ABSTRACT
Over the last decade there has been growing interest in the application of dynamical systems to the study of development. Indeed, the explosion of the dynamical systems framework in the physical and biological sciences seems to have opened the door also to a new Zeitgeist for studying development. This appeal to dynamical systems by developmentalists is natural, given the intuitive links between the established fundamental problems of development and the conceptual and operational scope of nonlinear dynamical systems. This promise of a new approach and framework within which to study development has led to some progress in recent years but also to a growing appreciation of the difficulty of fully examining and realizing the potential of the new metaphor.
