MICHAEL COLE
Cambridge: Harvard University Press; 2003 (sixth printing)
Reviewed by Vlad-Petre Glăveanu
EJOP Editor
Undoubtedly we are now witnessing the dawns of a new era in the theory and practice of Wundt’s “second psychology”, an era of re-discovery and re-assessment of all key issues that concern the maturation of a discipline. At such times proposing integrated and viable approaches to the study of mind and culture is both daring and praiseworthy. Michael Cole, Professor of Communication and Psychology at the University of California, San Diego, has successfully undertaken such a task and by this offered us an exemplary textbook of “contemporary” cultural psychology.
His book “Cultural psychology: a once and future discipline”, awarded Harvard University Press’s annual prize, is the product of Cole’s lasting preoccupation for topics such as cognition and human development and decades of research in the field. As the author clearly states, his goal in writing the book was “to describe one principled way to create and use a culture-inclusive psychology” (p.2). He found this way in a restructured cultural-historical psychology, a complex theoretical framework that combines ideas from the Russian cultural-historical school of psychology, American pragmatism, and related social sciences.
In order to fully appreciate his new standpoint, Cole describes (Chapters 1 and 2) the vast array of contradictory positions that seemed intrinsic to the understanding of cultural psychology: culture is generally recognized as important but almost ignored in empirical research, cross-cultural studies are performed but their methodology is contested, experimentation is the favourite method of science but its application to cultural psychology is doubtful, knowledge is universal (Platon) but culturally embedded (Herodotus). All these apparently insurmountable paradoxes led Wundt to separate, ever since the scientific birth of psychology, his “physiological psychology” from his “Völkerpsychologie”.
Cole’s “reform” started with his involvement in multidisciplinary and cross-cultural research projects on cognitive development in the 60s and 70s in Liberia and the Yucatan peninsula (Chapter 3). He and his colleagues attempted to experimentally model everyday experiences (using “native tasks” instead of standard procedures) but in spite of their efforts the cross-cultural approach soon revealed its theoretical and methodological weaknesses. Consequently, a new framework was needed, a return to the “second psychology” this time understood as a cultural psychology (Chapter 4).
In a nutshell Cole’s cultural-historical psychology asserts that culture is the species-specific medium for humans and that artifacts, with their dual ideal / material nature, are the basic elements of culture mediating all subject-object relations. Further, all social interactions are “surrounded” or “waved together” by a context (environment, situation, practice or activity). Finally, culture promotes human development since it creates “an artificial environment where young organisms could be provided with optimal conditions for growth” (p.143) (Chapter 5).
The theme of “genesis” is central in any form of cultural psychology (Chapters 6 and 7). Cole’s proposed phylogeny takes into account data from both comparative psychology and paleoanthropology about the 4 M.Y. evolution of human beings from australophithecus to Homo sapiens sapiens. Faced with the debate between the Darwinian (genetic) and Lamarckian (cultural) evolution, the author rejects the idea of a “first come” factor and points to the different rates of change. His account, this time discussed in terms of modularity versus context, is stated clearly with respect to human ontogeny: “one cannot say that first comes the phylogenetic part and then comes the cultural part and the individual part. All are there from the outset” (p.214). A newborn never enters a culturally void world; on the contrary, family members surround him/her with a world of artifacts (clothes, toys, words etc.), with already structured activities and with a set of expectations that make adults act accordingly to their culturally shaped image of the child’s future (the mechanism of prolepsis).
Another significant step for the author in the process of validating his cultural-historical approach concerns the methodology of the discipline (Chapter 8) and its utility (Chapters 9 and 10). The research on literacy and schooling (Liberia), the study on children cognitive performance in different settings or the “Question-Asking-Reading” activity are all example of good practice in what the author himself calls “applied cultural psychology”. They all stand as a proof that highly formalized experiments are not always the answer and that human cognition must be studied in the context of everyday experiences. But maybe the most impressive project of all, the “Fifth Dimension” (5thD), employed computer-mediated learning activities that engaged children, undergraduates and researchers. Importantly, 5thD groups activated in different settings (BGClub, Library etc.) and by this allowed a comparative analysis of the results.
In the final chapter (11) Cole adopts Luria’s concept of “romantic science” and his ideal therefore becomes that of transcending current dichotomies like material / ideal, nomothetic / idiographic, experimental / ethnographic, theoretical / practical and anchoring his understanding in the real life experiences of actual persons.
Through his exercise of cultural-historical psychology Cole has for the most part achieved this ideal. His book has the incontestable merit of presenting a firm, coherent and useful framework that will surly influence the next generations of cultural psychologists. His extensive use of both past and recent sources, his propensity to present conflicting paradigms and openness in affirming a personal point of view recommend this book as a key contribution to the field.
Cole’s original approach has led him to challenge at least three “false” contradictions in cultural psychology: material vs. ideal, genetic evolution vs. cultural evolution and modularity vs. context. In the first case by emphasizing the dual nature of artifacts Cole has located culture “in the middle” and not outside or inside the individual. Once the interior-exterior debate has been put aside Cole turned to the nature-nurture controversy (both pylogenetically and ontogenetically). Here his solution of articulating opposing positions has unintentionally led to a new set of questions about the biology-culture interaction. Who determines and who conditions human development? This inquiry stresses the differences between factors that “decide” and factors that “facilitate” evolution (even if they go together “from the outset”) and is brought to the surface by one of the metaphors Cole uses when referring to language acquisition. “Children are born with a rich supply of linguistically relevant aspects, or seeds of language (…). What then are the conditions under which these seeds will sprout and flower?” (p.201). They are, of course, the conditions offered by the environment. The consequences of such a view annihilate almost all that was gained by promoting the equal importance of nature and nurture in the child’s development. Is the role of the cultural context just a facilitating one? Biology (in this case modularity) would seem to stand as a “more equal” among equals…
Cole’s studies in cognitive development are a landmark not only in social and cultural but also in developmental and educational psychology. The methodology he used in several of his projects offers valuable guidelines for future research in cultural psychology: always study psychosocial phenomena in their cultural context, use a flexible multi-method design, focus on everyday activities and tasks, adapt your testing scales, be both the participant and the analyst, always aim to translate theory into practice and help people “grow”.
Still, in his examples the author seems sometimes to contradict his own principles. For example, after the reader is introduced to the importance of understanding the broad cultural and historical context of everyday activities in designing intervention programmes it cannot be but puzzled by the apparent lack of interest for exactly this aspect in the presentation of the Fifth Dimension project. Vital aspects are scarcely addressed: how children were selected, how their particular socio-cultural context was taken into account, how specific activities were established. In spite of the significant cultural dimension of the 5thD, it seems that the educational purposes and the problem of sustainability prevailed. Just briefly is the Fifth Dimension theorized as a cultural system / ideoculture and this, to some extent, distracted even more the attention from the larger social, educational and familial settings in which the participants live and develop. Perhaps a shift in focus would have been much more evocative in the context of the cultural-historical psychology.
Nevertheless, apart from these shortcomings the book “Cultural psychology: a once and future discipline” has imposed a multilevel approach that will stand as an example for many years to come. The lively style of the author, although sometimes too academic for the general public, makes this book a captivating reading, compulsory not only for social and cultural psychologists but for social scientists in general. It opens the door for stimulating debates and by this helps us all further our knowledge in what concerns the complex and dynamic relation between culture, mind and life experiences. Offering final theoretical models in this respect may well be a utopia since, as Cole and Luria agreed, Goethe was right in his claim that “Grey is every theory, ever green is the tree of life”.