The life course: models and analysis

The life course perspective has proven to be extremely useful in studies of social and demographic change. In this perspective, life is viewed as an evolving process and demographic events are milestones or critical transitions. Major research questions include (a) how people organize their lives around these life events, and (b) what that means at the population level. The paper aims at contributing to an integration of life course theorizing and methods of analysis. The approach is to reduce life course theories and methods to a few basic and universal elements and to investigate the use of these elements in studies of life histories. Basic elements are life event, time, risk and uncertainty, exposure, and interaction. A better understanding of the conceptual and analytical significance of these concepts will guide theory development, data collection, and modeling.

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