Arguably, from the invention of adolescence at the beginning of the 20th century, developmental theory has served as the foundation of disciplinary study and professional practice with children and youth across the global West. Despite their founders’ assertions that development is culturally constructed, in educational and youth work practice contexts stage-based trajectories of normative human growth are largely erroneously accepted as ahistorical, apolitical, naturally occurring, and universally applicable. This paper presents critiques of developmentalism from historical, reconceptualist, and queer perspectives, calling into question the underlying principles of normalcy and abnormality that run through the developmental project. We pay particular attention to the potential of queer theory as an analytic to deconstruct developmentalism in the context of child and youth care, opening new possibilities for critical engagement with children and youth outside the context of development.

中文翻译：

---

在儿童和青少年护理方面发挥酷儿潜力

可以说，从 20 世纪初的青春期发明开始，发展理论已成为全球西方儿童和青少年学科研究和专业实践的基础。尽管他们的创始人断言发展是文化建构的，但在教育和青年工作实践背景下，基于阶段的规范性人类成长轨迹在很大程度上被错误地接受为非历史的、非政治的、自然发生的和普遍适用的。本文从历史、再概念主义和酷儿的角度对发展主义进行批判，质疑贯穿于发展项目的正常和异常的基本原则。