Essay Review

Human Development 2004;47:117121

DOI: 10.1159/000076254

Going Beyond Culture and

Development
Essay Review of The Cultural Nature of
Human Development by Barbara Rogoff 1
Jacqueline J. Goodnow
Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

This book functions at two levels, with both effectively coordinated with one
another: a rare achievement. On the one hand, it takes up and presents in a new
light topics of concern to anyone interested in developmental questions. These are
topics such as the nature of child-rearing, the development of thinking, learning,
interdependence and autonomy, and the nature of transitions. On the other, it takes
up and again presents in a new light topics that have more often been the explicit concern of scholars interested in cultural perspectives. These are topics such
as the definition of culture or community and the need to find alternatives to
limiting views of culture: culture, for example, as something that refers to exotic
others or is a remote influence on the development of individuals. These ways of
thinking inevitably reduce culture to a separate chapter in most texts. They also,
Rogoff points out, constrain the development of effective approaches to classrooms
or social policies, and the research directions we are prompted to take.
The classic developmental topics (child-rearing etc.) are the focus of chapters 4 to 8. The more recognizably cultural concerns are the focus of chapters 1 to
3 and of chapter 9 (a chapter specifically on how communities change). The two
sets are linked by the conceptual position prefigured by the title (The Cultural Nature of Human Development, not Culture and Development, or Development in
Cultural Contexts). This position forms an integrating thread through all chapters.
In its most general form, this is the position Rogoff refers to as an overarching,
orienting concept: Humans develop through their changing participation in the
socio-cultural activities of their communities, which also change [p. 11].
Because of its central quality, I concentrate here on the conceptual position. To
bring out its features, I break the material into three sections. These have to do with
ways of considering the nature of culture or community, cultural similarities and
1

New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2003, 448 pp.

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0018716X/04/04720117$21.00/0

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Jacqueline J. Goodnow
Macquarie University, 19 Illuka Rd.
Mosman, NSW 2088 (Australia)
Tel. +61 2 9969 5450
E-Mail jgoodnow@psy.mq.edu.au

differences, and development. In line with Rogoffs emphasis, each section starts
with a way of thinking that needs to be avoided or undone. Each then proceeds to
Rogoffs proposed alternatives, and to possible next steps (questions that are now
highlighted, ideas that could be extended).
The Nature of Culture and Community

There is often confusion about terms such as culture, community, or nation.

There is also the temptation to regard culture as static, as monolithic, as a box
or category in which people may simply be placed, the same as nationality or
ethnicity.
Rogoffs core proposals on this score are that (1) the central feature to any
group is the extent to which various ways of acting or thinking are shared, and (2) a
productive place to start is with the concept of community.
Communities are defined as groups of people who have some common and
continuing organization, values, understanding, history and practices [p. 80]. The
way is then open to specify the concepts of nation and culture. To the extent that a
nation shares ideas, institutions, and ways of doing things and relating, the traditions and practices of people in that nation can be identified by reference to the
national community [pp. 8182]. It is the common ways that participants share
(even if they contest them) that I regard as culture [p. 81, italics in original]. The
way is open as well to regard as communities electronic or global groups that may
show shared values, organizational patterns, and forms of participation.
Open also are ways of specifying forms of community change and their
sources. Change, Rogoff proposes, is best specified by way of shifts in particular
activities, rather than by shifts in features such as income, class, or ethnic backgrounds. The sources of change stem especially from the presence of individuals
and communities with varied interests. These may then compete with one another,
seek to oppress one another, or the outcome Rogoff especially emphasizes and
hopes to see engage in creative combinations [pp. 355362].
What next steps are now prompted? Rogoff points out that she does not aim at
an overview of all the theoretical positions related to culture and development. Her
priority is to develop and to lay out a position that avoids some classic problems
and opens up new possibilities.
One possibility prompted for me is a closer look at the question: How can we
bring together approaches that emphasize activities, and participation within them,
and approaches that emphasize more internal states? In any account of activities,
for example, there needs to be a place for emotion or experienced quality (e.g., the
feeling that a way of acting or thinking is right or natural, invested with moral
force). There needs also to be a place for some sense of identity or of internal
voices and audiences [e.g., Hatano & Oura, 2001]. This would not be a return to old
concepts of internalization. It is also not completely at odds with a position such
as Rogoffs. Some incorporation of community responses some translation into
self-monitoring is certainly contained in Rogoffs intriguing accounts of how
shaming and teasing are experienced and of how the Navaho telling of indirect stories that act as rebukes can be felt to enter like arrows and to become part of what
one, privately, hears being told many times [pp. 313314].
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A second has to do with the analysis of change in communities. Rogoff draws

attention to a major gap in many analyses of individual change: the presence of
change also in communities. Her material opens up the possibility of stronger links
to the area known as cultural studies. One possibility, for example, is a link to
work by Martin-Barbero [1993] on the ways in which communities mediate and
appropriate cultural expressions (e.g. music, art, media forms): work that, like
Rogoffs, avoids the simplistic perception of change as taking only the form of
some cultures being overrun or swamped by others.
Cultural Similarities and Differences

How can we compare one cultural group, or one community, with another? On
the one hand, we need to avoid the assumption that cultures are all-of-a piece (here
is culture X and here culture Y), with the main comparison being in terms of
whether one is better than another. On the other hand, we do not want to compare
on the basis of an indefinitely large number of activities or practices.
Rogoff dispenses neatly with the assumption of ones own culture as best,
with part of the argument resting on examples of effective borrowing, by the more
developed from less developed groups. The number of possible comparisons is
then cut down by focusing on regularities and patterns and linked practices.
Regularities and patterns refer to the way all groups have some common concerns:
concerns such as arranging opportunities for children to learn (the concern to which
Rogoff gives the most detailed attention), child survival and care, or the patterning
of relationships. These core concerns then become the points of comparison, asking
how each is approached. Opportunities to learn, for example, may be by way of
ongoing involvement in adults activities or by more distanced preparation for later
involvement. (Secular Western schooling is the example most often used.) Human
relations may be marked by hierarchical organization, with someone in charge
who controls others or by a pattern that is more horizontal in structure, with individuals being responsible together to the group expected to coordinate with the
group direction [p. 9]. Where groups may differ then is in the priority given to one
pattern rather than another and in the situations where one rather than the other is
seen as appropriate.
Linked practices refers to the ways in which practices cohere with one another. Connected with the use of a Western-school style of arranging opportunities
to learn, for example, are age-grading and a concern with readiness in relation to
age, the use of praise for a childs interest or achievement, the asking of questions
to which answers are known, particular kinds of demands by children for adult attention, and the move of school-type conversations into home settings.
What next steps do such proposals prompt? One prompted step has to do with
differences among the situations to which various approaches are applied (e.g., the
situations in which vertical or horizontal coordination is used or seen as appropriate) and the ways by which we are encouraged to expect and to identify differences
among situations. On this score, I found especially provocative Rogoffs description of Japanese children being given boundary training (from a report by Takie
Lebra) [p. 255], and her drawing attention to the emphasis, in Western groups, on
the importance of children receiving the same messages and consistent treatGoing Beyond Culture and Development

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ment from home and school [p. 256]. We know as yet relatively little about the
way children learn to expect the same or different approaches in various situations.
A second step has to do with patterns and linked practices. Here, Rogoff notes,
is an especially clear need for further research and analysis [p. 84]. The detail offered in this book has mainly to do with the arrangement of childrens opportunities
to learn, with an emphasis on task-related skills. There is, however, as Rogoff
points out, the need for equally close attention to the ways in which children come
to learn about relationships.
One last wish in the direction of more: the issue of moral relativism. There
is, indeed, no one best way. Does this mean, however, that all ways are equally
good? The respect and the rights that a cultural tradition deserves are currently
at the forefront of challenges in schools and in courts of law. Rogoffs next edition
will probably note this complex issue and the debates that have begun to surround it.
Development as Changing Forms of Participation

The hazard to avoid here is again the temptation to think of culture as having
an influence on development, separating the two: a hazard that has also prompted
terms such as co-construction or co-constitution.
Rogoffs alternative is to regard development as changes in participation in the
practices and circumstances of their communities [pp. 34]. The concept of participation has by now a considerable history. Rogoff adds to it, however, in several
interesting ways. One is by distinguishing between participation and membership
(the criteria for the two may be quite different). A second is by way of distinguishing among several forms of guided participation (there is then no single notion
such as scaffolding). A third is by way of the notion of intent participation. The
reference here is to the expectation that people will learn by watching, moving to
overt action only when they have already achieved a fair degree of understanding
of what needs to be done.
Again, here are additions that open up several questions and possibilities. Let
me again single out a few. One has to do with the social rules that accompany participation. How covert should eavesdropping be? How do children convey to toddlers that they can be with the group as long as they do not disrupt the other childrens games [p. 124]?
A second is the issue of when participation is optional or mandatory (another
social rule, perhaps). That topic builds on DAndrades [1981] comment that all
forms of competence are not alike. Some are absolutely necessary if one is to be
regarded as a reasonably able member of the community, while others may be acceptably acquired only up to some minimal level or set aside as not my thing.
A third concerns the particular forms of participation that emerge in groups
that differ from those usually considered when exploring the nature of participation, with one example being groups that are linked by electronic means, especially
when members differ in their experience with this kind of communication or in
their degrees of access to it.
In short, there is always more to learn [p. 369]. There is also the need for
what is provided in this text: a base that can provide direction.
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A Final Comment

Here is a rich source of ideas, observations, questions, research summaries,

and examples that are engaging, relevant to the argument, and drawn from several
disciplines. (My one area of disappointment was the index.) It re-frames many developmental topics, rescues culture from its often marginal state, and offers a
provocative base for further questions and research expansions. It could replace
many conventional developmental texts, would be of strong interest in areas other
than psychology, and well deserves the praise cited on its back cover: Michael
Coles comment, for example, that the book is essential reading that will be of
equal interest to undergraduates, graduates, and professionals in the field.
References
DAndrade, R.G (1981). The cultural part of cognition. Cognitive Science, 5, 179195.
Martin-Barbero, J. (1993). Communication, culture and hegemony: From media to mediations. London
and Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage.
Hatano, G., & Oura, Y. (2001). Apparently solitary activities have others in mind. Paper presented at
biennial meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis.

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