Paper Human Development 1998:41:326-349 Hu m a n Development When Solo Activity Is Not Privileged: Participation and Internalization Models of Development Eugene Matusov University of Delaware. Del., USA Key Words Cultural development . Internalization e Participation model . Practice s Socioculturai approach Abstract The purpose of this paper is to examine the notion of internalization which mainly stemmed from Vygotsky’s work and to provide a critique of this concept as being favora- bly biased toward specific sociocultural practices common in industrial societies. These practices involve global networks of alienated and decontextualized activities overem- phasizing the value of people’s independent solo activity and de-emphasizing the social nature of solo activities. The internalization model of cultural development, emphasizing transformation of social functions into individual skills, leads to a chain of mutually related dualisms between oppositional abstractions such as the social and the individual, the external and the internal, and the environment and the organism. Attempts to bridge these dualistic gaps seem problematic because these dual abstractions mutually constitute each other and are, thus, inseparable from the beginning. An alternative model. the par- ticipation model of cultural development (Lave and Wenger, 199 1; Rogoff, 1990), which has recently emerged in different areas of the social sciences, seems helpful in overcoming such dualism inherent in the internalization model. The participation model considers individual cultural development as a validated process of transformation of individual participation in sociocultural activity. Transformation of p?rticipation involves assum- ing changed responsibility for the activity, redefining membership in a community of practice, and changing the sociocultural practice itself. In this paper, I argue that the participation model may be a more helpful conceptual tool for analyzing development in diverse sociocultural practices where participants’ solo activities are not necessarily priv- ileged and emphasized. Unlike the internalization model, the participation model seems to be able to address development equally well in both decontextualized and situated sociocultural practices. It also generates exploration of new questions. The purpose of this paper is to consider two models of development: intemaliza- tion and participation. in brief, the internalization model suggests that high-level psy- Editor’s note: The action editor for this article was Claes von Hofsten. i zy KARGER Q 1998 S. Karger AC, Base1 Eugene Matusov zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGF OOIS-i16W98/0416-0326.$15.00/O University of Delaware Fax+41613061234 Newark, DE 19716 (USA) E-Mail karger@karger.ch Accessible online at: Tel. +I 302 831 1266. Fax +I 302 831 4445 www. karger. corn http:llBioMedNet.com/ karger E-Mail ematusov@udel.edu