Three years later: Culture in psychology - Between social positioning and producing new knowledge

Abstract

Since the previous editorial analysis (Valsiner, 2001) the journal has continued as an intellectually exciting forum for international and creative scholarship. For further development of the field, it needs to live up to its claim for interdisciplinary synthesis of ideas and support for new research practices that are built on the axioms of the systemic and dynamic units of analysis. Cultural psychology shares the fate of all social sciences to be under the constraints of the social demand system that expects simplified practically usable suggestions from it. In contrast, cultural psychology is a basic science where general knowledge about culture within psychological processes is created. It is through generalized abstract knowledge that psychology at large can become applicable for specific ends within a society.