Co-constructionism and development: a socio-historic tradition

Abstract

The term "co-constructionism" is becoming increasingly used in contemporaiy developmental psychology. Its major function is to unify two conceptual domains - constructionism and sociogeneticism - that have been habitually viewed as if they were irreconcilable opposites. Despite respectable history within psychology and muny contemporary tendencies to move psychology in the social constructivist and discursive directions, most of the critical problems of co-constructionist theoretical system remain hostages either to the common language uses of psychologists, or to the methods-dominated imperatives for "empirical research" practices. Co-constructionism as a general orientation rnay make it possible for psychologists to create novel methodologies that might take into account the open-systemic nature of development.