Abstract
In this introduction to the Ethos 2011 Dialogue the guest editors discuss questions related to child and youth development as seen from a cultural‐historical and critical psychological point of view. The authors contributing to the dialogue develop a particular focus on the notions of mediation, practice, and active subjectivity while examining a series of conflictual cases of child and youth development. We seek here to introduce this work as it advances the long existing dialogue among cultural‐historical, critical psychological, and anthropological approaches and anthropological theory thus suggesting directions for future research.