Meeting of the ISCRAT Working Committee
10-12 December 1993, Rome

Minutes

10-12 December, 1993 a meeting of the ISCRAT Working Committee took place in Rome. As host acted the chairperson of ISCRAT prof. dr. M.S. Veggetti (Univ. of Rome).

The meeting was attended by E. Bol (Netherlands), J. Carpay (Netherlands), V. Davydov (Russia), L. Garai (Hungary), M. Hedegard (Denmark), A. Leontiev (Russia), V. Lektorskii (Russian), A. Raithel (Germany) and G. Rückriem (Germany). Due to academic duties or family reasons a notice of absence has been received of the other members of the acting Standing Committee.

The following items came up for discussion:

1. The postponement of the third ISCRAT Congress in Moscow scheduled for May 1994 to June 26-30, 1995.
2. The possibility for the edition of an ISCRAT newsletter in the form of a brochure, since it has turned out that it is impossible to continue with MNAT on the present financial basis and, moreover, since apparently no publishing house seems to be willing to edit a journal with a rather small amount of subscribers.
3. The new journal Mind, Culture and Activity (Eds. Cole, Engeström, Vasquez, Univ. of California) as a related but independent of ISCRAT operating scientific journal.
4. The announcement of two conferences on Vygotsky:
   1. in Moscow September 5-8, 1994 organised by Vladimir Ageyev (Moscow) with J. Wertsch (USA) and V. Zinchenko (Russia) serving as co-presidents.
   2. in Geneva in September 1996. This conference will be organised by the Society of Sociocultural Research (SSR) and will be devoted to the inheritance of Piaget and Vygotsky respectively.
5. The issue of whether or not a perjod of crisis has set in in cultural-historical activity theory circles and, if so, how a maximum on coordination and cooperation can be achieved in order to prevent schisms.

Concerning the items 1-5 above the outcome of the discussions can be summarised as follows:

1. In the spring of 1993 the Moscow Congress was announced in various media. Subsequently, it came about that sponsors were hard to find, given the strong inflation and other political and economical factors in Russia. In September 1993 the Organising Committee decided to postpone the Congress till June 26-30, 1995. In the meantime suitable accommodation has been found, namely in the Academy of Physical Education in Moscow. Problems with hotel reservations and to a certain extent also with the provision of financial resources for the convening of the Congress seem now to be manageable. Further information on the Congress will be provided by the Organising Committee in February 1994 in the various media.
2. The possibility of publishing a modest ISCRAT NEWSLETTER will be looked into. This newsletter will appear twice a year. Furthermore, a proposal was put forward for editing YEARBOOKS in the field of Activity Theory, provided that sponsors and editors can be found. Given this state of affairs modern telecommunications, and especially E-mail, appears to be the only medium left for regular communication in order to keep the "virtual community" of ISCRAT alive.
3. The Newsletter of the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition (Univ. of California) is transformed into a journal. According to M. Cole it has been given the name Mind, Culture, and Activity to signal the belief in the need to integrate Activity Theory and Cultural-historical Theory. The journal MCA has not yet found a corporate sponsor nor a publishing house. Consequently, it is hoped that it will win extended readership in its new form.
4. Regarding the Vygotsky Conference September 5-8, 1994 in Moscow the necessary information is available at the Organising Committee. Address: Institute of Psychology and Psychotherapy. 13 Yaroslavskaya, Moscow, 12936, Russia. Fax: {7095) 282- 92-01 (V.S. Agayev). Further information on the Geneva Conference scheduled for September 1996 is not yet available.
5. Regarding this issue all participants present at the meeting in Rome agreed that we must continue to try to find ways to avoid unnecessary schisms in the communities concerned with Vygotsky, Luria, Leontiev and others. The scientific community we have is too small as it is; so, there is certainly no point to get into issues of how we can subdivide ourselves further. Therefore, it is essential the coordination and cooperation between ISCRAT and SSR are DEEDS, not WORDS.

Jacques Carpay (Acting secretary)