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Lois Holzman, Ph.D. New York NY 10010
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A bit about my new book, Vygotsky at Work and Play… Vygotsky at Work and Play brings readers up to date, showing Vygotsky’s influence on psychology as a discipline. He is presented as a key figure in the creation of a new more socially and culturally rooted psychology, a humanistic and hopeful voice for radical transformation in how we educate, help and heal, and a living force in the lives of tens of thousands of ordinary people across the United States and abroad. Since the Routledge publication of Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary Scientist in 1993, which I co-authored with Fred Newman, Vygotsky’s relevance to general psychology and to several specific areas within the discipline has increased dramatically. In 2002, the APA Monitor (the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association) reported that Vygotsky was among the hundred psychologists most frequently cited by other psychologists (APA Monitor, Volume 33, No. 7 July/August 2002). The study on which the Monitor article was based, entitled “The Hundred Most Eminent Psychologists of the 20th Century,” presented data gathered from textbook and journal citations as well as a survey of psychologists (Haggbloom et al., 2002). Vygotsky ranked 83rd overall and 19th in the survey of psychologists. His location among the “fathers of psychology” such as Freud, Skinner, Wundt, Thorndike and Piaget, as well as contemporary psychologists such as Bandura, Kagan and Miller, speaks to his significance to the discipline as a whole, and not merely to the area with which he has been most closely associated, educational psychology. This is but one measure of the increased interest in Vygotsky’s ideas, not only as he himself presented them but also in the diverse ways in which contemporary researchers and practitioners are making use of them. In this first decade of the 21st century, Vygotsky’s influence not only continues among learning theorists and educators, but he also has come to figure prominently in other psychological studies, such as cognitive science, organization and management, psychotherapy and counseling, youth development and outside-of-school learning, as well as in curriculum and teaching, literacy and rhetoric, information technology and design, geography, architecture, and museum studies. Taken together, this scholarly activity is part of a larger social narrative taking place—the story of science, scientific breakthroughs and what becomes of them, the story of fundamental changes in how we see the world, and the story of paradigm shifts within psychology. It seems timely, then, for the appearance of a volume that gives expression to the breadth of Vygotsky’s influence. This is the aim of Vygotsky at Work and Play: Implications for an Innovative 21st Century Psychology. Vygotsky at Work at Play is intended for the wide audience of faculty, students and practitioners interested in the development of new psychological frameworks. For those new to Vygotsky’s work and socio-cultural psychology, the book will provide an excellent up to date introduction to his own ideas and how they have been built upon. For those who are already familiar with Vygotsky and socio-cultural psychology as utilized in a particular area of interest, the book will broaden their perspective and appreciation for Vygotsky’s wide applicability. The first two chapters provide an overview and introduce the major concepts that are utilized and explored in subsequent chapters. What follows are illustrations of how the Vygotskian paradigm shift is impacting on many areas of psychology, including education and learning, psychotherapy and counseling, youth development, and organizational development and workplace studies. Drawing upon over a dozen programs and projects currently in operation in formal and informal learning settings, in mental health environments and at the workplace, these chapters explore in depth and in detail the foundations of a new psychology based in a relational, activity-theoretic ontology owing its root concepts to Vygotsky. The final chapter draws upon the previous ones to present a summary of theoretical and practical implications for the continuing creation of a transforming and transformative psychology. Table of ContentsChapter 1. Vygotsky at Work in Psychology Chapter 2. Playing with Vygotskian Concepts Chapter 3. In the Classroom: Learning to Perform and Performing to Learn Chapter 4. In Therapy: Creating Emotional Zones of Proximal Development Chapter 5. On the Stage: Building the Ensemble Chapter 6. At Museums and Other Cultural Institutions: Allowing Discovery Chapter 7. At the Workplace: Fostering Teamwork Chapter 8. The Emergence of an Ontological Shift
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