The decline of the socialist governments in Eastern and Central Europe and the resulting political and economic reorganizations of the 1990s provided a dramatic illustration of the far-reaching effects of social change. For those interested in the health and well-being of youth, such instances of social upheaval raise the question of how young people are affected socially and psychologically by societal changes, and whether their development is compromised or enhanced. This important volume considers the processes through which societal changes exert an impact on the course of adolescent development and identify individual and contextual factors that can modify the impact of social change and enhance the likelihood of a successful transition to adulthood.

Individual Development and Social Change: Explanatory Analysis represents a convergence of three lines of emphasis now visible in developmental research and theory building. The three are (1) the life course as a focus for the study of development and social change, and their interrelationships; (2) the life-span orientation to the study of individual development, with its acknowledgment of the salience of contextual features for understanding development; and (3) the growth of methodological innovations that provide more appropriate and powerful ways of exploiting data gathered to describe and explain developmental change processes. The book opens with a study on how major cultural change originates and unfolds over time. This is followed by separate chapters on the use of sequential designs for explanatory analyses; evolutionary aspects of social and individual development; the concepts of the theory of causal and weak causal regressive dependence; and the concepts of age, period, and cohort from the perspective of developmental psychology. Subsequent chapters examine development and aging as lifelong processes of historical populations; the methodological integration of natural and cultural science perspectives in developmental psychology; and application of the multifaceted methodology to the mutuality of constraint between sociocultural group and individual dynamics.

In this new Sixth Edition of Development and Social Change: A Global Perspective, author Philip McMichael describes a world undergoing profound social, political, and economic transformations, from the post-World War II era through the present. He tells a story of development in four parts—colonialism, developmentalism, globalization, and sustainability—that shows how the global development “project” has taken different forms from one historical period to the next. Throughout the text, the underlying conceptual framework is that development is a political construct, created by dominant actors (states, multilateral institutions, corporations and economic coalitions) and based on unequal power arrangements. While rooted in ideas about progress and prosperity, development also produces crises that threaten the health and well-being of millions of people, and sparks organized resistance to its goals and policies. Frequent case studies make the intricacies of globalization concrete, meaningful, and clear. Development and Social Change: A Global Perspective challenges us to see ourselves as global citizens even as we are global consumers.

Today′s world is characterized by a set of overarching trends that often come under the rubric of social change. In this innovative volume, Rainer K. Silbereisen and Xinyin Chen bring together, for the first time, international experts in the field to examine how changes in our social world impact on our individual development. Divided into four parts, the book explores the major socio-political and technological changes that have taken place around the world - from post- from the rapid upheavals in 1990s Europe to the gradual changes in parts of East Asia - and explains how these developments interplay with human development across the lifespan. Human Development and Social Change is a useful resource for students and researchers involved in all areas of human development, including developmental psychology, sociology and education.

The Second Edition of this popular textbook has been conceptually reworked to take account of the instabilities underlying the project of global development. While the conceptual framework of viewing development as shifting from a national, to a global, project remains, new issues such as the active engagement in the development project by Third World elites and peoples are considered. The first four chapters cover the rise and fall of the "development project" around the world. The next three cover the period of globalization, from the mid 1980s onwards. The final two chapters rethink globalization and development for the 21st century. Throughout, extensive use is made of case studies.

Community Development for Social Change provides a comprehensive introduction to the theory and practice of community development and associated activities, discusses best practice from global experience and links that to the UK context. The book integrates the realities of practice to key underpinning theories, human rights, values and a commitment to promoting social justice. A range of practice models are described and analysed, including UK models, popular education and community organising, as well as a range of practice issues that need to be understood by community development workers. For example, strategies to promote individual and community empowerment, challenging discrimination, building and sustaining groups, and critical reflection on practice. Finally, a range of case studies from the UK and overseas illustrates good practice in diverse contexts. These case studies are analysed with reference to the values of community development, the promotion of social justice and the underpinning theories. It is an essential text for those on community development courses as well as for a range of workers, including local government, national and local voluntary agencies, and community-based organisations.

Readings in Social Evolution and Development presents a collection of articles on a specialized aspect of sociology, or social psychology. The book starts by describing social change and development and the role of institutionalization, individual behavior, and role performance on such change and development. The text also discusses the basic problems of evolutionary perspective in sociology and studies of development and modernization. The theories of social change, the problem of evolution, and the major trends of change in the contemporary setting, such as changes in the industrial societies and alternative courses of political development in the new states are also encompassed. Sociologists and social psychologists and students taking sociology courses will find the book useful.