Social Relations in Human and Societal Development

C. Psaltis, A. Gillespie, A. Perret-Clermont, C. Psaltis, A. Gillespie, A. Perret-Clermont

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781137400994
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Personality in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Social interaction is the engine which drives an individual's psychological development and it can create changes on all levels of society. Social Relations in Human and Societal Development includes essays by internationally renowned academics from a range of disciplines including social psychology, international relations and child development.

1

Introduction: The Role of Social Relations in Human and Societal Development

Charis Psaltis, Alex Gillespie and Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont

Development of the individual and society

Human development is mostly concerned with the sociomoral and cognitive development of a person during their lifespan. Societal development involves varying changes in resources, societal institutions, the spheres of the economy, education and health, technologies, values, social and gender relations, and power distribution, in historical time. The questions posed by human development, concerning the path, rate, breadth, variability and source of individual change, are also important issues for societal change.

Discussion of societal development is more contested, with the direction, outcomes and mechanisms being less certain. Although child development is far from predictable, it is nevertheless given direction by the fact that children are socialized into a society (they invariably become competent actors in their own culture, not an alien one). Societies, on the other hand, do not have a macroguidance structure into which they are socialized; rather, they must find their own way in the world. Debate about societal development focuses on distinguishing regressive from progressive change, and the extent to which change is driven by structural, cultural, religious, economic or scientific and technological processes. An exploration of the links between human and societal development is, however, the main thrust of this volume, which focuses on the role of social relations (i.e. forms of social interaction) in human and societal change.

From the social to the individual

Directionality between human and societal development is one of the most controversial and longstanding – but also exciting – issues in social science. The dominant sociological approach is to move from the social to the individual. That is to say, broad societal changes at the macrolevel have their effects on individuals through the way in which they affect the quality of social relations between individuals and groups in societies. A number of researchers from the sociocultural tradition of psychology took a similar stance when they argued that changes in the sociodemographics and the socioeconomic structure of a society (Rogoff, 2003; Greenfield, 2009) affect its cultural values; and these in turn change the learning environment and form of social relationships which eventually influence human development at the individual level.

Greenfield (2009), for example, draws on sociological writings about modernization going back to Durkheim, with the transition from mechanical to organic solidarity, and Tonnies (1887/1957), with the difference between Gemeinschaft (community) and Gesellschaft (society). Her argument is that changes in the economic structure and sociodemographics of societies precede changes in values and learning environments for children, thus constituting new developmental pathways for children (Greenfield, 2009). The kinds of societal shift which she considers include industrialization, urbanization of rural communities, the move from informal to formal education, and recent technological changes. Social relations in her theorization thus vary between societies. In Gesellschaft, she argues, individuals have multiple ties to the outside world and many opportunities for transitory relations with strangers, whereas, in Gemeinschaft, individuals are closely related to their kin in more stable and lifelong relations.

The emphasis on the role of the socioeconomic conditions in human development through the mediation of social relations is particularly relevant in exploring the repercussions of the current financial crisis on human development, which is one of the timely themes that are tackled in this volume. For example, the financial crisis which began in around 2008 has not only reduced economic growth rates and resulted in more people in unemployment and poverty in various countries, but also exacerbated individual prejudice against minorities and marginalized groups and the breeding of conspiracy theories against powerful groups (Becker et al., 2011; Imhoff & Bruder, 2014). Thus macrolevel transformations can lead to antagonistic and even anti-democratic social relations or internal tensions and strife, with grave consequences for all spheres of society.

Another type of change with dire consequences, which is rarely discussed in sociocultural theories of development, is ethnic or religious conflict and state-to-state violence and war. The international community is increasingly coming to a realization of the importance of responsive and fair institutions, and increased social cohesion, to building community-level resilience and to reducing the potential for conflict to break out, as attested by the conclusions of the latest Human Development Report published by the UNDP (2014).

From the individual to the social

A second, more psychological approach to the general topic of this volume moves from the individual to society. For example, it has been argued that changes in individual values lead to political and structural changes through changes in our orientation to others (Ingelhart & Wenzel, 2003). The models of modernization and democratization, proposed by political scientists such as Ingelhard and Welzel (2003), challenge elitist and institutional notions of democracy. They argue that democracy, gender equality and responsive government are elements of a broader human development syndrome (Inglehart & Welzel, 2003). They attribute a central importance to values of self-expression for societal change, suggesting that change in democratic values and attitudes measured at the individual level predicts the establishment of democratic institutions in societies (see Muller & Seligson, 1994).

Underlying efforts to resolve issues of the directionality of change between the individual and society is the perennial tension between the individual–society antinomy and the agency-structure debate, which becomes particularly relevant in discussions in the public sphere during times of radical societal change and crisis.

This volume will offer a third way in such discussions, transcending the individual–society antinomy by looking at the role of social relations and social interaction in processes of individual and societal change. Interdisciplinary work between psychologists and cultural anthropologists (Haslam & Fiske, 1999) called for a paradigm shift that will focus on the role of social relations. However, such formulations failed to depart from methodological individualism to the extent that they argued that people in all cultures use just four relational cognitive models, as schemata, to generate most kinds of social interaction, evaluation and affect. The four models proposed by Haslam and Fiske (1999) are communal sharing, authority ranking, equality matching and market pricing. People, it is argued, use these four structures to organize labour and to endow objects, land and time with social significance. Such an approach is reducing co-constructed social relations into relatively static descriptions and cognitive schemas, thus failing to recognize that the diversity and valorization of such schemas are dependent on ideological struggles and on particular sociocultural configurations. In this sense, for example, these four types are not written in stone, and a fifth type might be formed in the future by societies.

Social relations in genetic epistemology: Beyond psychological or sociological reductionism

An early attempt to transcend the debate of “psychologism vs. sociologism” was the genetic epistemology programme of Jean Piaget. He avoided the perils of both sociological holism and individualism by proposing to take as social facts of study the interactions between individuals and their social relations (Kitchener, 2009). Simplifying somewhat, Piaget (1932/1965) described social relations as occurring on a dimension from constraint to cooperation. In his sociological studies (Piaget, 1977/1995) he also offered a more subtle social exchange theory of values, but still it was based on reciprocity and social relations of cooperation as a significant departure from cost–benefit or game theoretical individualistic economic models. The distinction that he offered, inspired by Bovet (1925/1951), is between social relations of constraint, premised on unilateral respect, with relations between adults and children as the prototype and social relations of cooperation premised on mutual respect with peer relations being the prototype (Piaget, 1932/1965; Psaltis, Chapter 5; Duveen & Psaltis, 2008; Psaltis et al., 2009). Piaget clearly privileged relations of cooperation, with the free exchange of points of view, as the basis of decentration, knowledge construction, and cognitive and moral development of the individual.

Piaget argued that if we knew all possible types of social relation, then we would have the so-called composition laws that would allow us to explain not just individual development but also societal development (Kitchener, 2009). He claimed that societies that were characterized by their rigid adherence to traditions and strict hierarchies were constraining the development of rationality and autonomous morality, and once such societal obstacles were removed there would be predictable development through which logic and morality would develop. This was his orthogenetic principle of development. In that way, Piaget was making a very clear link between the forms of asymmetrical social relations in a society and a form of thinking that had been identified before him by Lévy-Bruhl (1910/1985) as magical thinking in traditional societies (for a detailed discussion of this issue, see Psaltis & Zapiti, 2014).

This emphasis on the social relations of cooperation as promoting decentration and avoiding egocentrism at the individual level, and sociocentrism at the group level, runs through all of Piaget’s work. It was certainly a basic premise of his contribution as the director of the International Bureau of Education (IBE) in Geneva from 1926 to 1967, which was later incorporated into the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), his endless calls for international cooperation, and his critique of nationalism and ethnocentrism. This basic idea, that cooperative, symmetrical and essentially democratic forms of social relation are a basis for non-distorted knowledge construction, was further developed and applied to the societal level more recently by Habermas (1983/1990).

Part I

This part comprises four contributions – by Edelstein (Chapter 2), Keller (Chapter 3), Perret-Clermont (Chapter 4) and Psaltis (Chapter 5) – all inspired by Piagetian theory and with direct relevance to educational processes. All of them offer a more complicated and nuanced discussion of the role of social relations and social interaction for both the cognitive and the moral development of the child compared with the original Piagetian theorizing.

Edelstein sets the scene for a discussion of direct links between human and societal development through the mediation of democracy education for students. His discussion hales from the long vistas not only of a deep and assimilated understanding of Piagetian theory but also of a practical and broad understanding of the policy of international organizations such as the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the EU, and their emphasis on democracy education and cooperative relations as an integral element of promoting societal development in both developing and developed countries.

It is worth remembering that 2015 is the deadline for reaching the millennium development goals (MDGs) and the year of their replacement with a new set of goals. In support of this effort, the EU decided to name 2015 as the European Year for Development. It is hoped that the unique perspective developed in this volume, and the emphasis on social developmental aspects of social relations, will contribute to ongoing discussions regarding the setting up of new goals in the post-2015 period. Indeed, the recent 2014 Human Development Report (UNDP, 2014), which is highly dependent on developmental psychological insights, makes clear the fact that discussions about societal development keep drifting away from the application of crude economic indices, such as the gross national income per capita or years of study in formal education to a more human-centric conceptualization of strengthening the capabilities of individuals.

Thus the identification of the constraints and facilitative conditions of the development of human capabilities (Nussbaum, 2000) needs to take centre stage in any future discussions of societal development, and we argue that an understanding of social relations and social interaction is crucial in this endeavour. As various researchers in this volume suggest, from a social constructivist perspective, human capabilities could be seen as the outcome of both specific forms of social relations and forms of external and internal dialogue, but also in turn as supportive of particular forms of social interaction.

Keller (Chapter 3) reviews her research programme, discussing a crucial element of social relations and social interaction – that is, the development of intersubjectivity through the lens of a “naïve theory of action”. She addresses children’s understanding of actions and relationships, and the rules and expectations governing them. In her work, the ability to differentiate and coordinate the perspectives of the Self and the Other is seen as a core capability that develops in childhood. The naïve theory of action interconnects social (descriptive) and moral (prescriptive) reasoning and integrates cognitive, affective and behavioural aspects. The development of the components of the theory is exemplified in reasoning about close relationships (e.g. friendship) on the basis of longitudinal and cross-sectional data from childhood to adolescence in different cultures. Her data reveal universal and differential aspects of sociomoral development. It is further shown that sociomoral reasoning is relevant for interaction, and that the theoretical framework provides a teaching method for discourses about conflicting claims in relationships and for broadening moral awareness beyond close relationships and ingroup boundaries.

Perret-Clermont (Chapter 4) traces the historical roots of Piagetian genetic epistemology in Switzerland and the way it influenced his work in international organizations of education. He and his colleagues, in a time of worldwide international conflicts, were committed to contributing to educational perspectives that could promote international understanding and peace. Perret-Clermont suggests that this has something to do with the innovative perspective of Piaget positioning the social relations of cooperation as central to his theory. She also draws on her experience from her years in Geneva as a student of Piaget, and later her work on the first generation of research on peer interaction and cognitive development along with Willem Doise and Gabriel Mugny (Doise et al., 1976). Finally, she discusses the more recent work that she initiated and led in Neuchâtel, to offer some critical theoretical insights beyond Piaget’s legacy. Cooperation, she says, does not happen in a “social vacuum”. In consequence, she addresses the following question: What types of social relationship and institutional frame are supportive of the development of cooperative social skills, for thinking, learning and citizenship? The question is open and more complex than it might seem at first glance because she convincingly explores the issue at various “levels of analysis”, as originally suggested by Doise (1986).

Psaltis (Chapter 5) extends the discussion by Perret-Clermont and the tradition of post-Piagetian work on social interaction and cognitive development as he draws on Piaget’s social psychology, Moscovici’s social psychology and the later work by Doise, Perret-Clermont and Mugny and the work in Neuchâtel by reviewing a research programme termed “the Cambridge strand” of a third generation of research on peer interaction and cognitive development. The theoretical approach is called genetic social psychology, the aim of which is to explore the articulation of the microgenesis, ontogenesis and sociogenesis of both social representations based on belief and social representations founded on knowledge (see Psaltis & Zapiti, 2014) in the field of cognitive development, but also peace and reconciliation in relation to intergroup contact in post-conflict societies. The work of Psaltis introduces a crucial role of gender and ethnic identity dynamics into our understanding of how representations are transformed through social interaction, making the case that microgenesis is the motor for both the ontogenesis and the sociogenesis of representations. At the same time, from this perspective it becomes clear that any microgenetic process is itself constrai...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Notes on Contributors
• 1. Introduction: The Role of Social Relations in Human and Societal Development
• Part I: Social Relations in Cognitive and Sociomoral Development: Piaget and Beyond in Education
• Part II: Social Relations and Conflict Transformation: Intergroup Contact and Reflection
• Part III: Social Relations of the Economic Culture and Financial Crisis: Social, Cross-Cultural and Cultural Psychological Perspectives
• Index