Bum raps seem to go around needlessly (or needfully?) in academia -- the following (dated) web site appears to give Lave a bum rap for not recognizing intrapsychological process (that, at least, cognition in practice does seem to recognize).
http://x.ed.uiuc.edu/PES/94_docs/PHILLIPS.HTM
But then, returning to development and culture, it certainly was also clear ingo. in prac. that she views culture as developing, and takes issue with the cognitive paradigm's simplifiying assumption that since the evolution of culture occurs on a longer time-scale, that it can be taken as constant and external.
But wow, take Lave's idea of arena and its relation to setting and think of discipline knowledge as an arena -- perhaps the same form of what she wrote about the supermarket can be applied to psychology:
"Psychology, for instance, is in some respects a public and durable entity. It is a physically, economically, politically, and socially organized space-in-time. In this aspect it may be called an "arena" within which activity takes place. Psychology as arena is the product of patterns of capital formation and political economy. It is not negotiable directly by the individual. It is outside of, yet encompasses the individual, providing a higher-order institutional framework within which setting is constituted. At the same time, for individual researchers, psychology is a repeatedly experienced, personally ordered and edited version of the arena. In this aspect it may be termed a "setting" for activity. Some experiments do not exist for a given researcher as part of her setting, while other experiments are rich in detailed possibilities."
(too many apologies to Jean Lave, and to Piaget for my abuse of "assimilation")
In response to Nate -- not only Valsiner, but my readings of Lave, Lang, Bronfenbrenner, and of course Cole, Engeström, and Lemke, also speak to the co-development of culture and individual and all other units in between and beyond. Sometimes it takes reading between the lines.
Lave's book certainly increased my interest in Barker...
Bill Barowy, Associate Professor
Lesley College, 29 Everett Street, Cambridge, MA 02138-2790
Phone: 617-349-8168 / Fax: 617-349-8169
http://www.lesley.edu/faculty/wbarowy/Barowy.html
_______________________
"One of life's quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself
and watch yourself softly become the author of something beautiful."
[Norman Maclean in "A river runs through it."]
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