Coming from Switzerland, I found 170 e-mail messages. Today I read about
30. There is still a long way to go. Before describing the conference, =
I
want to ask if somebody needs =93a bloody good discussant=94 (I mean myse=
lf, of
course) for any AERA symposium. I learned the British word =93bloody=94 =
from
David Middleton with whom we spent a really nice day in Zurich. As to
self-promotion, I=92ve learned it in the US. Finally, I=92ve learned a s=
trategy
of sharing your own problems (e.g., my desire to be paid to go to AERA vi=
a
my institution) with as many people as possible from my Soviet-Russian
experience. Anyway, seriously, let me know if somebody may need a
discussant.
OK. Now about serious business. I want to report about international
two-day conference titled "Joining society: social interactions and learn=
ing
in adolescence and youth" sponsored by the Johann Jacobs Foundation. It =
was
in Germany, in Marbach Castle, the estate on the lake Constanze (sp),
belonging to Jacobs family. Although, they could not accommodate everybo=
dy
in the Castle, so all peripheral people (juniors, Eastern Europeans, some
Italians) were placed in a really nice hotel in Switzerland in 10 minutes
driving away from the castle.
Klaus Jacobs and his son were attending the conference and they were pret=
ty
active. I=92ve never seen a billionaire before. I=92ve learned quickly =
that we
do belong to different SES.
The format of the conference was a bit unusual for me. All people were
asked to prepare their papers in advance. During the conference the
presenters and discussants were given 10-15 minutes to go beyond their
papers. Thus, the conference was very interactive, which was very pleasa=
nt.
There were about 30-40 people, about equal number of men and women. Ther=
e
were several grad students mainly brought by Shirley Brice-Heath from
Stanford. There were no minority scholars. People were from 12 countrie=
s
mainly from Europe and US. One person was from South Africa, one was fro=
m
Israel, one person from Japan. Two people were from Eastern Europe (Russ=
ia
and Yugoslavia). People belong to different areas of social sciences:
psychology, education, economy, linguistics, history, and so on. The
language of the conference was English.
The five-meal dinner was always excellent.
Now I=92m going to list people=92s contributions. I want to warn you tha=
t my
presentation of the contributions may not agree with the author=92s opin=
ions
or opinions of other participants.
Lauren Resnick (US). She started the conference by focusing on the
strangeness of its title implying that youth does not belong to society.
Several participants mentioned later this issue. However, in my view, it
was not pushed far enough. She also attracted attention to problematic
definition of who is considered to be adolescent. In support, Annie Fouq=
uet
(France) gave examples that in Southern Europe 30 years old people often
considered to be adolescents. Annie explained it with the different role=
of
families in life of young people in South Europe in contrast with Norther=
n
Europe. Again this notion of social construction of adolescence was not
discussed farther during the conference.
Finally, Lauren emphasized her favorite topic of school reform, national
standards, effort-based assessment. She also praised business community =
for
promoting school reform. By the way, praising capitalism for its
entrepreneurial spirit and stress on accountability was common thread for
the conference. Later, I=92ve learned that there was growing intersubjec=
tive
silence of distaste among some (peripheral) participants regarding to the=
se
dithyrambs to capitalism as the savior of education. For the record, bef=
ore
the last dinner, I tried to make a point that schools in their current fo=
rm
may nicely fit to current state of capitalist economy with its all
entrepreneurial spirit and stress on accountability. During the dinner,
some people suggested that I should go and apologize to Klause for my
criticism of capitalism :-) -- the dinner was so good that I seriously
considered doing that but my Russian colleague stopped me reminding that
Karl Marx would disapprove my cheap apology (there were a lot of jokes sa=
id
during and between the meals).
Shirley Brice-Heath (US). Shirley did a very interesting presentation ab=
out
youth-based organizations. She made a point that traditional parental
rearing practices guided by the transmission ideology becoming destroyed =
by
the economy required both parents to work. There is no much time for
parents=92 attention to kids and family guidance. Also stable and predic=
table
developmental trajectories disappear in rapidly changing economy. These
changes lead to crisis of adolescence and call for its new institutional
forms. Schools based on adult unilateralism and insensitivity can not
provide meaningful guidance for the youth. Youth-based organizations are
the alternatives. They are based on shared leadership and governance, yo=
uth
entrepreneurial spirit, economic independence, solidarity, and
egalitarianism. School reform is useless.
Roger Saljo (Sweden). He made a point with examples that what teachers
often consider as student=92s mistake can be students=92 misunderstanding=
of
teacher=92s question.
Karsten Hundeide (Norway). He analyzed the process of becoming a member =
of
antisocial youth organization. Here are the phases: 1) becoming official=
ly
called as deviant, 2) isolation from mainstream society, 3) feeling stron=
g
belonging to the new community, 4) committing an initiation action of
dehumanization, 5) accepting group ideology normalizing new experiences, =
6)
unconditionally following a charismatic leader, 7) destroying any support
base that is outside of the new group. Karsten argued that in order to
rehabilitate deviant youth it is necessary to offer some support and
activities that are ideologically neutral to their antisocial ideology
(e.g., karate sport). He told also about his recent experience working w=
ith
youth in Angola who participated in tortures and massacres of civil
population during the civil war. They seem not to have any remorse and
develop a practice of telling cynical jokes about their experiences.
Alain Coulon (France). In his discussion of Karsten=92s presentation, he
pointed out that so called =93antisocial groups=94 do not exist =93out th=
ere=94 but
are social construction of the mainstream society who defines norms and
deviance. Alain also argued that following rules involves interpretation
and negotiation which especially evident in such practices as karate. He
stressed that this negotiation of rules can be what many of the youth are
after.
Ursula Staudinger (Germany). Ursula raised an issue about why youth is
often discussed in terms of their preparation for future adulthood (mainl=
y
jobs) and not as quality of their lives. This topic was not supported. =
She
also mentioned about =93overgenerational relations=94: grandparents havin=
g
better relations with grandchildren than parents with their children. Jo=
hn
Rijsman (Netherlands) suggested that unlike parents who have very strong
focus on their own and their kids=92 trajectories, grandparents are more
interested in nurturing an actor in their grandchildren.
David Middleton (UK). David pointed out that parenting is always a new
experience because it involves always new circumstances. People compare
parenting with jazz improvisation: although each successful improvisation
can=92t be repeated it can be used for future improvisation as a phrase.
Ursula Staudinger-Clotide Pontecorvo (Italy)-Eugene Matusov-John
Rijsman-Mayumi Karasawa (Japan). They came to a conclusion that, unlike =
in
US, in Japan, discontinuity between being a child and being an adult is
emphasized (e.g., supporting kids=92 fights, talking in vulgar language) =
which
leads to a perception of continuity of person=92s experience and percepti=
on of
more harmonious relations between children and parents. In US (and in
Europe), parents expect and struggle for continuity in child=92s behavior
leading to perception of discontinuity and disharmony in parent-child
relations.
Arkady Margolis (Russia). He suggested that immigrants are short-runners
that is why many of them are entrepreneurial. He asked about innovative
school curricula that would lead to development of whole person (he cited
Vygotsky but I forgot the quote). People reacted that Vygotsky's quote
about whole-person development was not very original and school reform
should focus on educational philosophy rather than on curricula.
Heather Brookes (South Africa). She shared her concerns about US tendenc=
y
to support the idea of cultural segregation so unpopular in South Africa =
in
their notion of diversity. While in South Africa, unlike in US, the noti=
on
of progress is somewhat popular. She found that it is difficult to discu=
ss
many South African problems in US (e.g., Black youth random violence).
Laurence Roulleau-Berger (France). As a sociologist, she emphasized soci=
al
constraints constituting youth lives. She talked about racism in France
against Arabs. After bombs explosions in Paris, police armed with machin=
e
guns openly harassed people on streets who looks like Arabs. There is jo=
b
and housing discrimination as well.
A few people leading by Shirley wanted to shift attention to adults and
their relations to youth. But in my view, it was not well developed. Ja=
y
Lemke would probably raise an issue about middle age hegemony but he was =
not
on the conference. However, this hegemony could be heard in the conferen=
ce
discourse.
I don't want to talk about my contributions because you will probably hea=
r
about my stuff on XMCA any way sometime (and I'm tired). I=92m sure I mi=
ssed
a lot of interesting ideas and contributions and misunderstood those I
described. But this is my contribution in the creative process of scienc=
e
making :-)
Eugene
PS By the way, I=92m not 60 years old (some people on XMCA net thought an=
d
told me that their perception about me coming from my messages was that I=
am
somewhat old well-established super-serious guy -- I=92m not).