Comparisons in Human Development Understanding Time and Context [Paperback]

This important volume deals with the issue of how to make comparisons in the field of human development.Comparisons in Human Development examines how to make comparisons in the field of human development and provides empirical examples that take a comparative, multidisplinary, developmental approach to human activity and thought. Development is understood in systemic terms, with multidirectional influences that cross levels of analysis, including the cellular, the individual, the family, and the cultural and historical.Contributions include essays on the theory of comparisons, methodology, examples o f comparative strategies, and commentaries on groups of chapters.Comparisons in Human Development examines how to make comparisons in the field of human development and provides empirical examples that take a comparative, multidisplinary, developmental approach to human activity and thought. Development is understood in systemic terms, with multidirectional influences that cross levels of analysis, including the cellular, the individual, the family, and the cultural and historical.Contributions include essays on the theory of comparisons, methodology, examples o f comparative strategies, and commentaries on groups of chapters.Many modern social scientists take issue with the traditional criteria for comparing human development in a constantly changing world. Social scientists have long focused only on what the differences among groups are, rather than asking how and why these groups differ. Comparisons in Human Development examines ways in which different disciplines have historically regarded development and provides empirical examples that take a new approach to human activity and thought. This book's distinguished contributors share the view that the study of development must consider processes that operate over time and are regulated by varying physical, biological, social, and cultural contexts.1. Introduction; Part I. Metatheoretical Approaches to DevelopmentlÓJ