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Re: [xmca] RE: The Social Creation of Inequality



I don't know Plotkin, Mike, but surely it is a truism for us Vygotskyites that human life is a continual interchange between imagination and material reality? That one person's (one period's) imagination is realised for another person (period) by means of (mediated by) artefacts and acitivities organised around artefacts? That tools and symbols mediate imagination and imagination mediates material culture?

Andy

mike cole wrote:
So, in Henry Plotkin's terms, culture is the imagination made real, Andy?
mike

On Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 6:39 PM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>> wrote:

    Mmmm, I have not settled on whether "dead" is the right word.
    "Objectivication" means that the project becomes an integral part
    of a way of life, reflected in a word in the language and other
    artefacts which are taken-for-granted as tied up with the concept
    which was once a project. In a sense it is very much alive,
    because it is enacted by living people and is part of the life of
    the community. But it no longer has a life of its own, so to speak.
    But projects also die in the sense that they are no longer enacted
    and are just a memory, like "old technology" or the soap box
    (trying to think of examples, I noticed that such projects often
    move over into metaphors).

    Andy

    Larry Purss wrote:

        Andy
        Thanks for the clarification.  Institutions have a life cycle.
        While still "living" it is more accurate to refer to these
        conventionalized practices as "projects" that are continuing
        to develop. Whe the cycle ends they become dead
        ojectivications. Is this accrate?
         Larry

        On Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 6:54 AM, Andy Blunden
        <ablunden@mira.net <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>
        <mailto:ablunden@mira.net <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>>> wrote:

           Projects have a life cycle. The end of a life cycle (apart form
           disappearing into nothingness) is objectification. This means
           fixed material representations, including words as signs for a
           concept, and social practices which constitute the concepts in
           practice. But injects" omy view, concepts and institutions all
           pass through a phase of being projects. But I think that even
           though calling an institution a project is a bit
           counter-intuitive, it gives you a good handle on the
        dynamics, the
           history and the potential for change.

           Andy


           White, Phillip wrote:

               Andy, you wrote:

               "I stick to my position, that "institutions" should be
        regarded as
               projects, not tools or material artefacts of any kind
        (though
               artefacts
               are needed in the realisation of an institution, such
        as signage,
               legislation, all kinds of documents, buildings, uniforms,
               etc., etc)."

               Projects...... an intriguing, to me, idea - institutions as
               projects - particularly considering the root of the
        word - and
               its cousins, like "projectile", etc.

               many thanks for this thought.

               p


               Phillip White, PhD
               University of Colorado Denver
               School of Education
               phillip.white@ucdenver.edu
        <mailto:phillip.white@ucdenver.edu>
        <mailto:phillip.white@ucdenver.edu
        <mailto:phillip.white@ucdenver.edu>>



-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
           *Andy Blunden*
           Joint Editor MCA:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=g932564744
        <http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title%7Edb=all%7Econtent=g932564744>
<http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title%7Edb=all%7Econtent=g932564744>
           Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
        <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/> <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/>

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        <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
           <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
        <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>>
           MIA: http://www.marxists.org <http://www.marxists.org/>

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-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------


    *Andy Blunden*
    Joint Editor MCA:
    http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=g932564744
    <http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title%7Edb=all%7Econtent=g932564744>
    Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/ <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/>
    Book: http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
    <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
    MIA: http://www.marxists.org

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--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
Joint Editor MCA: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=g932564744
Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
Book: http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
MIA: http://www.marxists.org

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