“Cultural-historical psychology offers strong conceptual and methodological tools to understand and promote social innovation and change, which are most needed in a fast-changing society. Therefore, the book Revisiting Vygotsky for Social Change: Bringing Together Theory and Practice is much appreciated by students, academic researchers and practitioners. It gathers a range of talented colleagues and highly interesting ideas both at the theoretical and practical level. I'm happy to recommend it to my colleagues, students and librarians.”—Laure Kloetzer, Assistant Professor, Institute of Psychology and Education, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland
“The book is organized by three well recognized authors within cultural-historical studies, who have invited other very well know scholars in the field as contributors. These authors have important international collaborations and have an active participation in international forums in the field. The focus of the book is very original and interesting, bringing to light a critical perspective on the social significance of Vygotsky’s theory and the conceptual shift toward social change in the examination of human development and learning processes in the contemporary Vygotskian studies. The discussion related to the relevance of Vygotsky for social change is a novelty of the book that is welcome in the international community of Vygotskian studies.”—Fernando González Rey (in memoriam), Full Professor of Psychology, University Center of Brasília; Senior Research Collaborator, Faculty of Education, University of Brasília, Brazil
“This book comes from three well-respected scholars who are seen by many internationally as part of the next wave of Vygotskian theorists. They have put together a book which has attracted contributions from some of the most outstanding theorists working on the dialectical relation between theory and practice within Vygotskian studies. The names of these contributors alone will ensure that the collection of chapters will be bought and read. But the book is doing more than bringing together ideas from thoughtful contributors to the field. It is asking us to pause and to consider where the field of Vygotsky-informed research is going. They note the need now to look forward and, as valuable as the archive work has been, we need to consider how some of the key concepts in Vygotsky’s Marxist psychology allow us to address current pressing problems. The contributions come from people who choose to work at the margins of different disciplines, including psychology and linguistics, making this an exciting collection where the potential for links between chapters is strong. In short it is a coherent collection, discussing how a theory that was developed to address the challenges of revolutionary Russia can now address some of the problems currently facing us both nationally and globally.”—Anne Edwards, Professor Emeritus, Department of Education, University of Oxford, England
Contemporary thinkers and researchers from different parts of the world involved in achieving human development employ Vygotsky’s theory in order to deal with new social challenges arising in a global but deeply divided world (Santos, 2000; Souza e Santos, 2008; Martín-Baró, 1998). The chapters of this book shed light onto Vygotsky’s initial principles adding critical and social perspectives as a way of expanding his legacy to global contemporary needs such as a critical reflection from the perspective of social change, social dynamics and human development, ethical-political situations of action power, dialectic relationship of the human being with society, contradictions in an individual’s dramatic life events and awareness of the social environment to actively change the existing forms of life.
