ABSTRACT
In Bronfenbrenner’s ecological framework, the exosystem is that part of the ecosystem that includes settings the developing person does not participate in, but that influence or are influenced by what happens in the settings the person does occupy. An exosystem includes those settings the person does not engage in and their relations with other exosystem settings as well as with the mesosystem settings that are connected to it by intermediate links. Particularly important in develecology are settings where resources are controlled and allocated, settings Bronfenbrenner refers to as “power settings.” The section discusses the potential for exosystem settings to become mesosystem settings, if the person can enter them, or to better promote development if the occupants of a power setting can gain a more valid understanding of the needs of the developing person. Advocacy includes efforts to help people who occupy power settings develop more valid conceptions of the developmental needs of those for whom they control resources, and of ecological changes that would better support their development.
