scholarly journals EIWO's Theoretical Perspectives

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard Naegele ◽  
Alan Walker
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Life Transitions ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Active Ageing ◽  
Social Risk ◽  
Change Strategies ◽  
Life Long Learning ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The Life Course

Work Package (WP) I is the conceptual core of the EIWO project and informs WPs II-IX by providing theoretical embedding. It will do this initially based on the existing literature (a theory paper suggesting combinations of life course, social risk and regime analysis) and then synthesise the results of the following WPs in an iterative way for publication. EIWO will develop social policy macro indicators and their dynamics and draw on the empirical testing in WPs II-VIII to identify connections with life course, intersectionality and social risk theories. The aim is to develop change strategies to guide the prevention and mitigation of late working life exclusion and inequalities by minimising risks across the life course and smoothing late working life transitions. The policy-related concepts of active ageing and life-long learning will be key reference points for the project and will be discussed further in subsequent working papers. EIWO aims to push the boundaries of knowledge about late working life and its potential for inclusivity and equality via a theoretically driven, gender-sensitive combination of multi-level perspectives. To follow this aim, EIWO takes a life course approach to late working live in the context of demographic and social change in Sweden and Europe. In doing so, EIWO focusses on individual life courses against the backdrop of agency, workplaces, branches, economic conditions and their impact on exclusion and inequality in late working life. It aims to identify perspectives of life course policies promoting to prolong working lives and to avoid the increased selective exclusion and inequality often associated with this development

scholarly journals The Potentials of Research and Policies on Active Ageing: From MOPACT and EXTEND to EIWO

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard Naegele
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Active Ageing ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Recommendations For Action ◽  
Starting Point

EIWO – ‘Exclusion and inequality in late working life: Evidence for policy innovation towards inclusive extended work and suitable working conditions in Sweden and Europe’ (start 2020) – is the third project in a series of interdisciplinary projects on ‘ageing in the world of work’. EIWO is being carried out in selective EU-member states that have dealt with how the measuring of ‘success and failure factors’ can be used to extend working life (EWL) at the various levels (micro, meso, and macro). The author of this text is involved in all three projects: work package leader for MOPACT WP 3, principal investigator for EXTEND, and scientific advisor for EIWO. MOPACT WP 3 – Mobilisation the potential of active ageing: Extending working lives (2013 – 2017) – compared EU-wide efforts to extend working life with respect to ‘good practices’ on all levels and served as a starting point for EU-wide recommendations for action. EXTEND – Social inequalities in extending working lives of an ageing workforce: Old and new social inequalities in age-related occupational retirement and pension transitions (2017 - 2019) – focused on social inequalities in the transition phase to retirement and therefore implicitly on socially-selected possibilities and chances of realising a longer working life, including, for example, the professional care sector. EXTEND’s recommendations for action related primarily to preventive measures, above all securing and promoting employability to avoid emerging and/or deepening social inequalities mainly through involuntary/forced early exit. EIWO explicitly takes a life course perspective into account to better recognise and classify exclusion from and social inequalities in the late phases of employment biographies, which have been less pronounced in both MOPACT WP 3 and EXTEND, but with leading insights. This paper places these three projects in an overall context and draws relevant conclusions from the EIWO research perspective aimed at understanding a ‘social life course policy’ that considers employees’ biographies and therefore explicitly a gender perspective as reference points.

A Working Lifetime of Skill and Training Needs

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Günther Schmid
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Training Needs ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Skill Formation ◽  
Employment Relationships ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
And Training ◽  
Work And Life

This chapter provides an overview of the key factors shaping individuals’ skill formation challenges and options by referring to the growing literature of ‘Transitional Labour Markets’ (TLMs) that examines the changing links between work and life beyond standard employment relationships. It starts by clarifying the key problems that must be addressed for understanding the skill formation challenges and highlights the need for a life course as opposed to a life cycle framing of the issue. A short overview of the TLM approach and a brief sketch of the main challenges of skill-capacity formation over the life course in Europe follow. The bulk of the chapter then examines the key issue of how risks associated with investing in the development of individuals’ skills capacities are shared. The paper concludes by reflecting on the utility of seeing working life as being centrally concerned with lifelong learning.

Social class and inequality in later life

2020 ◽  
pp. 19-40
Author(s):  
Chris Gilleard ◽  
Paul Higgs
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Cumulative Advantage ◽  
Social Gerontology ◽  
The Life Course

This chapter begins with a consideration of models and theories concerning social class. It focuses upon the distinctions between relational and gradational models of class. It then explores how these different models seem to be articulated in later life and the model of cumulative advantage and disadvantage employed in much social gerontology. Following from such considerations, it explores both the connections and the disjunctions that exists between working and post working life. The chapter concludes with a consideration of how consumption and consumerism have grown in significance as markers of distinction and determinants of difference, not just in later life but throughout the life course.

Optimizing cognitive development over the life course and preventing cognitive decline: Introducing the Cognitive Health Environment Life Course Model (CHELM)

2013 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaarin J. Anstey
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Cognitive Decline ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Cognitive Domain ◽  
Cognitive Health ◽  
Differential Development ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The Life Course

Optimal cognitive development is defined in this article as the highest level of cognitive function reached in each cognitive domain given a person’s biological and genetic disposition, and the highest possible maintenance of cognitive function over the adult life course. Theoretical perspectives underpinning the development of a framework for understanding optimal cognitive development are described, including differential development, intra-individual dynamics, cascades, biological mechanisms, reserve capacity, and plasticity. The Cognitive Health and Environment Life Course Model (CHELM) is proposed as a means to provide a framework for understanding the socio-demographic, lifestyle, and health factors influencing cognitive development and decline. The CHELM may guide framing of policy and interventions to optimize cognitive development and minimize cognitive decline in late-life.

scholarly journals The Life Course Construction of Inequalities in Health and Wealth in Old Age

2021 ◽  
pp. 97-109
Author(s):  
Michel Oris ◽  
Marie Baeriswyl ◽  
Andreas Ihle
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Differential Mortality ◽  
Active Ageing ◽  
Cumulative Processes ◽  
The Life Course

AbstractIn this contribution, we will mobilize the interdisciplinary life course paradigm to consider the processes through which individual heterogeneity in health and wealth is constructed all along life, from the cradle to old age. Considering altogether historical, family and individual times, the life course perspective has been developed in sociology, (lifespan) psychology and epidemiology, and has framed many important studies during the last four decades. The theory of cumulative disadvantage is for sure the most popular in social sciences, explaining how little inter-individual differences early in life expand all along life to reach maximal amplitude among the “young old” (before the selection by differential mortality at very old age). In lifespan psychology, the theory of cognitive reserve (educational level being a proxy) and its continuation, the theory of use or disuse (of cognition during adult life) have more or less the same explanatory power, cognition being a decisive precondition for active ageing and quality of life in old age. However, in spite of the success of those theoretical bodies, a prominent figure in the field, Glen Elder, recently observed that there is surprisingly little evidence for cumulative processes and that a wide variety of model specifications remain completely untested. This finding makes even more important a critical review of the literature which summarize several robust evidences, but also discuss contradictory results and suggest promising research tracks. This exercise considers the life course construction of inequalities in the distribution of objective resources older adults have (or not) “to live the life they own value” (to quote A. Sen 2001). But it is also crucial to consider the subjective component that is inherent to the understanding of well-being.

scholarly journals Causality in life course research: the potential use of ‘natural experiments’ for causal inference

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-25
Author(s):  
Ross Macmillan ◽  
Carmel Hannan
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Causal Inference ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Causal Explanation ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
Natural Experiments ◽  
Statistical Estimates ◽  
Road Map ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The Life Course

Recent decades have seen renewed attention to issues of causal inference in the social sciences, yet implications for life course research have not been spelled out nor is it clear what types of approaches are best suited for theoretical development on life course processes. We begin by evaluating a number of meta-theoretical perspectives, including critical realism, data mining and experimentation, and find them limited in their potential for causal claims in a life course context. From this, we initiate a discussion of the logic and practice of ‘natural experiments’ for life course research, highlighting issues of how to identify natural experiments, how to use cohort information and variation in the order and timing of life course transitions to isolate variation in exposure, how such events that alter social structures are the key to identification in causal processes of the life course and, finally, of analytic strategies for the extraction of causal conclusions from conventional statistical estimates. Through discussion of both positive and negative examples, we outline the key methodological issues in play and provide a road map of best practices. While we acknowledge that causal claims are not necessary for social explanation, our goal is to explain how causal inference can benefit life course scholarship and outline a set of practices that can complement conventional approaches in the pursuit of causal explanation in life course research.

Peer Influences on Offending

2018 ◽  
pp. 403-431
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Sullivan ◽  
Kristina K. Childs ◽  
Shaun Gann
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Crime Prevention ◽  
Specific Area ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Peer Influences ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Offending Behavior ◽  
The Life Course

This chapter details some important literature related to peers, delinquency, and development, offering a sense of how those parallel findings should be viewed in relation to one another when considering offending behavior. It next considers the theoretical perspectives that have incorporated peer influences in their core tenets. The chapter assesses the ways in which peers and gangs fit into the practical literature on crime prevention. It also looks at how justice response might account for peer influences on offending behavior, describing some areas that offer opportunities for growth in knowledge with respect to the role of peers in offending over the life course. Finally, the chapter explores the opportunities to expand the empirical evidence base and also discusses the prospects of this specific area of this literature for contributing more generally to the understanding of crime and societal response.

Using the life course paradigm to study financial well-being in late life

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pattharanitcha Prakitsuwan ◽  
George P. Moschis ◽  
Randall Shannon
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Successful Aging ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Developmental Factors ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Behavior Issues ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Conceptual Research

PurposeThis study aims to show how the increasingly popular life course paradigm (LCP) can be employed as an alternative to the successful aging perspective (SAP) as an overarching conceptual research framework to study elderly consumers' financial well-being.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire was administered to a convenience sample of 804 Thai consumers over the age of 45 selected via the snowball method.FindingsSignificant results were found for hypotheses derived from the LCP for older consumers' financial well-being, suggesting critical roles of early life experiences, developmental factors, adaptation mechanisms and contextual factors.Originality/valueThis paper shows how efforts to study consumers over the course of their lives can be improved by utilizing the principles and theoretical perspectives of the LCP and offers research directions for studying not only older consumer well-being but also numerous consumer behavior issues at any stage of life in an innovative way.

Emerging Conceptions of Family Development over the Life Course

1994 ◽  
Vol 75 (5) ◽  
pp. 259-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carel B. Germain
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Life Transitions ◽  
Family Development ◽  
Environmental Diversity ◽  
New Family ◽  
Social Time ◽  
Physical Environments ◽  
Life Issues ◽  
The Life Course

Life-cycle models assume universal, fixed, sequential stages of individual and family development and thus ignore the diversity of people, social and physical environments, and culture. The author proposes a new, interdisciplinary life-course model of development based on the concept of nonuniform pathways of development. This model incorporates new family forms, human diversity (race, ethnicity, culture, gender, sexual orientation, and physical/mental states), and environmental diversity (economic, political, social). The model includes temporal orientations (historic, individual, and social time) to examine the influence of life transitions, life events, and other life issues on family development and transformations over time. A case example is provided.

scholarly journals Eurofound’s Reference Framework: Sustainable work over the life course in the EU

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-83
Author(s):  
Franz Eiffe
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Outcome Indicators ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Reference Framework ◽  
Research Priority ◽  
Work Outcome ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Life Course

Demographic change has triggered policy debates and responses across Europe. The need of keeping workers in employment longer is a consequence that requires rethinking new solutions for working conditions and career paths helping workers to retain their physical and mental health – as well as motivation and productivity – throughout an extended working life. Eurofound has titled the broad goal set out by this statement as ‘making work sustainable over the life course’. Identifying and analysing the factors and actions underpinning sustainable work throughout working life has been a research priority for Eurofound since 2013. In this article, the Eurofound reference framework of sustainable work is introduced and its components are discussed. In a first step, the rather expansive concept of sustainable work was illuminated by a framework that explains our approach and that has been used as reference point for a range of Eurofound research projects examining different aspects of sustainable work. Section 2 presents sustainable work outcome indicators on the societal and the individual level and provides some reflections of how those can be used jointly to map overall beneficial work environments for sustainable work. Section 3 investigates contextual factors such as infrastructures, workplace practices and job quality. The specific role of motivation is highlighted in section 4 based on empirical analysis. The paper closes with some conclusions and a policy outlook. 

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