Abstract

VALSINER, Jaan. Between the ‘democracy of the literature’ and the passion for understanding: making sense of the dynamics of development. Psicol. Reflex. Crit. [online]. 2000, vol.13, n.2, pp. 319-325. ISSN 0102-7972.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0102-79722000000200011.

Psychology's discourse is shown to include co-existence of the rhetoric ("democracy of the literature") and substantive (theoretical) semiotic constructions. The former are evidenced in the style of imprecise and accumulative referencing in psychological texts, as well as in repetition of generic labels of perspectives (e.g., "Vygotskian", "Piagetian", etc.). In contrast, the substantive (theoretical) constructions of ideas weave together abstract and concrete empirical sides of the research process. Specific contributions of the papers in this Issue to understanding context, development, and dynamic systems is briefly analyzed.

Keywords : Semiotic constructions; development; context; dynamic systems.