Developing Scaffolds in Evolution, Culture, and Cognition

"Scaffolding" is a concept that is becoming widely used across disciplines.This book investigates common threads in diverse applications of scaffolding, including theoreticalbiology, cognitive science, social theory, science and technology studies, and human development.Despite its widespread use, the concept of scaffolding is often given short shrift; the contributorsto this volume, from a range of disciplines, offer a more fully developed analysis of scaffoldingthat highlights the role of temporal and temporary resources in development, broadly conceived,across concepts of culture, cognition, and evolution.

The book emphasizesreproduction, repeated assembly, and entrenchment of heterogeneous relations, parts, and processesas a complement to neo-Darwinism in the developmentalist tradition of conceptualizing evolutionarychange. After describing an integration of theoretical perspectives that can accommodate differentlevels of analysis and connect various methodologies, the book discusses multilevel organization;differences (and reciprocality) between individuals and institutions as units of analysis; andperspectives on development that span brains, careers, corporations, and culturalcycles.

ContributorsColin Allen, Linnda R. Caporael, JamesEvans, Elihu M. Gerson, Simona Ginsburg, James R. Griesemer, Christophe Heintz, Eva Jablonka, SanjayJoshi, Shu-Chen Li, Pamela Lyon, Sergio F. Martinez, Christopher J. May, Johann Peter Murmann,Stuart A. Newman, Jeffrey C. Schank, Iddo Tavory, Georg Theiner, Barbara Hoeberg Wimsatt, William C.Wimsatt

Linnda R. Caporael is Professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.