The State and the Life Course

TLDR

The life‑course literature traditionally focuses on age groups, phases, and domains such as family, fertility, careers, income, migration, and aging, but recent work on the state's role introduces an integrative, institutional perspective that redefines the field as a new analytical lens. The review aims to clarify the theoretical perspective on state influence and synthesize dispersed research findings. The authors adopt a macrosociological, theoretical approach, drawing examples from childhood, education, military service, public employment, retirement, and old age, with a focus on the historical expansion of state regulation, and base their synthesis on U.S.

Abstract

Traditionally, the study of the life course has been divided into research on different age groups, different life phases, and different life domains such as the family cycle, fertility history, occupational careers and employment, the dynamics of income and consumption, migration, and normative patterns of aging. The emerging field of theory and research on the impact of the state on the structuring of the life course highlights overarching and integrative mechanisms for institutionalizing the life course. Therefore, the field constitutes a new analytical perspective rather than a specialized area of research. This review attempts to make the theoretical perspective explicit and to collect the various contributions from very scattered research reports. The major emphasis is macrosociological and theoretical. Examples are drawn from research on childhood, education, military service and wars, public employment, retirement, and old age. Particular attention is paid to the historical aspects of increasing state regulation. The review is based on US and Western European literature.