Dear Colleagues,

The community of psychologists, who since 1985 used to meet in different places of Europe at Workshops on Achievment and Task Motivation (WATM), entered its early adulthood.

It is not the age of the project that brings to this conclusion, but rather the number of interested participants (over 200 at the 6th and 7th conferences) and the range of topics and approaches. Our community seems to acquire a new quality, and one of the ideas widely discussed at the 7th WATM in Leuven, May 2000 was the idea of establishing a full-range international association. We would greatly appreciate your opinion on this issue that you are kindly invited to express online here.

The new quality requires new ideas and new approaches. The disastrous events of September 11, 2001 present a special challenge to the psychology of motivation, proving that straight rational models of human motivation that are so in fashion nowadays cannot account for all the variety of human activity. That is why more comprehensive approaches must take more place in our work. Fanaticism cannot be precisely studied in a laboratory or deduced from a combination of Achievement, Power, and Affiliation; the worse for us, not for it.

The place for the 8th conference is Moscow, Russia. The conference will be hosted by Russian University for the Humanities, where Lev Vygotsky studied philosophy and psychology in 1914-1917. The participants can not only see the 850-year-old city that changed so much during the last 10 years and learn Russian hospitality by personal experience, but also know more on the original approaches and studies in the field of motivation and activity regulation by the disciples and followers of A.N.Leontiev, D.N.Uznadze and other prominent scholars. Russian psychology assimilated (and elaborated) sociocultural and historical methodology, experienced strong influence of Kurt Lewin, absorbed existentialist thinking… Cross-fertilization of Western and East European approaches must be so favorable for both.

My colleagues and I will do our best to help you both work fruitfully and enjoy your stay in Moscow.

See you soon,

Dmitry A.Leontiev,
Chair of the Conference,
Professor of Moscow State University

OTHER CONFERENCES TO CONSIDER

International Society for Cultural Research and Activity Theory (ISCRAT) will meet in Amsterdam, June 18-22. You may find the information about this conference at: www.psy.vu.nl/iscrat2002

Dear Colleagues,

June 7, 2002
Slight addidions to the previous information. We'll arrange pickup service on the 11th and 12th - it will cost $9/E10 pro person - right to the hotel or to the conference if you arrive in the afternoon 12 th. If you arrive earlier, a special car will be sent for you, it will cost $20/E22. Registration will be 12th since 12.00 at the Russian University for Humanities main entrance, in the hall (Chayanova str. 15). Those who will pick you up will give you maps and explain how to get there. The phone number for all the questions at the RSUH will be 250 61 47.

Better have cash with you - 12th is a national fest and the banks will be closed; the commission of banking mashines is usually rather high; to exchange cash USD and EUR is easy.

June 6, 2002
It seems that the worst problems are behind. Sorry, with visa problems we had no time to collect the information about cultural events that may be of interest to you. We'll do it within the next two or three days.

Some useful information about your stay in Moscow.

It is not so easy to get from the airport and the taxi drivers are robbers. So we shall arrange cheap shuttle pickup service for you at least for the 11th and 12th . Probably you'll have to wait awhile for your colleagues from other flights and the you'll be safely delivered to the hotel or to the conference. For this however we need to know your flight number and arrival date and time - a few have sent us this information. We'll try to arrange the same for the departure for June 16th and 19th.

Card payments are not so overall as in Europe, but it's very easy to change USD or EUR for Roubles. There are banking machines, but not at every corner.

We have only 22 definite confirmations for the closing banquet, and 11 disconfirmations - what about the rest? We need to plan it beforehand. And one more detail - we changed the restaurant to have a separate room - and it will cost $35 rather than 30, sorry!

We can propose you also lunches at the university for June 13th and 14th, so that you would not spend extra time and extra thoughts on it. It would cost between 6 and 10 USD/day, you'll get your coupons and pay at the registration, but we must know the number and order them beforehand, so that if you wish these lunches, let us know now.

See you in Moscow!

Awful news - conference website has been seriously damaged by a hacker's attack. It will be fixed today, but the worst thing is that registration database has been deleted. So please, fill once again Final registration form.

Hard copies of invitations have been sent out - but not to everyone, because some mailing addresses are lacking. May 3 you will find in the CHECK YOURSELF section of the conference website a SEPARATE list of those whose personal invitations have been mailed. If you don't find yourself in the list, please write us and give your complete mailing address. If you need a fax copy urgent, just give the fax number.

A propos, the conference fax number changed - hopefully it will work better now. Now it's (+7 095) 973 44 33.

You will also find in the CHECK YOURSELF section a table of hotel and tour reservations - check whether your request is there. If something is wrong, please write.