During the last decade of his life, Urie Bronfenbrenner became increasingly concerned about the potential role of growing levels of chaos as it contributed to developmental disarray in children. Gary Evans, Departments of Human Development and Design and Environmental Analysis, organized with Ted Wachs, Department of Psychological Sciences at University of Purdue, the First Biennial Bronfenbrenner Conference on the ecology of human development. The conference theme was Chaos and Children's Development. The conference took place October 25-27, 2007 at the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center, Cornell University.
Multidisciplinary groups of scholars from as distant as Istanbul, Turkey and as proximate as down the hall within the College of Human Ecology came together for two and half days to examine what we currently know about the role of chaotic living conditions in children's development and to utilize Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Model of Human Development to conceptualize bridges between existing areas of developmental scholarship and the concept of chaos. Another objective of the conference was to formulate a research agenda to help illuminate the potential importance of the concept of chaos both to scholars as well as practitioners interested in children's well being. Cornell faculty Gary Evans, Dan Lichter, John Eckenrode, and Elaine Wethington presented papers at the conference. An edited volume will be forthcoming.