Development, ageing and hybrid minds: Growth and decline, and ecologies of human functioning in a sociocultural perspective

Historically, the concept of development has referred to processes that take place early in life. A basic scholarly ambition has been to provide research results that make it possible to understand and predict ontogenesis. The object of inquiry in these ambitions has been the individual and his/ her path towards adulthood. It seems reasonable to assume that in complex societies, cultural and societal changes co-determine human functioning and development at all age levels, and in ways that are significant for most spheres of life. In life-span developmental psychology, the validity of the person-centered models has been questioned, and more complex perspectives, involving interaction between persons and their environments, have been suggested. In the present article, it is argued that studying development in complex societies must take the hybrid nature of human cognitive and other capacities into account. The conception of mind dominating most of life-span developmental research is too simplistic. Development does not reside solely in the individual but must be understood as the capacity to adapt to, and participate in, socio-material ecologies of communication that characterize rapidly changing societies.