conception holds that agency
>depends upon cultural processes for its realization, forms culture, and
>has a cultural form. Agency is the active element of culture. Being a
>cultural phenomenon means that agency is a historical project which must
>be realized through humanizing society.
>
>
>Nate Schmolze
>http://members.home.net/schmolze1/
>vygotsky@home.com
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