Linking social change and developmental change: Shifting pathways of human development.

P. M. Greenfield's new theory of social change and human development aims to show how changing sociodemographic ecologies alter cultural values and learning environments and thereby shift developmental pathways. Worldwide sociodemographic trends include movement from rural residence, informal education at home, subsistence economy, and low-technology environments to urban residence, formal schooling, commerce, and high-technology environments. The former ecology is summarized by the German term Gemeinschaft ("community") and the latter by the German term Gesellschaft ("society"; Tönnies, 1887/1957). A review of empirical research demonstrates that, through adaptive processes, movement of any ecological…