A brief introduction

Abstract

In a discussion of the pitfalls created by the separation of sociology and psychology and long before the full extent of Vygotsky’s writing had been revealed in the west, Adorno (1967) pointed to the challenges that are inherent in the production of a social science that makes a serious attempt to capture the totality of the social formation of mind. It is no surprise that Vygotsky himself drew on Marx and the French School of sociology in the guise of Durkheim and Janet (see Davydov (1995) and van der Veer and Valsiner (1988)). In the citation that follows he establishes a clear agenda: we must be profoundly historical and must always present man’s behaviour in relation to the class situation at the given moment. This must be the fundamental psychological technique for every social psychologist. (Vygotsky, 1926/1997: 212) In this book a group of academics who share an interest in progressing some aspects of the response to the challenge identifi ed by Adorno that were partially addressed by Vygotsky, present their own arguments and justifi cations for forging links between particular theoretical traditions and, in some cases, applying new insights to obdurate empirical questions.