This book 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)sociocultural setting shapes mental functioning 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 approach to sociocultural psychology--one that the authors hope will be debated and redefined as the field moves forward. This work will be crucial for researchers and graduate students in cognitive science, philosophy, and cultural anthropology.

Part I. Introduction James V. Wertsch, Pablo del Rio and Amelia Alvarez: Part II. Human Action: Historical and Theoretical Foundations: 1. Cultural-historical psychology and the psychological theory of activity: retrospect and prospect Vladimir P. Zinchenko; 2. The need for action in sociocultural research James V. Wertsch; 3. Theories of action, speech, natural language, and discourse Jean-Paul Bronckart; Part III. Mediation in Action: 4. Writing and the mind David R. Olson; 5. An approach to an integrated sensory-motor system in the human central brain and a subconscious computer Tadanobu Tsunoda; Part IV. Sociocultural Setting, Intersubjectivity, and the Formation of the Individual: 6. Observing sociocultural activity on three planes: participatory appropriation, guided participation, apprenticeship Barbara Rogoff; 7. The constitution of the subject: a persistent question Ana Luiza B. Smolka, Maria Cecilia R. Dee Goes, Angel Pino; Part V. Sociocultural Settings: Design and Intervention: 8. Socio-cultural-historical psychology: some general remarks and a proposal for a new kind of cultural-genetic methodology Michael Cole; 9. Tossing, praying, and thinking: the changing architectures of mind and agency Amelia Alvarez Rodriguez and Pablo del Río Pereda.