Go to More Parties? Social Occasions as Home to Unexpected Turning Points in Life Trajectories

2018 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Goffman
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Turning Points ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Emotional Energy ◽  
Life Trajectories ◽  
Time Out ◽  
Collective Effervescence ◽  
The Life Course

Reviving classical attention to gathering times as sites of transformation and building on more recent microsociological work, this paper uses qualitative data to show how social occasions open up unexpected bursts of change in the lives of those attending. They do this by pulling people into a special realm apart from normal life, generating collective effervescence and emotional energy, bringing usually disparate people together, forcing public rankings, and requiring complex choreography, all of which combine to make occasions sites of inspiration and connection as well as sites of offense and violation. Rather than a time out from “real” life, social occasions hold an outsized potential to unexpectedly shift the course that real life takes. Implications for microsociology, social inequality, and the life course are considered.

scholarly journals THE POWER OF LOOKING AHEAD? A FIXED-EFFECTS MODEL OF FUTURE ASPIRATIONS OVER THE LIFE COURSE AND INCOME

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S6-S6
Author(s):  
Ioana Sendroiu ◽  
Laura Upenieks
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Fixed Effects Model ◽  
Future Aspirations ◽  
Life Trajectories ◽  
Life Course Approach ◽  
The Face ◽  
Different Shapes ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Perceived life trajectories are rooted in structural systems of advantage and disadvantage, but individuals also shape their futures through setting goals and expectations. “Future aspirations” have typically been used in life course research to refer to one’s conception of their chances of success across life domains and can serve as a resource to help individuals persevere in the face of hardship. Taking a life course approach and using three waves of data from the MIDUS study, we utilize hybrid fixed effects models to assess the relationship between future aspirations and income. We find that, net of age, health, and a host of other time-varying factors, more positive future aspirations are indeed related to higher income over time, but that this relationship takes different shapes in different contexts. In particular, in lower quality neighborhoods, higher future aspirations lead to worse economic outcomes over the life course, while in higher quality neighborhoods, higher aspirations are indeed related to higher incomes. We thus argue that aspirations are only helpful in some contexts, and are inherently contextual not just in their sources but also in their effects.

Capturing the centrality of age and life-course stage in the provision of unpaid care

2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myra Hamilton ◽  
Bettina Cass
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Demographic Differences ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Care Theory ◽  
Unpaid Care ◽  
Care Giving ◽  
The Life Course

The purpose of this article is to construct a new theoretical framework of care-giving that places age, and the life-course stage of carers, at the centre of conceptual understanding and analysis. Although care theory is heavily gendered, it pays far less attention to age differences among the diverse participants in care-giving. This article argues that the age and life-course stage of carers is central to differential pathways into care-giving, experiences of care-giving, and effects of care-giving in the present and future. To support this, the article draws on qualitative data from a study on the circumstances and experiences of Australian children and young people who provide care for family members with disability or chronic illness. Claiming that theories of care are incomplete if age differences, intersecting with gender and other socio-demographic differences, are not treated as central to the conceptualization, the article outlines a framework for an age-sensitive theory of care-giving.

Life trajectories and burden of adversity: mapping the developmental profiles of suicide mortality

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (11) ◽  
pp. 1575-1583 ◽  
Author(s):  
MONIQUE SÉGUIN ◽  
ALAIN LESAGE ◽  
GUSTAVO TURECKI ◽  
MÉLANIE BOUCHARD ◽  
NADIA CHAWKY ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Preventive Intervention ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Suicide Mortality ◽  
Psychological Autopsy ◽  
Life Trajectories ◽  
Completed Suicide ◽  
Life Trajectory ◽  
Childhood Traumas ◽  
The Life Course

ABSTRACTBackgroundLittle is known about differential suicide profiles across the life trajectory. This study introduces the life-course method in suicide research with the aim of refining the longitudinal and cumulative assessment of psychosocial factors by quantifying accumulation of burden over time in order to delineate distinctive pathways of completed suicide.MethodThe psychological autopsy method was used to obtain third-party information on consecutive suicides. Life-history calendar analysis served to arrive at an adversity score per 5-year segment that was then cluster-analysed and correlated to define victim profiles.ResultsTwo distinct life trajectories emerged: (1) individuals who experienced childhood traumas, developmental adversity and little protection were more likely to present concurrent psychiatric and Axis II disorders; and (2) individuals who experienced less adversity but seemed more reactive to later major difficulties.ConclusionsThe life calendar approach presented here in suicide research adds to the identification of life events, distal and recent, previously associated with suicide. It also quantifies the burden of adversity over the life course, defining two distinct profiles that could benefit from distinct targeted preventive intervention.

Childhood Polyvictimization and the Life Course: Associations With Depression and Crime

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 770-785
Author(s):  
Richard S. Carbonaro
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Criminal Behavior ◽  
Negative Outcomes ◽  
Multiple Forms ◽  
Life Trajectories ◽  
Life Course Approach ◽  
Seemingly Unrelated Regressions ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Parental Abuse ◽  
The Life Course

Exposure to multiple forms of victimization has been shown to have increasingly negative outcomes, but their unique trajectory-setting effects have been largely unexplored. Using a life course approach, this article examines the life trajectories of child polyvictims. I use a nationwide sample including 3,652 respondents after cleaning and preparation. Seemingly unrelated regressions were used to predict depression and criminal behavior in childhood and adulthood. Results suggest that children who experience multiple forms of parental abuse tend to have life trajectories which grow increasingly worse through the life course. However, life trajectories of children experiencing violence outside the home have less persistent negative outcomes. Researchers and interventions should take differing life trajectories into account when attempting to aid different types of polyvictims.

Stress and Adversity over the Life Course: Trajectories and Turning Points

1999 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Jeylan T. Mortimer ◽  
Ian H. Gotlib ◽  
Blair Wheaton
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Turning Points ◽  
The Life Course

scholarly journals Taking a life Course Perspective on Social Assistance use in Canada: A different approach

2008 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 349-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Cooke ◽  
Amber Gazso
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Income Dynamics ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Parcours De Vie ◽  
The Life Course

Abstract In this paper we argue that a life course perspective on social assistance use in Canada can offer a more nuanced theoretical understanding of both individuals’ experiences and the importance of social structure, than more traditional sociological or economic approaches to welfare use. We also propose that examining social assistance use in this way does not require longitudinal quantitative or qualitative data, as is sometimes suggested, but that cross-sectional quantitative and qualitative data can be interpreted through a life course lens. We demonstrate this by examining the covariates of social assistance receipt using cross-sectional quantitative data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, and by analysing qualitative interviews with recipients about the process of beginning and barriers to ending benefit receipt. These analyses show not only how the cross-sectional data can easily be considered from the perspective of the life course, but also how this perspective provides a more satisfactory understanding of how social assistance polices can be thought of as both providing resources that are important in individual decision-making and as shaping lives. Résumé d’article Dans cet article, nous montrerons que le paradigme du parcours de vie sur le bien être social au Canada peut offrir une compréhension théorique plus nuancée des expériences des individus avec ces programmes qu’une approche traditionnelle sociologique et économique face à l’usage du bien être social, tout en reliant cet usage à de plus larges structures sociales. Nous proposons aussi qu’examiner l’assistance sociale de cette façon ne requiert pas de données longitudinales quantitatives ou qualitatives, tel qu’il l’est parfois suggéré, mais que des données quantitatives et qualitatives qui se croisent peuvent être interprétées à travers la loupe de la durée d’une vie. Nous démontrons ceci en examinant les covariantes de la réception à l’assistance sociale, covariantes agencées en se servant des données quantitatives sectionnelles tirées du Enquête sur la dynamique du travail et du revenu (EDTR) et en analysant les interviews qualitatives des bénéficiaires à propos de leurs démarches initiales et leurs obstacles jusqu’à la réception finale de leurs bénéfices. Ces analyses montrent non seulement que des données sectionnelles qui se croisent peuvent être facilement considérées du point de vue de la perspective du cours d’une vie, mais aussi comment cette perspective fournit une compréhension plus satisfaisante de la façon dont on peut voir la double importance des politiques qui offrent des ressources aux individus et qui changent leur vie.

Turning Points in the Life Course

2020 ◽  
pp. 251-262
Author(s):  
John H. Laub ◽  
Robert J. Sampson
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Turning Points ◽  
The Life Course

scholarly journals Living Apart Together and Cohabitation Intentions in Great Britain

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (12) ◽  
pp. 1701-1729 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rory Coulter ◽  
Yang Hu
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Living Apart Together ◽  
Life Trajectories ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Large Survey

A growing number of studies examine how, why, and when people form and maintain living apart together (LAT) relationships. Although this literature shows that LAT is a diverse and ambiguous practice, little is known about whether people live apart together in particular ways under distinct constellations of life course circumstances. Moreover, it is unclear how intentions to convert LAT into cohabitation are configured by life trajectories. Drawing on data from an unprecedentedly large survey of people in LAT partnerships, we construct a fourfold typology of individuals in LAT relationships and show that each of the identified profiles is characterized by a distinctive position in the life course and different cohabitation intentions. These results indicate that LAT is a flexible way to practice partnership within the context of life course circumstances.

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