Defining and Distributing Longitudinal Historical Data in a General Way Through an Intermediate Structure

Konzept einer intermediaren Datenstruktur (IDS) zur Integration national unterschiedlicher Datenbanken«. In recent years, studies of historical populations have shifted from tracing large-scale processes to analyzing longi- tudinal micro data in the form of 'life histories'. This approach expands the scope of social history by integrating data on a range of life course events. The complexity of life-course analysis, however, has limited most researchers to working with one specific database. We discuss methodological problems raised by longitudinal historical data and the challenge of converting life histo- ries into rectangular datasets compatible with statistical analysis systems. The logical next step is comparing life courses across local and national databases, and we propose a strategy for sharing historical longitudinal data based on an intermediate data structure (IDS) that can be adopted by all databases. We de- scribe the benefits of the IDS approach and activities that will advance the goals of simplifying and promoting research with longitudinal historical data.

[1]  T. Hareven.  Family Time and Industrial Time: The Relationship between the Family and Work in a New England Indus , 1983 .

[2]  Steven Ruggles,et al.  Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 3 , 2003 .

[3]  J. Mortimer,et al.  Handbook of the life course , 2003 .

[4]  Lisa Y. Dillon,et al.  Introduction: Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Historical Data: Intersections and Opportunities , 2002, Hist. Comput..

[5]  T. Bengtsson,et al.  Life under Pressure: Mortality and Living Standards in Europe and Asia, 1700-1900 , 2004 .

[6]  G. Alter,et al.  Casting spells: database concepts for event history analysis. , 1999 .

[7]  Samuel J Clark,et al.  Toward a Unified Timestamp with explicit precision. , 2005, Demographic research.

[8]  M. J. Straube,et al.  A chartless record—Is it adequate? , 1982, Journal of Medical Systems.

[9]  J. Kok,et al.  City Nomads , 2005, Social Science History.

[10]  G. Alter.  Family and the Female Life Course: The Women of Verviers, Belgium, 1849-1880 , 1990 .

[11]  R. Settersten.  Invitation to the Life Course: Towards new understandings of later life , 2002 .

[12]  Peter Laslett,et al.  Comparing Household Structure Over Time and Between Cultures , 1974, Comparative Studies in Society and History.

[13]  Ann G. Green,et al.  Building partnerships among social science researchers, institution-based repositories and domain specific data archives , 2007, OCLC Syst. Serv..

[14]  G. Alter,et al.  Widowhood, family size, and post-reproductive Mortality: a comparative Analysis of three populations in Nineteenth-Century Europe , 2007, Demography.

[15]  Lisa Y. Dillon,et al.  Best Practices with Large Databases on Historical Populations , 2001, Hist. Comput..

[16]  J. H. Slater,et al.  Transfer and stability of drug resistance plasmids inEscherichia coli K12 , 1984, Microbial Ecology.

[17]  Kees Mandemakers,et al.  Building Life Course Datasets From Population Registers by the Historical Sample of the Netherlands (HSN) , 2002, Hist. Comput..

[18]  S. Ruggles.  Integrated Public Use Microdata Series , 2021, Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging.

[19]  Robert Crosnoe,et al.  The Emergence and Development of Life Course Theory , 2003 .

[20]  B. Bradbury.  Family Time and Industrial Time. The Relationship between the Family and Work in a New England Industrial Community. Tamara K. Hareven. , 1985 .