ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the human ecosystem framework by exploring risks and opportunities that affect development at each level of the human environment. It describes the benefits and dangers that can come to the child from family, community, political and economic decisions, and finally from the culture as a whole. Sociocultural risk refers to the impoverishing of the child's world so that the child lacks the basic social and psychological necessities of life. Microsystems made up of large numbers of relatives, neighbors, and friends provide an opportunity for rich and stimulating experiences. Mesosystems are the relationships between two or more settings in which the child is an active participant, such as school and home. For some children, school-home mesosystem is strongly positive. Urie Bronfenbrenner thinks of macrosystems as cultural blueprints that underlie the organization of institutions, the assumptions people make about social relations, and the workings of the political and economic system.
