Building a Theoretical Frame: Towards Patterns

Abstract

This theoretical chapter defines the approach and the concepts used in this case study. Sociocultural psychology and its epistemology are first presented; here four perspectives are combined to account for the mutual constitution of the person and his/her sociocultural environment, in time. The notion of “regional case study” is defined in the light of current debates and here understood as “vernacular”. On this basis, it is argued that regions offer a unique way to observe the interplay between sociogenetic, microgenetic and ontogenetic dynamics. Next, this chapter proposes a series of analytical concepts that enable to describe the dynamic processes taking place in a region. These concepts aim at accounting for the material and the symbolic realities of a region and people’s lives within, both from a third-person and a first-person perspective, at each of these three levels of analysis. A specific emphasis is given to concepts enabling to capture lifecourse dynamics. On this basis, a first problematisation of human development in a region is proposed; in particular, the idea that internalisation is semiotic guidance is proposed. This chapter finally sets the theoretical goal of the monograph, which is to identify a series of patterns that emerge from an analysis at the levels of socio-, micro and ontogenesis, and across levels.