Bronfenbrenner's System Approach

In class we have been talking about a system's approach to understanding communities. One of the ideas that informed my understanding of child development is Urie Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory perspective which says that an individual’s development is best understood through the interactions of the developing person within and between four nested systems: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem and macrosystem. (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) Each of these systems must be considered from the perspective of a fifth system, the chronosystem, which is related to the passage of time over the course of one’s life as well as historical time. Development is seen as an interactive process that is strongly influenced by these contexts of development.

The microsystem, often called the intimate system, is comprised of the most immediate settings for development in which face to face interaction takes place, such as the family, school, peers and neighborhoods. The mesosystem is the web of connections between the various microsystems. One of Bronfenbrenner’s contributions to our understanding of development is the importance of the interactions across the various contexts that support a child’s development, such as the connections between home and school or peer group and school.

Bronfenbrenner also describes the exosystem, which are those contexts in which the child does not typically interact, such as the parent’s workplace or support structures in the community, but which exert an indirect impact on the child. For example, if a parent loses his or her job, that aspect of the mesosystem will have an indirect impact on the child through the parent’s response to this event. Finally, the macrosystem is the larger cultural context in which an individual is embedded. The political system, an individual’s cultural background and the broader popular culture of the nation are examples of the macrosystem. Each of the systems from micro to macro are situated in a particular period of time or chronosystem.

While Bronfennbrenner’s model describes individual development as a part of a system, I think it could also serve as a useful rubric for understanding community development and sustainability. I need to explore this more for connections between this system approach and the ideas presented in class and our readings. Such as, how do the ideas of the various kinds of capital (social, human, physical, etc.) fit in this framework.