Jaan Valsiner, born in Estonia, is a cultural psychologist with a consistently developmental axiomatic base, resulting in Cultural Psychology of Semiotic Dynamics. As visiting professor at UiO, he integrated the science philosophical perspectives of Norwegian scholars with the contemporary status of social philosophy of science. The project resulted in the 2019 book Social Philosophy of Science for the Social Sciences.
Through his long presence in psychological science from 1970s to today, Jaan Valsiner has advanced a number of provocative ideas that – even if based on solid knowledge of history – are challenging to the psychological science today. These ideas include:
- Primacy of single-case based research and generalization possible not only from single case but single instance – Idiographic Science
- Advocacy of methodology as a cycle that unifies axioms, phenomena, theories in the construction of methods. From that standpoint it is not the selection of available (quantitative or qualitative) methods that is crucial for science, but construction of new methods.
- Theory building beyond the borders of psychology – in his case liaison with semiotics
All these perspectives are deeply controversial to psychology today (even if these were normal a hundred years back). The Workshop gives the audience direct opportunity to challenge Valsiner’s argument and "catch" him in the "adulterous relations" with forgotten or foreign ideas, and lead to new ideas beyond Valsiner.
Registration
The event will have an innovative interactive format. Participants can register online and ask a question that professor Valsiner will answer during the seminar.
The registration deadline is November 9th.
Due to the limited number of seats (42), physical attendance will be based on the order of registration.
However, those who cannot attend in person can follow online. The event will be streamed and registered participants will also receive the streaming link.
About Jaan Valsiner
Back in 1995, Jaan Valsiner founded the Sage journal, Culture & Psychology and also edits Integrative Psychological & Behavioral Science (Springer). He has been awarded major research prizes in Europe: the Alexander von Humboldt Prize of 1995 and the Hans-Kilian-Preis of 2017. As part of his credo for building new post-cognitive psychology on an international and trans-cultural basis, he has been a visiting professor in many countries, including in Norway where he spent three years (2018 - 2021) teaching philosophy of social sciences to UiO doctoral students. Since 2017 he is a Foreign Member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences.
The event is organized with the contribution of Torgny Segerstedts forelesningsfond slått sammen med Fondet til samarbeid mellom Nordens universiteter, project number 102499072, 2022.