This groundbreaking book extends the work of Urie Bronfenbrenner whom Melvin Kohn described as "the quintessential person for spurring psychologists to...realize that interpersonal relationships are embedded in the larger social structures of community, society, economics, and politics.". In Examining Lives in Context, over two dozen distinguished scholars show how Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory and research led them to focus their own work on problems crucial to "real life" - the complex, rapidly changing world that challenges researchers to design inquiries in often dramatic new ways. By taking into account the importance of time, place, process, and life course, the interdisciplinary contributors to this volume forge a new path in previously uncharted territory in human development.