ABSTRACT
The chapters in this book have been selected to provide an introduction to some of the issues that have arisen in the development of the cultural historical schools which have sought inspiration from the work of the Russian scholar L.S.Vygotsky. As with almost all attempts to sketch the influence of this early twentieth-century writer, it is partial. The main focus is on that part of the development of the analysis of the relationship between the social and the psychological which is concerned with development and learning. This introduction will consider the emergence of Vygotsky’s work and what are taken to be some of the key elements of his overall thesis. The general theme of the development of the operational notion of the term “social” will be pursued against a background of familiar concepts such as the Zone of Proximal Development. All the chapters in the collection have been published elsewhere. The original idea for such a collection came from the experience of running a short series of lectures with master’s degree course members. The limitations of time and availability of texts gave rise to a plea for one volume which would, at least, introduce the main issues to be discussed in the course. As university libraries struggle to maintain broad and balanced collections of journals and books, students often experience particular difficulty in accessing some of the articles reproduced here. This introduction draws heavily on a number of texts not reproduced in full but which make a significant contribution to the debates surrounding Vygotsky’s work.
