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Will Adding Halves Make a Whole? Comments on Ratner's 'Activity as a Key Concept for Cultural Psychology'

University of Brasilia, Brazil

This commentary on Ratner's (1996) article on the concept of activity in cultural psychology stresses the importance of making explicit the conceptual frameworks used in psychological research. The individual-society and activitysemiotics dualisms identified in psychology are discussed in the light of the original dualisms present in the appropriation by developmental psychology of Marxist and evolutionary theorizing about the nature and origin of humankind. Vygotskian attempts to overcome such dualities are contrasted to the activity theory tradition. Attention is directed to the need for further research striving to elaborate on concepts which will mediate sociological and psychological aspects of humankind, superseding biological and social determinisms.

Key Words: activity • phylogenesis • semiotic mediation units of analysis

Culture & Psychology, Vol. 3, No. 2, 195-210 (1997)
DOI: 10.1177/1354067X9700300206


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