In this study of the social and psychological implications of literacy, sixteen distinguished scholars provide a sustained and detailed examination of the relations between orality and literacy, the traditions based on them, the functions served by them, and the psychological and linguistic processes recruited and enhanced by them. By shedding the romantic view that literacy is the road to rationality and modernity, the volume provides a more functional view of literacy. The articles place new emphasis on the relationship between speaking and writing and highlight the different ways in which...

In this study of the social and psychological implications of literacy, sixteen distinguished scholars provide a sustained and detailed examination of the relations between orality and literacy, the traditions based on them, the functions served by them, and the psychological and linguistic processes recruited and enhanced by them. By shedding the romantic view that literacy is the road to rationality and modernity, the volume provides a more functional view of literacy. The articles place new emphasis on the relationship between speaking and writing and highlight the different ways in which...

A central problem in cultural psychology is the diversity of patterns of rationality among cultures, historical periods, and stages of personal development. The distinguished contributors to this volume maintain that the acknowledgement of the inconsistency of rational patterns is not necessarily at odds with the traditional notion of the "psychological unity" of humankind. Leading psychologists, anthropologists, historians, and educational theorists explore this issue in considerable depth, citing relevant examples and problems relating to their specific areas of expertise. Scholars of...

What role has writing played in the development of our modern understanding of language, nature and ourselves? Drawing on recent advances in history, anthropology, linguistics and psychology, the author offers a bold new perspective on how writing and reading have historically and developmentally altered our understanding of language, mind and nature. These understandings, Olson argues, are by-products of living in a "world on paper."

Written by some of the world's leading academics and professionals in the field, this collection of essays brings together two complementary views on child development - the role of society and the role of cognitive growth.

When this book was first published, David Olson was examining the developing representation and use of diagonals in the context of much larger questions, questions also explored by Vygotsky, Cassirer, Gombrich, and Bruner. These include such issues as conceptual development, conceptual change, and stage-like transitions in one's knowledge and belief. Some of these problems remain at virtually the same stage of solution to this day. Other problems have indeed been solved or at least come closer to solution, leading the author to think about the precise cognitive representations that allowed...

Inspired by the seminal work of Jack Goody, a historical anthropologist specializing in the study of social structure and change, Technology, Literacy, and the Evolution of Society gathers diverse perspectives of 20 distinguished historians, anthropologists, psychologists, and educators to address the role of technologies in social stability and change in traditional and modern societies. In this interdisciplinary text, scholars examine the ways in which local languages and cultural traditions, modes of production and communication, patterns of local knowledge and authority affect how...

David Olson offers a theoretical account of the relationship between the minds of learners and the institutional structure of the school. Why do efforts at reforming schools routinely fail? It is because schools are by and large successful in achieving their two primary responsibilities. They meet the needs of the bureaucratic society which funds them as well as the goals and beliefs of the students who attend them. In meeting the needs, however, minds and societies are altered in conspicuous and important ways that are revealed in this book.

IT in the Social Sciences provides students with an overview of the use and study of technology in the social sciences.