Marxism & Psychology Research Group (MPRG)

Mind, Culture and Activity

Call for Papers

Special Issue on "Cultural-Historical Activity Theory and Action Research"

Deadlines

First version submitted:  July 31 2009

Reviewing and decisions for accepting papers completed by: January 31 2010

At the ISCAR conference in San Diego in September 2008, at an invited symposium on "The Social Construction of CHAT: An Intervention," a lively debate developed on the relationship between Action Research and CHAT. Yrjö Engeström expressed the view that Action Research is "not a method" and has no value for those engaged in CHAT, an opinion that was contested by
several members of the audience. Anna Stetsenko, another contributor to the symposium, reminded us that Lev Vygotsky and Kurt Lewin, who is generally acknowledged as the of the first to use the term Action Research, were friends and influenced by each other's work.

Since then, both CHAT and Action Research have grown into very heterogeneous approaches, each with an ongoing discussion between diverse positions on how to relate theory, research, and practice, yet perhaps also with some common ground.

To continue the debate, the Editors of MCA have invited Bridget Somekh, co-Editor with Susan Noffke of the *Handbook of Educational Action Research*(Sage, 2009), to be Guest Editor of a Special Issue of Mind, Culture and Activity. Bridget has been a member of ISCAR, and previously ISCRAT, for the last ten years and uses both CHAT and Action Research in her own work. The Special Issue will be co-edited by Morten Nissen, who has written and co-edited a number of texts on action / practice research in the CHAT
tradition, and is member of the ISCAR executive committee.
 

The aim of the Special Issue will be to provide a platform for comprehensive and critical discussion of the issues arising from
methodology and practice in the experience of those working in the field of socio-cultural research with a CHAT and/or Action Research orientation.

The special issue will examine but will not be limited to:

1. In what sense CHAT and Action Research can be said to be
   methodologies, including informed critique of either or both approaches

2. How and why some "action-oriented" methodologies articulated in terms
   of CHAT (e.g. "developmental work research" or "practice research")
   take up, ignore or reject elements from the Action Research tradition

3. The relationship between mind and action in CHAT and how this
   compares with work on reflection in action research

4. How the problem-focus in action research compares with the focus in
   CHAT on understanding the objects and motives of activity

5. How the Marxist legacy in CHAT compares with the use of critical
    theory in some approaches to action research when the field of problems
    and references is widened to social theory and philosophy.

6. The political in action research and in CHAT – in areas such as the
   politics of identity and community, the politics of knowledge

7. Comparisons between fundamental theoretical ideas in CHAT and Action
   Research, such as those were developed by Vygotsky and Lewin and their
   followers

8. Historical accounts of the work of Vygotsky and Lewin during their
   lifetime and the extent to which each may have influenced the other

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSIONS

We will consider articles up to 8,000 words in length (double spaced, 1-inch margins top and bottom, 1.25-inch margins left and right,
including 250-word abstract, references, notes, figures, and tables). Please keep in mind when preparing your manuscript that the MCA readership is unusually broad (anthropologists, psychologists, linguists, sociologists, educators and public policy people are all among our subscribers) and avoid jargon that is familiar only to researchers in one field. *Also note that papers are to be submitted to MCA through the online mechanism and authors need to indicate that theirs is a submission to this special issue* (
http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mca).

DEADLINES

First version submitted:   July 31, 2009

Reviewing and revision of accepted papers completed:  January 31, 2010

COMMUNICATION

For any questions, please email Bridget Somekh (b.somekh@mmu.ac.uk) and Morten Nissen (morten.nissen@psy.ku.dk)