ISCAR News
International Society for Cultural and Activity Research
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Vol. 3, No. 4 May 2005
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ISCAR NEWS
1. ISCAR Logo
2. Introduction to "ISCAR Sections"
3. Call for ISCAR Section proposals
ISCAR CONGRESS NEWS
4. Deadline for Early Registration to ISCAR Congress is extended to 30 May
ANNOUNCEMENTS
5. Conference on 'Socio-Cultural Theory in Educational Research & Practice'
8-9 September 2005, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
PUBLICATIONS
6. New Books from ISCAR members
You are welcome to submit news items to: news@iscar.org
Send short abstracts of recently completed ph.d theses to: news@iscar.org
Send email and postal address changes to: new-address@iscar.org
Copies of previous newsletters available from: news@iscar.org
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ISCAR NEWS
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1. ISCAR Logo
ISCAR now has a logo (shown in attached file). The logo was designed and
produced
by Hartmann & Schmidt in Copenhagen, Denmark. We have been very fortunate
to get
a top-professional design team who was willing to work with a small, nonprofit
organization with a small bank account. It was a challenging process to
develop
the logo because it had to fulfill many criteria. We wanted a design that
would
be meaningful to ISCAR members, while being visually interesting and accessible
to others who do not know what ISCAR represents. The logo also needed to look
good when reduced to the size of postage stamp - so that it can be used on
conference name tags, webpages, and so forth. And finally the design had to
look good in black and white so that we can keep down the printing costs when
we use the logo.
The entire process took about a year and a half. It was particularly
challenging to get a good design because of the complexity of ISCAR's message.
Normally a designer wants to keep a logo simple, so that it is accessible and
looks good in small sizes. But it was not easy to find a simple way to
express
the main focus of ISCAR. At one point we gave up trying to satisfy both
criteria of meaningful to ISCAR members and interesting to others, and decided
that we should try to make a logo that would be meaningful to ISCAR
members, but
in the end that design started to also satify the interest of being
interesting
to people who do not know about ISCAR. At least we think that we have
succeeded
reasonably well in finding a good balance between these two interests, so that
we have a visually interesting and meaningful logo. However, we would be
grateful to hear your comments, reactions, and interpretations of the logo.
Please send them to Seth Chaiklin <seth@iscar.org>
In the next newsletter we will explain more about the designer's own
considerations in forming the logo, as well as tell a little more about how
it was produced.
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2. Introduction to "ISCAR Sections"
The Executive Committee would like to develop the concept of ISCAR section.
The term is already used in relation to the formation of the Executive
Committee
(see newsletter, Vol. 3., No. 3). We would like to maintain the idea of a
section as a organized sphere of action within ISCAR. For now we would
prefer to
start with a minimal bureaucratic structure, allow ideas and organizational
forms
to be developed by ISCAR members, and then refine and elaborate the concept
as we
all gain practical experience.
An Executive Order has been prepared that formally defines the "section"
concept as a "meaningful entity that contributes actively to ISCAR's purpose
of promoting mutual scientific communication and research cooperation among
its members, within the scope described in ISCAR Article 3(a)." The Executive
Order also specifies requirements for a section's organisation and
functioning,
resources from and relation to ISCAR, along with the processes by which one
can
be formed or terminated.
All ISCAR members are invited to send proposals for starting an ISCAR section.
If you are interested in forming a section, or want to understand the idea in
more detail, then the full Executive Order is available at:
http://www.iscar.org/exec1.html
A one-page proposal form is available at: http://www.iscar.org/secprop.html
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3. Call for ISCAR Section proposals
The Executive Committee wants to assist members who are interested in forming
sections. The following three points provide important information about this
assistance as well as relevant deadlines.
a. It would be practical to have some sections formed before the First ISCAR
Congress in September this year. Arrangements have already been made with the
Congress Organizing Committee to provide time in the program for sections to
meet. (This meeting time will be on a different day from section meetings held
in relation to the selection of a member for the Executive Committee).
b. It will be necessary to send section proposals to the Executive
Committee no
later than 1. July 2005, for an accepted section to be included in the ISCAR
program.
For this first round of proposals it is not necessary to make a comment about
possible overlap with other sections as mentioned in the Executive Order and
Proposal Form.
In the interest of coordinating between sections, we will only make official
confirmation of the acceptance of sections about two weeks after 1 July.
c. To assist in the preparation of section proposals, ISCAR will send out a
special edition of the newsletter to all members. This special edition will
contain your announcements, calls for interest, and other statements about
possible sections. If you are interested in organizing a section, want others
to organize a section, would like to hear how many others might be interested,
inquire if others would like to cooperate, etc., then please send your
message,
as briefly as possible, to Seth Chaiklin <seth@iscar.org>. Remember to include
information in your message about how to contact you, if you want other
members
to respond to you. These messages must sent no later than 5 June, if you want
them to be included in the message that will be sent out (probably 6 or 7
June).
If you have questions, then you are welcome to communicate with
Seth Chaiklin <seth@iscar.org>
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ISCAR CONGRESS NEWS
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4. Deadline for Early Registration is extended to 30 May
Monday, 30 May is the new deadline for early registration for attendance at
the
First ISCAR Congress in Sevilla, 20-24 September, 2005.
Rates for ISCAR members until 30 May: 370 Euros / 200 Euros (students)
After 30 May, the rate will increase by 50 Euros.
Remember also that your ISCAR membership must be paid through 2005 in order to
receive the member's rate.
To register for the Congress, get a copy of the Word document at either:
http://iscar.org/ISCAR2005-Registration.doc
or
http://www.us.es/glabahum/ISCAR2005/privada/Registrationform.doc
and send it to: sevillacongresos@viajeseci.es
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
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5. Conference: 'Socio-Cultural Theory in Educational Research & Practice'
8-9 September 2005, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
The Sociocultural Theory Interest Group, School of Education, University of
Manchester is holding a conference at the University. It starts at 5 p.m. on
the 8th September and finishes at 4.30 p.m. on 9th September 2005. Keynote
speakers are:
Professor Michael Cole, Dr Etienne Wenger and Professor Harry Daniels.
There will also be workshops where all can participate.
Early registration deadline is 8 June.
For further information and registration form see:
http://www.education.man.ac.uk/lta/sctig/overview.htm
or write to:
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PUBLICATIONS
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6. New Books from ISCAR members
Donner la vie, choisir un nom. Engendrements symboliques
[Giving life, choosing a name. Symbolic begetting]
Tania Zittoun
L'Harmattan, Paris, 2005, 226 pages
ISBN: 2-7475-7759-7
21.20 Euros
(in French)
"Donner la vie, choisir un nom. Engendrements symboliques" proposes a
conceptual
framework for studying adult development in everyday life. The book argues
that
people use symbolic resources to support their development. The book
contributes
to a classical question in sociocultural psychology: how are social
dynamics and
individual change mutually constitutive? The proposition is to follow the
processes through which people can articulate and transform personal feelings
and fantasies through symbolic resources. The book argues that sociocultural
approaches have convincingly shown that culture is constitutive of mind, but
have yet to account for what people intentionally "do" with "culture". The book
considers transitions in people's lives as the unit of analysis; these involve
process of social and cultural repositioning; knowledge acquisition; and
personal
sense making. In order to advance these issues, the book explores how future
parents choose a first name for their child. On the basis of reconstructive
interviews, it examines what cultural elements - novels, films, name
guidebooks,
web-pages - people find for solving the task of giving a name. The book
supports
its central argument by showing how people also use these films, novels, music,
or religious traditions to support the transition to parenthood. It thus shows
how these are used as symbolic resources through which people can guide and
facilitate their own development.
The book will interest socio-cultural researchers interested in semiotic
mediation, in adult development, in everyday learning, in intercultural issues,
and in the link between sociocultural psychology and psychoanalysis.
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Production Editor: Seth Chaiklin
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News: news@iscar.org
Webpage: http://www.iscar.org
Queries: info@iscar.org
If you do not want to receive the newsletter attached
as a Word document, then send a message to: news@iscar.org
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