Whose Lives? How History, Societies, and Institutions Define and Shape Life Courses

TLDR

Life‑course sociology has evolved over five decades into a distinct analytical construct, with scholars differentiating contexts by time, place, historical regimes, and institutional cross‑national differences that shape individual life trajectories. This article outlines how contemporary sociology constructs life courses. The authors present general heuristics and illustrate differential constraints on life courses through two research perspectives. It concludes that variable social contexts of life courses are related to human development.

Abstract

This article outlines how current sociology constructs life courses. First, a set of general heuristics is provided. Second, the development of life course sociology over the last 50 years is traced as an intellectual process whereby the life course has emerged as an analytical construct in addition to such concepts as human development, biography, and aging. A differential life course sociology has gradually developed in which contexts are specified according to time and place. Third, these differential constraints operating on life courses are illustrated from the perspective of 2 research areas. One perspective introduces historical periods as a sequence of regimes that regulate life courses. Another perspective looks at cross-national differences and especially focuses on institutions as the mechanisms by which life courses are shaped. The article concludes with reflections about the relation between the variable social contexts of life courses and human development.