Re: question on class

Peter Farruggio (pfarr who-is-at uclink4.berkeley.edu)
Fri, 22 Oct 1999 06:56:12 -0800

Suggestion: To round out the picture, check out the work of Carl
Ratner. He points out the importance of including societal
influences into the mix of formative influences on consciousness.
Vygotsky was a commited communist and member of a revolutionary
generation. I believe his understanding that the kind of economic
system in which we are raised and our position in it very much
influence who we are (personality, outlook, "habitus" etc...the
marxist phrase "being determines consciousness") was assumed,
although he didn't write about it. My take is that the communism has
been washed out of Vygotsky in the capitalist West (result of
idealism/subjectivism, the inability or refusal to see the class
struggle , the petty bourgeois creation of the "free" individual
unfettered by societal constraints)

Ratner puts things nicely into balance. check out his website at

http://www.humboldt1.com/~cr2/

Pete Farruggio

>I think Leont'ev's book, Problems of the development of the mind (1981),
>pays explicit attention to class in the theory though not in the research
>as I recall. Luria (1976), Cognitive development: Its cultural and social
>foundations, one of the texts that report the cross-cultural studies
>addresses some issues of class as well as culture. Scribner's workplace
>studies (e.g., in Mind and social practice: Selected writings of Sylvia
>Scribner, 1997) deals with cognitive practices in relation to labour
>positions (e.g., delivery people vs. packers vs. office workers). I'm sure
>there are more studies, but these come to mind.
>
> >Isn't this an example of internalization? Are there any studies of class in
> >the CHAT tradition or studies in which class figures as an important
> >element/category? At this point it's not crucial for me to know how "class"
> >is defined as long as it includes a reference to the individual's relation
> >to the productive process in sectoral terms, just whether some notion of
> >class is employed.
> >
> >
> >Paul H. Dillon