Many cognitive scientists have studied people’s use of tools and artifacts, in other
words, resources. However, there are two features of resources that have not been ad-
dressed by cognitive scientists. The first is the configuration of resources. Resources
do not exist scatteredly; they exist in an order. Actions are organized in accordance
with the order of resources. Therefore, it is important to consider the configuration of
resources when studying people’s actions in everyday life. The second feature that has
not been addressed is that people arrange resources in their environment to conduct
everyday life and work well. To clarify the features supporting everyday life based on
these two points, I believe that it is important to examine the adjusted relationship
between actions and resources and its attendant developmental processes. Therefore, I
propose a perspective called the development of functional systems. Functional systems
consist of actions and resources; the relationship between actions and resources adjust
as time progresses. I call this process of change in the relationship between actions and
resources the development of functional systems. Based on this proposal, I examine the
theme of human agency, learning, and child development from the perspective of the
development of functional systems. At the end, I discuss the limitations of this paper
and suggest directions for future research.
