Mariann Märtsin – författare

This book offers a unique developmental perspective on identity construction in the context of mobility and transition to adulthood. Drawing upon semiotic cultural psychology, it embeds identity construction into the processes of meaning making; viewing identity as a field of hyper-generalised signs that are constantly reconstructed through encounters with social others in cultural worlds, and which allow individuals to make sense of themselves in relation to their lived pasts, experienced presents and imagined futures. Märtsin invites the reader to travel with eight young adults as they embark on their developmental journeys and seek to make sense of issues that matter most to them: home, adventure and belonging, friendships, recognition, and future-planning. The book is an invaluable resource for students and researchers interested in understanding the experiences of emerging adults in contemporary globalized world, but also for those interested in identity processes from a semiotic, cultural and developmental perspective.

This book offers a unique developmental perspective on identity construction in the context of mobility and transition to adulthood. Drawing upon semiotic cultural psychology, it embeds identity construction into the processes of meaning making; viewing identity as a field of hyper-generalised signs that are constantly reconstructed through encounters with social others in cultural worlds, and which allow individuals to make sense of themselves in relation to their lived pasts, experienced presents and imagined futures. Märtsin invites the reader to travel with eight young adults as they embark on their developmental journeys and seek to make sense of issues that matter most to them: home, adventure and belonging, friendships, recognition, and future-planning. The book is an invaluable resource for students and researchers interested in understanding the experiences of emerging adults in contemporary globalized world, but also for those interested in identity processes from a semiotic, cultural and developmental perspective.

In a world where the global engagement and international dialogue intensifies, some areas of cultivated knowledge suffer from this dialogue and this has consequences for people and communities. We propose education to be such a case. The global dialogue in education tends to be restricted to and mediated by standardized measurements. Such standards are meant to measure qualities of education and of student behavior and create the sought for condition for normative comparability and competition. The obvious drawback is that cultural variability – in local living as well as in education – is rendered irrelevant. Are there alternatives? The book insists on maintaining the discussion about education on a global level, but rather than moving towards homogenization and standardization of education, the attention is drawn towards the potential for learning from creative fits - and misfits - between concrete local cultures, institutional practices and global aims and standards of education. This work brings together a group of educational and developmental researchers and scholars grappling to find culturally informed and sensitive modes of educating people and communities. Case studies and examples from four geographical contexts are being discussed: China, Brazil, Australia and Europe. While being embedded in these local cultures, the authors share a conceptual grounding in cultural developmental theorizing and a vision for a culturally informed globalized perspective on education. As the theme of the book is learning from each other, the volume also includes commentaries from leading scholars in the field of cultural psychology and education.