Individuals Create Culture: Comments on Van der Veer's 'The Concept of Culture in Vygotsky's Thinking'

Abstract

The analysis of the two fundamental traditions that shape Vygotsky's concept of culture is used by Rene van der Veer (1996) to point out both the power and the limitations of this concept in Vygotsky's theory. Two of these limitations-the absence of non-linguistically mediated aspects of culture and the difficulty in explaining innovation by individuals are treated in this commentary from a piagetian point of view. It is argued that Piaget's emphasis on non-linguistically mediated forms of behaviour and his concern to explain what enables individuals to create new meanings and new forms of behaviour can contribute to the overcoming of some of the limitations of Vygotsky's concept of culture.