Extending the work of behavioral scientist Urie Bronfenbrenner on the social and contextual factors influencing human development, this collection of essays, from scholars in a range of disciplines, shows how Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory and research have transformed the way many social and behavioral scientists approach, think about, and study human beings and their environments. The articles are grouped into five sections dealing with the dynamics of individual development, historical and social time, the multiple contexts of human development, the importance of process, and reflections and new directions. Each of the sections includes an introduction by Glen H. Elder, Jr., Kurt Luscher, Luscher, Elder, and Phyllis Moen, respectively. Following a general introduction (Moen) on Bronfenbrenner's theories and on the themes and organization of this volume, the articles are: (1) "Individual Development: A Holistic, Integrated Model" (David Magnusson); (2) "Understanding Individual Differences in Environmental-Risk Exposure (Michael Rutter and others); (3) "The Life Course Paradigm: Social Change and Individual Development" (Glen H. Elder, Jr.); (4) "Social Structure and Personality through Time and Space" (Melvin L. Kohn); (5) "Linked Lives: A Transgenerational Approach to Resilience" (Phyllis Moen and Mary Ann Erickson); (6) "Taking Time Seriously: Social Change, Social Structure, and Human Lives" (Duane F. Alwin); (7) "Differentiating among Social Contexts: By Spatial Features, Forms of Participation, and Social Contracts" (Jacqueline J. Goodnow); (8) "A Bioecological Model of Intellectual Development" (Stephen J Ceci and Helene A. Hembrooke); (9) "The Two Sexes and their Social Systems" (Eleanor E. Maccoby); (10) "Gender, Contexts, and Turning Points in Adults' Lives" (John A. Clausen); (11) "Social Ecology over Time and Space" (Robert B. Cairns and Beverley D. Cairns); (12) "Authoritative Parenting and Adolescent Adjustment: An Ecological Journey" (Laurence Steinberg and others); (13) "Children in Families in Communities: Risk and Intervention in the Bronfenbrenner Tradition" (Jeanne Brooks-Gunn); (14) "Jobless Ghettos and the Social Outcomes of Youngsters" (William Julius Wilson); (15) "Expanding the Ecology of Human Development: An Evolutionary Perspective" (Jay Belsky); (16) "'Homo Interpretans': On the Relevance of Perspectives, Knowledge, and Beliefs in the Ecology of Human Development" (Kurt Luscher); (17) "The Bioecological Model from a Life Course Perspective: Reflections of a Participant Observer (Urie Bronfenbrenner); and (18) "Developmental Ecology through Space and Time: A Future Perspective" (Urie Bronfenbrenner). A bibliography of the published writings of Bronfenbrenner, compiled by Kurt Luscher and Gerri Jones, is appended. (HTH)