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Human development, nature and nurture: working beyond the divide

Singh, Ilina (2012) Human development, nature and nurture: working beyond the divide. Biosocieties, 7 (3). pp. 308-321. ISSN 1745-8552

Full text not available from this repository.
Identification Number: 10.1057/biosoc.2012.20

Abstract

In this essay, I explore what social science might contribute to building a better understanding of relations between nature and nurture in human development. I first outline changing scientific perspectives on the role of the environment in the developmental and behavioural sciences, beginning with a general historical view of the developmental science of human potentials in the twentieth century, and then reflecting on a call to arms against toxic stress issued in 2012 by the American Academy of Pediatrics. I suggest that such post-genomic programmes of early intervention, which draw on emerging scientific theories of organismic plasticity and developmental malleability, raise significant social and ethical concerns. At the same time, such programmes challenge social scientists to move beyond critique and to contribute to new developmental models that deconstruct the old divide between nature and nurture. I conclude by describing efforts that posit new terms of reference and, simultaneously, new kinds of research interests and questions that are not founded upon, and are not efforts to resolve, the nature-nurture debate.

Item Type: Article
Official URL: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/biosoc/index.html
Additional Information: © 2012 The London School of Economics and Political Science
Divisions: Sociology
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Date Deposited: 05 Nov 2012 14:08
Last Modified: 13 Sep 2024 23:25
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/47296

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