Non‐individual approaches to understanding human development

Abstract

There have been many attempts to nudge the study of human development out of a familiar “science” rut and place it within a wider social context. These approaches refocus the lens through which we look. Instead of seeing an individual standing against an indistinct and blurred background, the depth of field is increased. However, whilst such approaches may broaden the perspective, they often still fall back onto an essentially individualist notion of being human. It is as if the body boundaries are also the boundaries of our minds, our emotions, our thoughts and our selves. At both the levels of common sense and of refined knowledge there are intuitive and evidential examples that lead us to suggest that these individualistic (albeit socially placed) pictures are inadequate for enabling us to make sense of who we are. In short, they fail to capture the dynamic nature of the interactive events which characterise our participation in human life. In the present paper we provide a framework within which a non‐individual approach for understanding development can be discussed. In doing so, it may be necessary to discard some of the categorical and “taken for granted” concepts associated with developmental studies.