This book offers a critical reconstruction of the fundamental ideas and methods in artificial intelligence (AI) research. By paying close attention to the metaphors of AI and their consequences for the field's patterns of success and failure, it argues for a reorientation of the field away from thought and toward activity. By considering computational ideas in a large, philosophical framework, the author eases critical dialogue between technology and the social sciences. AI can benefit from an understanding of the field in relation to human nature, and in return, it offers a powerful mode of...

This book offers a critical reconstruction of the fundamental ideas and methods in artificial intelligence (AI) research. By paying close attention to the metaphors of AI and their consequences for the field's patterns of success and failure, it argues for a reorientation of the field away from thought and toward activity. By considering computational ideas in a large, philosophical framework, the author eases critical dialogue between technology and the social sciences. AI can benefit from an understanding of the field in relation to human nature, and in return, it offers a powerful mode of...

These essays by leading theorists and researchers in sociocultural, cognitive, developmental, and educational psychology honor the memory of Sylvia Scribner, who believed that science holds a responsibility to human welfare and understanding and whose work is recognized by the authors as seminal to their own thinking. The themes include the relationship between history and culture, the importance of context to thinking, the place of literacy in human activity and thought, and cognition in school and in the workplace. The volume presents applications of activity theory to fundamental issues in...

Sylvia Scribner's contributions to the emergent field of cultural psychology have been monumental. Her studies of reasoning and thinking within contexts of culture and activity added new concepts, methods, and findings to what many now consider a distinctive branch of psychology. Mind and Social Practice brings together published and unpublished work from Sylvia Scribner's wide-ranging and prolific career. The book is arranged chronologically and includes five section introductions by the editors, placing Scribner's work in the context of her life, her commitments, and the political and...

Sociocultural Studies of Mind addresses the question of how mental functioning is related to the cultural, historical, and institutional settings in which it takes place. There are three unifying ideas that run through the volume: 1) one of the basic ways that sociocultural setting shapes mental functioning is through the cultural tools employed, 2) mediation provides a formulation of how this shaping occurs, and 3) in order to specify how cultural tools exist and have their effects, it is essential to focus on human action as a unit of analysis. This landmark volume defines a general...

This two-volume book contains selected papers from the international conference "Groups 1993 Galway/St Andrews," which was held at University College Galway in August 1993. These two volumes represent the wealth and diversity of group theory. Five main lecture courses were given at the conference. These were "Geometry, Steinberg representations and complexity" by J. L. Alperin (Chicago), "Rickard equivalences and block theory" by M. Broue (ENS, Paris), "Cohomological finiteness conditions" by P. H. Kropholler (QMW, London), "Counting finite index subgroups" by A. Lubotzky (Hebrew University,...

This volume explores the theoretical, design, learning, and methodological questions relevant to designing for and researching web-based communities to support the learning process. Coming from diverse academic backgrounds, the authors examine what we do and do not know about the processes and practices of designing communities to support educational processes. Taken as a collection, the chapters point to the challenges and complex tensions that emerge when designing for a web-supported community, especially when the focal practice of the community is learning.

Innovative ideas in educational psychology, learning, and instruction, originally formulated by Russian psychologist and educator Lev Vygotsky, are currently enjoying unprecedented popularity in the U.S., Latin America, Europe, and Russia. An international team of scholarly contributors provides comprehensive coverage of all the main concepts of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory. They emphasize its importance for the understanding of child development, and propose specific classroom applications.

Taking their inspiration from the ancient skill of blacksmithing, the authors of this book take a fresh look at the mental processes involved in the accomplishment of goals. They analyze the way people apply what they know in order to reach a particular end, whether it is material or conceptual, routine or novel. The authors, anthropologists Janet and Charles Keller, provide an account of human accomplishment based on a detailed study of contemporary blacksmiths. The cognitive realm of blacksmithing is of particular interest because it relies on visual imagery and physical virtuosity rather...

Despite extraordinary advances in digital and communication technology over recent years, we know very little about the way these complex systems affect everyday work and interaction. This book seeks to explore these issues through a series of video-based field studies that look at the introduction of basic information systems in general medical practice, news production, the control rooms of the London Underground and computer aided design in architectural practice. It focuses in particular on social interaction and the way video-based field studies can inform the design, development and...