This book is an exploration of science in the making. It offers readers the opportunity to critically reflect on the process of development of Vygotsky's research program from the perspective of dialectics, focusing on the dramatic process of building and rebuilding cultural historical theory. Vygotsky's creative and dramatic journey is no less important than the concrete results of his research. An epistemological and historical investigation of the formulation of cultural historical theory sheds light on the process of knowledge production and reveals hidden dimensions of creativity in science.

This dissertation, "Rethinking Vygotsky: a Critical Reading of Vygotsky's Cultural-historical Theory and Its Appropriation in Contemporary Scholarship" by Ruihan, Zhang, 張芮菡, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: This thesis was originally inspired by the surge of intellectual interests, starting from the late 1980s and early 1990s in western academia, in the former Soviet psychologist Lev S. Vygotsky's cultural-historical theory (CHT) of psychology. Vygotsky's approach to the development of the psychological functions of man places much emphasis on the transformative roles played by social and cultural tools such as language, and thus distinguishes itself from other popular methodologies, such as behaviorism and Chomskyan generative grammar, which study human thinking and its relationships with language by cutting off the connections between the inner mental world and the external physical world. Therefore, Vygotsky's theory is widely believed to be an alternative to both the behaviorist and the mentalist approach to the problem of the mind and that of language. A group of linguists working within the field of second language acquisition even claimed that Vygotsky's theory provides the solution that can finally settle the long-standing social-cognitive debate in the study of language teaching and learning. However, despite Vygotsky's scientific innovations (which I discussed with details in Chapter I), my study of Vygotsky's cultural-historical theory has led me to doubt some the almost unanimous consensus on the theoretical contributions that Vygotsky is believed to have made to contemporary scholarship, especially with regard to language studies. My research shows that Vygotsky's theorization of the development of the human mind as a process of increasing abstraction, and language as a system of abstract meanings independent of concrete human experiences is fundamentally problematic. This is because such theorization not only reifies language into an inhuman system of fixed codes that denies the creativity and agency of individuals engaged in communicative activities, but also takes away both the linguistic rights and responsibilities of the individuals. Furthermore, Vygotsky's psychology, especially his linguistic view, is deeply rooted in a blind belief in naive realism and rationalism that preach for a shared reality, an objectively shared knowledge of language and of the world in general, as well as a form of rationality that favors intellect over illiteracy, scientific knowledge over everyday experiences, logic over common sense, etc. In the end, it is not just our history of mental development and our knowledge of the world that have been classified and ranked according to their degree of sophistication, but also us as human beings. By bringing these fundamental problems in Vygotsky's theory to light, I initiated a critical reading and re-thinking of not just Vygotsky's psychology, but also its appropriations in contemporary sciences, such as linguistics, communication studies, and educational studies (with various degrees of attention on each area of study). This thesis could be regarded as the beginning of a new perspective to the studies of human communication and psychology by adopting a different view of language, a view I believe is first and foremost, liberal. DOI: 10.5353/th_b5194765

Rethinking Copyright is a small gem for an audience broader than copyright and intellectual property scholars, and well worth acquiring by a variety of general, corporate, law and academic libraries. Laurence Seidenberg, International Journal of Legal Information This excellent book raises again the controversial issue of whether we can learn anything and, if so, what from revisiting our past. Jeremy Phillips, ipkat.com All histories are about the present, not the past. Histories of copyright are no different: the pitched battles today over the nature of copyright frequently re-create a mythical past to shore up support for a partisan present. Deazley s Rethinking Copyright is a must have book for those who care about getting things right. Rethinking Copyright carefully reviews the critical formative years of statutory copyright (1710 1912), and then masterfully ties this foundational period to the current culture wars. It is a tour de force to be savored and returned to over and over again. William Patry, Senior Copyright Counsel, Google Inc., New York, US Two books in one, the first half of this manifesto offers a contrarian account of eighteenth and nineteenth-century English copyright history; the second contributes to the burgeoning rhetoric of the public domain in contemporary copyright scholarship. Deazley contends that, contrary to the common wisdom, common law copyright never existed in the eighteenth-century, but was a concerted creation of nineteenth-century treatise writers. He may not convince us that common law copyright was a myth, but he does compellingly demonstrate that, like the mythical giant Antaeus, whenever common law copyright seemed beaten down to the ground, it rose again with renewed force. He also persuades us that it may be a Herculean task to strangle the life out of the impulse, historical or otherwise, to believe that authors labors justify the contemporary default setting of the positive law in favor of proprietary rights. The second half, calling for reconceptualization of copyright as a derogation from the public s freedom to engage with works of authorship will surely provoke disagreement from many readers knowledgeable about copyright, but Deazley is an apt expositor of this increasingly popular trend in the legal academy. Jane C. Ginsburg, Columbia University School of Law, New York, US Copyright law remains hotly debated with the public domain contested territory. Ronan Deazley brings some welcome sanity to the discussion by revisiting the history of UK copyright law with a fresh eye and also by exploring the theoretical justifications for intellectual property in light of recent scholarship. The roles of rhetoric and legal writing in constructing copyright paradigms are the particular target of Deazley s critique. This is a provocative and challenging book which deserves a wide audience. Simon Stokes, Blake Lapthorn Tarlo Lyons and Bournemouth Law School, UK I have just finished reading Ronan Deazley s manuscript. It s a very enjoyable, readable book. As to content, I found it interesting, carefully researched, wide in scope, and thought-provoking even where I didn t agree with his conclusions. Catherine Seville, Newnham College, Cambridge, UK This book provides the reader with a critical insight into the history and theory of copyright within contemporary legal and cultural discourse. It exposes as myth the orthodox history of the development of copyright law in eighteenth-century Britain and explores the way in which that myth became entrenched throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. To this historical analysis are added two theoretical approaches to copyright not otherwise found in mainstream contemporary texts. Rethinking Copyright introduces the reader to copyright through the prism of the public domain before turning to the question as to how best to locate copyright within the parameters of traditional property discourse. Moreover, underpinning

Organizational or corporate ‘culture’ is the most overused and least understood word in business, if not society. While the topic has been an object of keen academic interest for nearly half a century, theorists and practitioners still struggle with the most basic questions: What is organizational culture? Can it be measured? Is it a dependent or independent variable? Is it causal in organizational performance, and, if so, how? Paradoxically, managers and practitioners ascribe cultural explanations for much of what constitutes organizational behavior in organizations, and, moreover, believe culture can be engineered to their own designs for positive business outcomes. What explains this divide between research and practice? While much academic research on culture is challenged by ontological, epistemic and ethical difficulties, there is little empirical evidence to show culture can be deliberately shaped beyond espoused values. The gap between research and practice can be explained by one simple reason: the science and practice of culture has yet to catch up to managerial intuition.Managers are correct in suspecting culture is a powerful normative force, but, until now, current theory and research is not able to adequately account for cultural behavior in organizations. Rethinking Culture describes and presents evidence for a new framework of organizational culture based on the cognitive science of the so-called cultural mind. It will be of relevance to academics and researchers with an interest in business and management, organizational culture, and organizational change, as well as cognitive and cultural anthropologists and sociologists interested in applications of theory in organizational and institutional settings.

Brought together for the first time - the seminal writing on architecture by key philosophers and cultural theorist of the twentieth century. Issues around the built environment are increasingly central to the study of the social sciences and humanities. The essays offer a refreshing take on the question of architecture and provocatively rethink many of the accepted tenets of architecture theory from a broader cultural perspective. The book represents a careful selection of the very best theoretical writings on the ideas which have shaped our cities and our experiences of architecture. As such, Rethinking Architecture provides invaluable core source material for students on a range of courses.