This chapter rejuvenates the promising but lost field of environmental gerontology. Environmental gerontology threatened to disappear after the death of its initiator, Powell Lawton. The chapter reviews recent developments and problems in these approaches, and shows how the sociocultural perspective presented here may offer a satisfying way to pursue these efforts. The first section comes back to the core concepts of spaces, places and affordances. The next one proposes a dialogue with two propositions made by Lawton: first, the importance of an ideographic approach to environments of ageing, to which we have proposed a regional case study. Second, Lawton made a typology of modes of housing for older persons, calling for intermediary ones; I propose a revised typology. Finally, I integrate our findings in terms of human development together with an ecological understanding of ageing, thus sketching a more complete psychology of ageing in a changing environment.

This theoretical chapter first proposes, within an open dynamic approach, a vocabulary to address the embodied person and their experience, and the material, social and symbolic environments in which they live, which are experienced physically, relationally and interpreted via semiotic processes. Then, it highlights the implications of a regional case study for the theorising of human development, notably, thanks to its attention to the interdependency between socio and microgenetic dynamics and ontogenesis. Further, it proposes a new series of concepts and dynamics to account for development in older age, where people are likely to find new ways to develop in a world whose forces may feel progressively more adverse. Hence, the model of reconfiguration of domains of conduct needs to be completed by an understanding of envelopes that supports centripetal dynamics, borrowed from psychoanalysis. Finally, the chapter examines the implication of this proposition for the theorising development in the lifecourse.

The chapter addresses: 1. Overview of the Simplicity Principle. 2. Theoretical Rationale for the Simplicity Principle. 3. Empirical Rationale for the Simplicity Principle. 4. Boundary Conditions for the Simplicity Principle. 5. Applications of the Simplicity Principle

The chapter addresses: 1. Overview of the Voice Principle. 2. Theoretical Rationale for the Voice Principle. 3. Empirical Rationale for the Voice Principle. 4. Boundary Conditions for the Voice Principle. 5. Applications of the Voice Principle

The chapter addresses: 1. Overview of the Pretraining Principle. 2. Theoretical Rationale for the Pretraining Principle. 3. Empirical Rationale for the Pretraining Principle. 4. Boundary Conditions for the Pretraining Principle. 5. Applications of the Pretraining Principle

The chapter addresses: 1. Overview of Design Principles. 2. Principles to Motivate Learners to Exert Effort to Learn. 3. Principles to Help Learners Focus on Relevant Information. 4. Principles to Help Learners Manage the Flow of Relevant Information. 5. Principles to Help Learners Build Connections Between Corresponding Verbal and Visual Information. 6. Principles to Help Learners Actively Make Sense of Incoming Information. 7. Future Directions

Sociocultural psychology of the lifecourse, which examines the development of the persons in their changing environments, offers here the frame for our exploration of development in older age. Although it has largely addressed the development of children, youth and adults, it has only recently started to approach the specificities of developing with age. This chapter retraces the ontological and epistemological foundation of this approach. It then further explores three sets of concepts of foremost importance when approaching development in the lifecourse into older age: those related to dynamics of distancing and imagining, core when examining semiotic processes in human development; those of interests and engagements, which emphasise sense-making and affects; and what regards the domains of conduct in which people engage. The chapter then sketches the specificities of development in older age within people’s material, social and symbolic environment.

The exploration proposed here is pursued through a complex, regional case study. Regional case studies enable delineating a portion of the world, with a consistent set of institutions and policies as well as geographical and material conditions that set the frame for people’s lives, and to identify the complex dynamics by which sociogenetic, microgenetic and ontogenetic transformation co-occur. This chapter presents how we approached, conceived and analysed this case study. To start with, I define my approach to ageing as a form of personal engagement, which progressively developed into a collaborative project. After showing the relevance of a regional case study for sociocultural psychology of the lifecourse, I present the fieldwork, the data collection, an overview of the participants and the main line of the analysis.

The chapter addresses: 1. Building a Theory of Teaching with Instructional Video, 2. Generative Learning Theory. 3. Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning. 4. Cognitive- Affective Model of e-Learning

This chapter approaches the concrete, everyday lives of older persons in the Vineyard region. We examine how people living in towns, in villages, alone or in shared housing, organise their lives. Daily trajectories, typical interactions, everyday encounters are described. The chapter first examines informal encounters and networks, daily interactions, occasional meetings, and the importance of social interactions. Both the role of ‘lighthouse watcher’ and tenuous ties are put to the fore. Second, the chapter follows interactions taking place in an institutional setting, a day-care centre. Here also, people can develop meaningful activities and reveal their engagements, while the frame can offer a containing function. Altogether, this chapter shows how evolving material, social and symbolic environments are deeply related to people’s development in older age.

The chapter addresses: 1. Overview of the Positivity Principle. 2. Theoretical Rationale for the Positivity Principle. 3. Empirical Rationale for the Positivity Principle. 4. Boundary Conditions for the Positivity Principle. 5. Applications of the Positivity Principle