[xmca] Concept of culture in LCHC

[Larry Purss <lpurss@shaw.ca>]

Steve, & Mike
I enjoyed reading the historical document written in 1984 on the first twelve years of LCHC.
The level of specific detail on the many different projects and the way the institutional structure evolved through time is fascinating reading.  It puts in historical perspective the radical perspective being articulated in the first few years and the growing acceptance of the centrality of culture within the social sciences generally in the intervening 12 years.
 
The section on page 38 when you discuss the emerging concept of culture in various traditions:
Geertz, Bateson, and D"Andrade in Anthropology, 
Wittgenstein and Bakhtin in language philosophy,
Burke, Berlin, and Percy in humanities,
Meyer and Gould in biologhy,
Erickson Vygotsky, and Luria in psychology 
 
speaks to the philosophical parentage of a new paradigm that has the potential to radically revision our institutional structures. (and our sense of our selves)
 
The recognition of the hostility and entrenched viewpoints of established power structures also was informative. (page 40)Your multicultural emphasis ignored by NIE and various foundations. A focus on biological traditions which downplayed social barriers to educational change.  A dismissal of interdisciplinary discourse and the entrenchment of traditional divisions in the human sciences.  Grant proposals that favored individual change rather than social factors. These political constraints which led to a change of direction in the mission of LCHC.  This led Mike to conclude that "a consensus exists that such activities, while laudatory in their place, HAVE NO PLACE IN A FIRST CLASS AMERICAN UNIVERSITY. (p.40)
 
These political constraints led you to project a future for LCHC "as a research center within which to work out practical models of educational transformation. using the the principles of cultural psychology and to serve as an information center coordinating researchers with an interest in comparative cognitive research.
 
That was 25 years ago.  It seems many of the struggles continue today and some seem almost contemporary in their discourse style.  
 
Mike 
I hope there is some interest in your recent post suggesting a lot more could be done to facilitate using the power of the internet to further the project of cultural psychology and its various traditions and literary discourses.  After 39 years of existence LCHC alumni must be in some positions of influence for reaching beyond the academic structures to inhabit a "new commons" 
 
Larry 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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