From this combined approach, LCHC researchers seek to make visible for analysis those processes "that realize a person’s actual life in the objective world by which he is surrounded, his social being in all the richness and variety of its forms" (A.N.
From cultural anthropology (e.g., Gregory Bateson, Roy D'Andrade, Clifford Geertz) and American pragmatism (e.g., John Dewey, George Mead, Charles Peirce) LCHC adopted both methods for the analysis of behavior in situ (ethnography, the comparative method, modes of discourse analysis) and theoretical guidance for thinking about the co-constitution of persons and their environments, and the histories of the cultural practices through which they lead their lives.
This historical context motivated foundations to give grants to LCHC to conduct research on apparent cultural variations in cognitive development and their significance for maximizing success in schooling.
LCHC researchers argued that studies of human cognitive activity must be grounded in the actual materials and processes of people's daily lives (ecological validity).
[citation needed] This finding refocused research attention to the link between activities that children engaged in outside of formal schooling and their performance in the classroom.
On the one hand, this need requires local community members to participate in the activities of the laboratory, creating partnerships between academics and non-academics referred to as UCLinks.
[19] On the other hand, within the academic community, democratic collaboration requires faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students share responsibility for the implementation of research, creating a multi-generational system of joint activities.
Of special note in this regard is the VelHam Project,[20] which was an ambitious attempt to link Soviet and U.S. educationalists and children engaged in common after-school activities through satellite feeds during the 1980s, and XMCA, a network of scholars seeking to develop the general set of ideas which underpin LCHC's reason for being.
The role of digital technologies in settings for education, work, and play has and continues to influence the LCHC's research and intervention agenda, as evidenced by the Fifth Dimension[21] and UCLinks[22] projects.