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González Rey’s Work: Genesis and Development

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Theory of Subjectivity from a Cultural-Historical Standpoint

Part of the book series: Perspectives in Cultural-Historical Research ((PCHR,volume 9))

Abstract

Fernando González Rey (1949–2019) had an extensive and creative scientific production, expressed in twenty-nine books, ten edited or coedited books, ninety book chapters, and one hundred and thirty-two scientific articles. This chapter presents the genesis and development of the Theory of Subjectivity—his main scientific contribution associated with the contexts and circumstances that favored its emergence. A detailed study of González Rey’s work allows for it to be characterized in two closely linked moments. The first moment, called Personality Moment, ranges from his first works—shortly after his graduation as a psychologist in 1973—until his work in the first half of the 1990s. His conception of personality was his main scientific contribution at this stage. The second moment, the Theory of Subjectivity and Qualitative Epistemology Moment, comprises his works from 1997 until his last publications in 2020. This moment is characterized by the transition from the concept of personality to that of subjectivity, represented as a new ontology of human processes—both social and individual—under the conditions of culture. The analysis of his production in this second moment shows the complex, critical, subversive, and open character of his theory, its epistemological and methodological implications, as well as its value for research and professional practice in different fields.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There is a difference in relation to the Doctorate, being that the Doctorate in Sciences corresponds to a much higher level than the common Doctorate, and implies the defense of a thesis that expresses the body of an entire work in a specific line of scientific research.

  2. 2.

    We understand ontology not in terms of a reality of being independent of human knowledge, but as those different phenomena that find a specific theoretical expression in science, allowing for new practices that other knowledge did not enable (González Rey, 2013, p. 27).

  3. 3.

    This concept was first presented at the Magistral Conference given at the time of receiving the Inter-American Psychology Award, at the Inter-American Psychology Congress in San José, Costa Rica, in 1991.

  4. 4.

    In Chap. 3, González Rey profoundly discusses essential concepts and ideas of the Theory of Subjectivity.

  5. 5.

    In Chap. 4, an excellent characterization of Qualitative Epistemology and the Constructive-Interpretative Method is presented, as well as its foundations and scope.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil

    Albertina Mitjáns Martínez

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  1. Albertina Mitjáns Martínez
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Correspondence to Albertina Mitjáns Martínez .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil

    Daniel Magalhães Goulart

  2. Faculty of Education, University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil

    Albertina Mitjáns Martínez

  3. Faculty of Education, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia

    Megan Adams

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Martínez, A.M. (2021). González Rey’s Work: Genesis and Development. In: Goulart, D.M., Martínez, A.M., Adams, M. (eds) Theory of Subjectivity from a Cultural-Historical Standpoint. Perspectives in Cultural-Historical Research, vol 9. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1417-0_2

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