ISCRAT

Mike Cole (mcole who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu)
Sun, 21 Jun 1998 09:09:54 -0700 (PDT)

Dear Colleagues,
It seems almost impossible to believe that 10 days have passed since
I raced home from the ISCRAT conference in Aarhus. The interim has
been jammed full of grading papers, end of year grad exams, and various
year-end university chores, delaying this message.
The conference was so interesting it was the cause of constant
frustration! I could not attend to sessions I was responsible for
participating in without missing several simultaneous sessions I really
wanted to attend. And the same applied for every session I got to attend
and listen to-- I had to miss several equally inviting sessions.
I have a modest proposal-request-- might people single out one
or two sessions they attended, or a paper that made a special impression
on them, and post a summary/commentary on xmca? I will try to do this
myself in the next couple of days.
As a preliminary comment, the two memorial sessions I participated
in each generated not only emotional, but intellectually challenging
moments. I remember particularly Eva's glimpses into the xlchc/xmca
persona of Arne Raeithel and the cornocopia of important ideas he
worked through with us in the past and Yrjo's presentation not only
of Arne's ideas about levels of centration/ coordination-collaboration-
communication, as well as Yrjo's summary of Davydov's ideas concerning
genetically primary examples and development at the memorial for
Davydov.
I was also impressed, not always optimistically, with the tremendous
difficulties of communication across language/culture variations that were
present at the conference and at the same time, amazed with peoples'
patience and tenacity in trying to overcome those constraints to achieve
communication (in Arne's sense).
Warmest greetings on the summer solstice to our Nordic/Scandanavian
colleagues, may you get some sleep despite all that sunlight. And heartfelt
thanks the Marianne Hedeberg, Seth Chaiklin, and all the many people in
Aarhus for providing such an incredible model of hospitality and
colleagial warmth.
mike