I think the distinction between appropriation and internalization is a
useful one. Those of you in psychology probably remember the notion of deep
processing in memory, the notion that high energy activities and strategies
when applied to material to be remembered result in more lasting memory
than more rote processes.
I am suggesting an analogy: while appropriation is not "rote " it may
consist of an imitated activity or one where " making a process one's own"
is a relatively straightforward activity.It results in an expansion of one's
repertoir of adaptive activities. Internalization, on the other hand,
requires appropriation plus transformation, the linking of a present process
to previous schemata or networks of rewpresentation. They are both
representational activities but they may vary in depth, duration, number of
attempts and transformational possibilities. I am not disturbed by the
implication that internalization
is implying the existence of a brain/mind; it is as our title Mind in
Society implied an embedded mind, never fully autonomous, but part of the
dialectical tension of the individual in constant co-existence with the
social . They are enmeshed and mutually expansive.
-----Original Message-----
From: Nate Schmolze <v3y3g3o3t3s3k3y@msn.com>
To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Date: Wednesday, May 15, 2002 7:56 AM
Subject: Re: stability & change / hot and cold
>So, does appropriation encompass internalization? For me, appropriations
>usefulness is in describing aspects of the social that are not internalyzed
>perse. But it seems possible to have one and not the other. For example, a
>child with downs syndrom appropriating the activity of reading (looking
>through dictionary) yet not internalyzing skills / practices necessary to
>"read".
>
>I ask because it seems to me they are both useful concepts, and that
>appropriation does not necessarily encompass the concept of
internalization.
>
>Nate
>
>
>>From: Bill Barowy <wbarowy@attbi.com>
>>Reply-To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>>To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>>Subject: stability & change / hot and cold
>>Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 09:57:34 -0400
>>
>>Relevant to this thread perhaps are the apparently polysemous notions of
>>hot
>>culture and cold culture -- and the ones in mind are those representing
>>respectively the differences between people in action and the products of
>>people in action. I think Giddens uses the terms differently, referring
to
>>cultures in which change is rapid i.e. the one inclusive of the U.S. as
>>compared to those in which change is not so rapid. What is the relation?
>>--
>>I mean, after all, in the latter sense of hot culture, there seems to be
>>the tendency for the proliferation of cold culture in the former sense.
>>Huh.
>> Hot culture, in the intersection of both senses, seems to be where the
>>straight uptake and the transformation of artifacts (re Wartofsky) not
only
>>cross-generationally, but inter-generationally, are processes that are
more
>>in balance than in cold culture (former sense).
>>
>>Nevertheless, "conservative" seems a value-laden charge, and does not
>>describe how i take the term "appropriation". Appropriation is, IMHO, an
>>excellent start to causal description because its use per se raises the
>>question "appropriate to whom?", immediately opening the door between
>>learning, and development at the individual mind-brain (re Lang), i.e.
>>actions within as material changes, and more salient actions in its
>>contexts
>>-- raising the question of how culture reproduces and produces anew.
>>"Appropriation" does not necessarily mean appropriate-to-the-investigator,
>>but appropriate within the context, as can be uncovered through an
>>ethnographic investigation. That's not to say that there are mind-brain
>>changes that are not appropriate as revealed by ethnography, and
uncovering
>>those seem to bring in processes of creativity of the genres appearing in
>>studies of "the lads" and skateparks. Skateparks, i posit, being the
>>products of the social reponses to in-appropriate skateboard creativity.
>>
>>Anyway, gotta run and make a living using little of the investigatory
>>skills
>>i learned in my scientific training. That was another place and time,
and,
>>on the surface, they no longer seem... appropriate.
>>
>>;-)
>>
>>bb
>>
>>
>>...you may be through with the past, but the past is not through with
>>you...
>>[from the film "Magnolia"]
>>
>
>
>
>
>nAtE
>
>vygotsky@charter.net
>http://webpages.charter.net/schmolze1/
>
>
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