Language and social determinism in the Vygotskian tradition: A response to Ratner (2015)
Issue: Vol 3 No. 1 (2016)
Journal: Language and Sociocultural Theory
Subject Areas: Writing and Composition Linguistics
Abstract:
‘[Starbucks baristas] live for the moment in the immediate, circumscribed, visible, here and now … This catalyzes the fragmented, disorganized, non descriptive, nonsystematic, illogical, limited speech (and thinking) of these individuals’ (Ratner, 2015: 68).
‘In a little less than three years, I’ve been on strike 10 times. I’ve watched as the movement spread to Chicago, St. Louis, and then all around the country and the world. I traveled to Denmark, where I visited with fast-food workers who are paid more than $21 an hour, and it gave me hope that winning higher pay was actually possible.’ (Winning $15 an hour means everything to me: http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/23/ winning-the-15-minimum-wage-fight-commentary.html).
Author: Peter E. Jones
References :
Bernstein, B. (1971). Class, Codes and Control, vol 1. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203014035
Bernstein, B. (1973). Class, Codes and Control, vol.1. St Albans: Paladin.
Cole, M. (1999). Cross-cultural research in the sociohistorical tradition. In P. Llyod and C. Fernyhough (Eds), Lev Vygotsky: Critical Assessments. London: Routledge.
Daniels, H. (2012). Vygotsky and Sociology. New York: Routledge.
Grainger, K. P. and Jones, P. E. (2013). The ‘language deficit argument’ and beyond. Language and Education 27 (2), 95–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2012.760582
Harris, R. (2009). Rationality and the Literate Mind. New York: Routledge.
Ilyenkov, E. V. (1982). The Dialectics of the Abstract and the Concrete in Marx’s ‘Capital’. Moscow: Progress.
Jones, P. E. (2007). Language as problem and problematic in the cultural-historical and activity theory tradition. In R. Alanen and S. Pöyhönen (Eds), Language in Action: Vygotsky and Leontievan Legacy Today, 57–78. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Jones, P. E. (2009). From ‘external speech’ to ‘inner speech’ in Vygotsky: A critical appraisal and fresh perspectives. Language and Communication 29 (2): 166–181. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2008.12.003
Jones, P. E. (2013). Bernstein’s ‘codes’ and the linguistics of ‘deficit’. Language and Education 27 (2): 161–179. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2012.760587
Jones, P. E. (in prep.). Language and Human Potential in Vygotsky’s Cultural-Historical Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jones, P. E. and Collins, C. (2010). State ideology and oppositional discourses: Conceptual and methodological issues. In M. Huspek (Ed.), Oppositional Discourses and Democracies, 17–39. New York: Routledge.
Michaels, S. (1986). Narrative presentations: An oral preparation for literacy with first graders. In J. Cook-Gumperz (Ed.), The Social Construction of Literacy, 94–116. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Ratner, C. (2015). Classic and Revisionist Sociocultural Theory, and their analyses of expressive language: An empirical and theoretical assessment. Language and Sociocultural Theory 2 (1): 51–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/lst.v2i1.26988
Sennett, R. (2012). Together. The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation. London: Penguin.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1987). The Collected Works of L. S.Vygotsky, vol.1. New York: Plenum.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1997). The Collected Works of L. S. Vygotsky, vol 4. New York: Plenum.