The concept of activity in Soviet psychology: Vygotsky, his disciples and critics.

Kozulin, Alex

doi:10.1037/0003-066x.41.3.264

Cited by 164 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…We have previously proposed a Mentality-Experience Split Theory (MEST), suggesting that in the Soviet Union the realm of abstract thought and values was isolated from the world of daily experience and behavior (combined under the term activity in Soviet psychology; see Kozulin, 1986) to a far greater degree than in the West (McFarland et al, in press). Each person's activity may have been internally consistent, but both pre-Soviet Russian history and Soviet reality forced the world of activity apart from that of abstract thought and ideals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Authoritarianism in the former Soviet Union.

McFarland

Ageyev²,

Abalakina-Paap³

1992

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

164

109

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Two studies examined the relevance of the authoritarian personality in the Soviet Union. In a 1991 Moscow quota sample, authoritarianism strongly predicted support for reactionary leaders and military actions and opposition to democratic and non-Russian leaders and to democratic activities. The positive correlation between authoritarianism and support for Marxist-Leninist ideology was significant but lower than in 1989. Consistent with the theory that conventionalism is a central attribute of authoritarianism, Russian authoritarianism predicted support for equalitarianism and opposition to laissez-faire individualism, whereas in a comparison American sample these relationships were reversed. The lower Russian consistencies on scales measuring norms of justice are interpreted as differences in how Soviets and Americans relate abstract thought and values to particular policies and activities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Authoritarianism in the former Soviet Union.

McFarland

Ageyev²,

Abalakina-Paap³

1992

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

164

109

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“…Knowing, thinking, and understanding are generated in the practical tasks and work of everyday life. Practice is seamlessly connected to the concept of activity and links individuals to the lived reality (Lave, 1990(Lave, , 1991Kozulin, 1996;Lave andWenger, 1996, 2001). In the context of DST, the concept of learning offers the possibility to analyze the individual herders' learning experiences in feeding reindeer as part of the cumulative shared knowledge of many herders; the concept can also be applied to changes in the behavior of reindeer due to feeding.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Past and Present Winter Feeding of Reindeer in Finland: Herders’ Adaptive Learning of Feeding Practices

Turunen¹,

Vuojala-Magga²

2014

ARCTIC

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ABSTRACT. The research examines reindeer feeding practices and herders' learning of them in three herding co-operatives in Finland: Kuukas in the south, Oraniemi in the central area, and Hammastunturi in the north. In the southern and central co-operatives, from the late 19th century until the Second World War (1939 -45), trees rich in lichens were cut to provide emergency forage. Harvesting lichens from trees and feeding associated with "tether calving" and "fence calving" have been common in the central and northern co-operatives. In the 1960s and 1970s, poor digging conditions resulted in reindeer losses, and pressure to feed reindeer increased further as forestry practices and overgrazing caused pastures to decline. Large-scale feeding entered daily practice in Kuukas and Oraniemi in the late 1980s and mid-1990s. The increased interaction between humans and reindeer brought about by regular feeding has made the animals tamer. In fact, they have adopted the permanent feeding areas as part of their pasture rotation. In Hammastunturi, herders entice reindeer from one pasture to another by providing supplementary forage. Knowledge about feeding developed in close concert with agriculture, and was transferred from south to north in the 1980s and 1990s. We argue that feeding practices draw on traditional ecological knowledge, which includes old ways of herding cattle. Herders' personal working practices and training are knowledge that is difficult to describe in words and must be learned by experience. Learning to feed reindeer requires not only familiarity with herding in practice (which implies profound knowledge about the animals, their nutrition, digestion, behavior, and handling), but also familiarity with the herding district and co-operation across generations.Key words: reindeer herding, winter feeding, lichen, Finland, boreal forest, interview, local knowledge, learning, anthropology, biology, multidisciplinary RÉSUMÉ. Cette étude porte sur les pratiques alimentaires du renne et sur l'apprentissage qu'en font les bergers au sein de trois coopératives de la Finlande : Kuukas dans le sud, Oraniemi dans la région du centre et Hammastunturi dans le nord. Dans les coopératives du sud et du centre, de la fin du XIX e siècle jusqu'à la Seconde Guerre mondiale (1939)(1940)(1941)(1942)(1943)(1944)(1945), on coupait des arbres riches en lichen pour servir de fourrage d'urgence. La récolte du lichen des arbres et l'affouragement lié au «vêlage en laisse» et au «vêlage en enclos» sont courants dans les coopératives du centre et du nord. Dans les années 1960 et 1970, les mauvaises conditions de creusage se sont traduites par la perte de rennes, et la pression exercée pour faire manger les rennes a augmenté au fur et à mesure que les pratiques d'exploitation forestière et le surpâturage ont réduit la taille des pâturages. L'affouragement à grande échelle est devenu monnaie courante au quotidien dans les coopératives de Kuukas et d'Oraniemi vers la fin des années 1980 et le milieu des années 1990. L'interaction accrue e...

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“…This desirable synthetic approach is possible only because activity theorists are concerned with upholding human activity-the historical results of the division of labor-as the fundamental unit of analysis, which had partially existed in the work of Vygotsky (Cole, 1985;Glassman, 1996). At the risk of oversimplification, Vygotsky privileged sign or semiotic mediation, especially in the form of speech, whereas the activity theorists succeeding him widened the scope to view objectrelated practical activity as the proper unit of analysis (Kozulin, 1986), as described in the next section, on the origins of CHAT.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“Vygotsky’s Neglected Legacy”: Cultural-Historical Activity Theory

Roth

Lee²

2007

Review of Educational Research

775

489

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KEYWORDS: cultural-historical activity theory, dialectics, theory-praxis gap, activity systems, contradictions, learning, development.More than seven decades ago, the Russian psychologist Lev S. Vygotsky (1934Vygotsky ( /1986) noted that (educational) psychology was in a state of crisis because of the "atomistic and functional modes of analysis . . . [that] treated psychic processes in isolation" (p. 1). Specifically, he pointed out that the separation of intellect and affect as subjects of study [was] a major weakness of traditional psychology, since it [made] the thought process appear as an autonomous flow of "thoughts thinking themselves," segregated from the fullness of life, from the personal need and interests, the inclinations and impulses of the thinker. (p. 10) These analytic challenges remained unresolved for years, leading Vygotsky's student A. N. Leont'ev (1978) to continue expressing dissatisfaction over the eclectic state of (educational) psychology. As readers will quickly verify, it is difficult to find research recommendations concerned with knowing and learning in and out of schools and across the life span that take into account the kind of holistic integration that Vygotsky had originally championed. Now, as then, we are confronted with a number of conundrums in educational research and practice, which advances in modern psychology have not fully overcome. To better place these issues in context, we present a short vignette below that conveys something of the multiple tensions facing classroom teachers and educators everywhere.

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The concept of activity in Soviet psychology: Vygotsky, his disciples and critics.

Cited by 164 publications

References 27 publications

Authoritarianism in the former Soviet Union.

Authoritarianism in the former Soviet Union.

Past and Present Winter Feeding of Reindeer in Finland: Herders’ Adaptive Learning of Feeding Practices

“Vygotsky’s Neglected Legacy”: Cultural-Historical Activity Theory

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