In 1982 an Activity Conference on learning and teaching took place in Espoo, Finland, where participants from both Eastern and Western European countries came together. This conference, organized by Yrjö Engeström, can claim to be the first European Conference of Activity Theory. There were three participants from Denmark. They took responsibility to organize the next Activity Conference in Aarhus in 1983. The papers from that conference were published in Hedegaard, M., Hakkarainen, P., & Engeström, Y. (Eds.) (1984). Teaching and learning on a scientific basis: Methodological and epistemological aspects of the activity theory of learning and teaching. Aarhus: Aarhus Universitet, Psykologisk Institut.
The decision among the participants at the Aarhus Conference was that a continuation of these meetings should take place every year, organized in turn by the different researchers attending these meetings. So the third conference followed in 1984 in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
At the Utrecht Conference the topic and aim of the conference was extended from being a meeting among people working within Activity Theory to a meeting with invited researchers from related areas so that a discussion between Activity Theory and other related theories could be accomplished. The papers from this conference were published in Bol, E., Haenen, J.P.P., & Wolters, M.A. (Eds.) (1985). Education for cognitive development: Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Activity Theory. The Hague: SVO.
Fundamental to the organization of these conferences was the idea of bringing together researchers working within Activity Theory in both Eastern and Western European countries. This aim was also taken seriously at the first Activity congresses, where the idea was extended to building a dialogue between researchers inspired by the Activity Theory.
Building networks of multidisciplinary interest is never easy. Planning for the next conference of Activity Theory on learning and teaching in Utrecht lead to a separation into two branches of these European conferences. One group went on to establish the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) and its biennial conference; the other went on to organize a congress in Berlin in 1986 with Yrjö Engeström serving as the contact person between the Activity Theory conferences on Learning and Teaching, and the persons who organized the Berlin Congress.
This Congress, the First International Congress on Activity Theory, was organized in 1986 by Georg Rückriem and Alfred Messman at the University of Fine Arts Berlin in cooperation with Klaus Holzkamp(†), Martin Hildebrand-Nilshon, and Walter Volpert. The congress was greeted with great anticipation and interest. There were several hundred participants and parallel sessions. The topics of the congress ranged from teaching and learning to psychology in general.
The International Standing Committee for Research on Activity Theory was elected on the last day of the congress with representatives from 10 countries. A newsletter was started in 1988 with Georg Rückriem as editor.
The second ISCRAT congress took place in Lahti, Finland in 1990 with Yrjö Engeström as president. A new committee was selected at this Congress, with representatives from 11 countries. The International Society for Cultural Research on Activity Theory was established as a formal legal organization with its own by-laws in Amsterdam in 1992, with Serena Veggetti as the president. A second meeting of the Executive Committee was held in Rome in 1993. In 1995 the Third ISCRAT Congress took place in Moscow with Vasilii Davydov as the president. The fourth ISCRAT Congress was held in Aarhus, Denmark in 1998 with Mariane Hedegaard as the president. At this Congress, a new Executive Committee was formed with Mariane Hedegaard as president. It became possible to become a member of ISCRAT, and a website was started. Seth Chaiklin was the treasurer, developed the website, and prepared an electronic newsletter for members. The fifth ISCRAT Congress was held in Amsterdam in 2002 with Bert van Oers as president.
The themes of the three first European Activity conferences held in Scandinavia were ‘Learning and Teaching on a Scientific Basis’. This theme was clearly inspired by Davydov’s theory of teaching/learning activity. In simple terms, this theory states that teaching and learning should be based on the pupils’ active exploration of the relation between theoretical abstractions and the complexity of empirical phenomena. The appropriation of theoretical knowledge develops pupils’ motivation for further inquiry.
The aim that guided these three conferences on learning and teaching was:
to create a forum, where scientists exchanged ideas, theoretical insights, and empirical data with regard to activity theory in human science. Especially a theory should be created between scientists from Eastern European countries and Western countries. The creation of such a forum could enhance the application and development of activity theory on learning and teaching.
This first aim was supplemented with a second aim at the Utrecht conference on activity theory of teaching and learning, which was: ‘to create an opportunity for a critical dialogue between advocates of activity theory and other theories. Therefore speakers were invited, who are not strictly referring to activity theory, but to ideas and research related and relevant to this theory.’ (Bol, Haenen, & Wolters, 1985)
At the following First International Congress on Activity Theory in Berlin the line from Davydov was extended with the lines from Leontiev and Critical Psychology. At this conference the American interpretation of Vygotsky was also represented by, for example, Sylvia Scribner, Michael Cole and Norris Minick.
Starting with the second congress of Activity Theory in 1990, a specific topic was chosen as focus for each meeting. These different topics can be seen as a challenge to Activity Theory and to give direction for the development of new research activity within this tradition. The theme for the Second Congress was Individuality and Transformation. For the Third Congress in Moscow the focus was Activity Theory and Social Practice, which can be interpreted as a Vygotsky line. The theme of the Fourth Congress in Aarhus was Activity Theory and Cultural-Historical Approaches to Social Practice. The theme of the Fifth Congress was Dealing with Diversity: Tools and Resources for Human Development in Social Practices.