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Cultural-Historical Approaches to Designing for Development

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The Cambridge Handbook of Sociocultural Psychology Edited by JAAN VALSINER Clark University and ALBERTO ROSA Universidad Autonoma de Madrid .,.,.:i..,, CAMBRIDGE ;:; UNIVERSITY PRESS CONTENTS vii 21 The Creation of New Cultures in Peer Interaction 444 William A. Corsaro and Berit 0. Johannesen 22 "Culture Has No Internal Territory": Culture as Dialogue Eugene Matusov, Mark Smith, Maria Alburquerque Candela, and Keren Lilu 23 Cultural-Historical Approaches to Designing for Development Michael Cole and Yrjo Engestrom 24 Money as a Cultural Tool Mediating Personal Relationships: Child Development of Exchange and Possession Toshiya Yamamoto and Noboru Takahashi 25 The Family: Negotiating Cultural Values Nandita Chaudhary PA RT VI: F R O M S O C I A L C U LT U R E T O P E RS O NA L C U LT U RE 26 Culture and Social Representations 543 Gerard Duveen 27 The Institutions Inside: Self, Morality, and Culture Fiero Paolicchi 28 Identity, Rights, and Duties: The Illustrative Case of Positioning by Iran, the United States, and the European Union Fathali M. Moghaddam and Kathryn A. Kavulich 29 Symbolic Politics and Cultural Symbols: Identity Formation Between and Beyond Nations and States 5 9 1 Ulf Hedetoft 30 The Dialogical Self: Social, Personal, and (Un)Conscious 608 Joao Salgado and Miguel Gon~alves ·•· PA RT VII: M AK I N G S E N S E O F T H E PAS T F O R T H E F U TU RE : MEMORY AND SELF-REFLECTION 31 Social and Cognitive Determinants of Collective Memory for Public Events Guglielmo Bellelli, Antonietta Curci, and Giovanna Leone 32 Collective Memory James V Wertsch 33 Issues in the Socio-Cultural Study of Memory: Making Memory Matter David Middleton and Steven D. Brown 34 The Social Basis of Self-Reflection Alex Gillespie General Conclusions: Socio-Cultural Psychology on the Move: Semiotic Methodology in the Making Alberto Rosa and Jaan Valsiner Index CHAPTER 23 Cultural-Historical Approaches to Designing for Development Michael Cole and Yrjo Engestrom The goal of this chapter is to summarize the­ In the century since Vygotsky wrote these ory and research descended from Vygotsky ideas, mainstream psychology, which has and his followers that takes seriously the generally accorded culture only a peripheral idea that practice is essential for testing role in human nature, has firmly institution­ and improving theory. We refer to this alized precisely the division between theory approach as "cultural-historical activity the­ and practice ("basic versus applied research") ory" (CH/AT) (Cole, 1996; Engestrom, 1999; against which Vygotsky was arguing. Never­ Engestrom, Miettinen, & Punamaki, 1999; theless, we believe that Marx and Vygotsky Roth, Hwang, Goulart, & Lee 2005). were correct - the implementation of the­ This approach to theory and practice, ory in practice is not a marginal scientific which is frequently traced back to Marx, was goal in the study of human development - clearly articulated by Vygotsky, for whom it is essential to understanding the complex the use of Marxism in psychology was a life­ interplay of different life processes, "in life," long concern: not just in theory. As Engestrom (1993: 98) put it, "The epistemology of activity theory Practice pervades the deepest foundations transcends the dichotomy between theory of the scientific operation and reforms it and practice." from beginning to end. Practice sr;;rs the tasks and seroes as the supreme judge of theory, as its truth criterion ... The most complex contradictions of psycholog­ Cultural-Historical Activity ical methodolol!Jl are transferred to the Theory (CH/AT) ground of practice and only there can they be solved. There the debate stops beingfruit­ Cultural-historical activity theory (CH/ AT) less, it comes to an end. (Vygotsky, 192 7I brings together ideas associated with the 1997: 305-306) names of L. S. Vygotsky, A. R. Luria, and CULTURAL-HISTORICAL APPROACHES TO DESIGNING FOR DEVELOPMENT A. N. Leontiev. It has been common in opposing views weight different aspects of recent years to emphasize differences bet­ the dynamic system of development differ­ ween Vygotsky and Luria, on the one hand, ently, or view them from a slightly different and Leontiev on the other (van der Veer & perspective in their overall approaches, they Valsiner, 1991). According to such interpre­ treat activity and mediation as two aspects tations, Vygotsky and Luria are best asso­ of a single, whole in human life world. ciated with the principle that the distin­ guishing characteristic of specifically human psychological functions is that they are cul­ Some Basic Principles Used in turally mediated: 'The central fact of human CH/ AT-Inspired Intervention existence is mediation" (Vygotsky, 1997'. Research 138). By contrast, so the story goes, Leon­ tiev believed that his colleagues overem­ Keeping in mind that there are a variety phasized the cultural mediation of thought of views on important issues among those and underemphasized the embeddedness identified as CH/ AT theorists, the follow­ of thought in human activity. It might be ing are some theoretical principles generated argued that a significant disagreement exists from this position that have been tested in to this day among those who consider Vygot­ the intervention studies we review in this sky and his colleagues as a starting point chapter. for constructing a theory of human devel­ opment and those who start with Leon­ 1. Mediation through artifacts. The initial tiev (1978). According to this line of inter­ premise of the Russian cultural-historical pretation, those who follow Vygotsky have school was that human psychological pro­ focused attention on processes of mediation, cesses entail a form of behavior in which adopting "mediated action" as a basic unit material objects are modified by human of analysis (Wertsch, del Rio, & Alvarez, beings as a means of regulating their inter­ 199 5; Zinchenko, 198 5). By contrast, follow­ actions with the world and each other. As ers of Leontiev are said to choose "activity" A. R. Luria put it, artifacts incorporated into as a basic unit of analysis (Engestri::im, 1987; human action not only "radically change his Kaptelinin, 1996). 1 conditions of existence, they even react on The basic impulse underlying a CH/ AT him in that they effect a change in him and approach is to reject this either/or dichoto­ his psychic condition" (Luria, 1928: 493). my. Instead, adherents of a CH/ AT per­ As a result of acquiring this "cultural habit spective argue that whatever their disagree­ of behavior," human beings begin to regulate ments, Leontiev (1981) readily acknowledges themselves "from the outside." This char­ the constitutive role of cultural mediation acteristic of human behavior gives rise to in his account of activity while Vygotsky the method of double stimulation. An early insisted on the importance of activity as the application of this method was to provide an context of mediated action (1997 ). In similar adult suffering from Parkinsonism with bits fashion, one sees contemporary scholars who of paper, by means of which he was able to are seen as somehow in opposition with each walk across a floor (Luria, 1932). It has subse­ other on this fundamenta~ point adopting quently been widely used in designing meh­ an "and/both" not an "either/or" approach. ods for re-mediating the behavior of adults So, for example, James Wertsch argues for with brain damage, or mentally retarded "mediated action in context" as a basic unit children (Amano, 1999; Luria, 1979). As we of analysis while Yrji::iEngestri::im argues that see below, it has become a central princi­ "the activity is the context" and ( as we shall ple guiding research on the development of see) pays great attention to principles of work practices among adults (Engestri::im, mediated action in both his theory and in his 2005). We will discuss double stimulation empirical research. While the presumably in more detail later in this chapter. MICHAEL COLE AND YRJO ENGESTROM 2. Activity as the essential unit of analysis. concepts imply the centrality of culture to The complementary basic premise of the human life. Culture is present in the form cultural-historical approach, adopted from of the tools, signs, rituals, and so on that Hegel by way of Marx, is that the analysis mediate human activity. It is simultaneously of human psychological functions must be present in all the symbolic forms that have situated in historically accumulated forms of accumulated over the social group's history, human activity. Unfortunately, the meaning whether that history is oflong or short dura­ of the term, activity, no less than the term tion. Lotman (1989) referred to this totality culture, is a bone of contention among schol­ of meaning making materials, the "semio­ ars from different disciplines and national sphere," which he defined as "the semiotic traditions. 2 According to A. N. Leontiev, space necessary for the existence and func­ tioning of languages." Human psychology is concerned with the In some forms of intervention, culture is activity of concreteindividuals, which takes treated as a locally emerging activity sys­ place either in a collective - that is, jointly tem involving a briefer stretch of history with other people - or in a situation in which the subject deals directly with the such as the participants at English football surrounding world of objects - for example, matches or in an afterschool club (Nocon, the potter's wheel or the writer's desk. [ . .. J 2004). In this latter case, the term "idiocul­ With all its varied forms, the human indi­ ture" is especially helpful. Adopting Gary vidual's activity is a system in the system Alan Fine's useful notion: of social relations. It does not exist without these relations. The specificform in which it An idioculture is a system of knowledge, exists is determined "bythe forms and means beliefs, behaviors, and customs shared "by of material and mental social interaction members of an interacting group to which (Verkher) that are created "by the devel­ members can refer and that serve as the opment of production and that cannot be basis of further interaction.
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