**4.6 Life courses (Moving through and around the boxes)**

The power of a life course perspective comes from showing the extent to which people's present attitudes and behaviour is explained by their past positions in the social structure (or by the line of their trajectory through the social structure).

Some of the methodological difficulties of analysing trajectories are intractable. In principle, at least, one must envisage two time-slices of social structure and then map the linkages between these two:


In this perspective, the analyses focus on ordered patterns of change, and how these both are:


Some of the complexity comes, therefore, from the multiple viewpoints from which social trajectories can be viewed. They may be seen from the perspective of the situation out of

new ideology tends to de-emphasise the material wealth concerns of the older agenda in contrast to 'quality of life' concerns, such as those relating to the physical environment. NSMs also tend to be egalitarian in terms of their political philosophy, stressing widespread political participation. Thus, NSMs confront various of the central values and structural arrangements of modern societies: materialism, traditional moral values, as well as class, patriarchy and racism. The very diffuseness of their social background can in turn lead to a marked fluidity of membership involvement (since involvement is not sanctioned by any social solidarity). NSMs are likely to be quite media-conscious and can use the media to appeal directly to supporters without building up large organisational support. Protest activities may be carefully staged, and indeed, they may have to be as they cannot deliver a solid steady block of voting support that is needed for involvement in traditional politics. The NSM approach focuses on different aspects of social movements, but does not necessarily require a totally new sociological approach. It can be seen to blend in with the older resource mobilisation approach. In turn, both approaches can be seen to draw on a variety of theoretical models covering organisations, inter-organisational fields, networks, power etc. that are available within the general stocks of theoretical knowledge in sociology. The sociology of revolution partially overlaps and partially extends the more general study of social change. 'Social revolutions are rapid, basic transformations of a society's state and class structures; and they are accompanied and in part carried through by class-based revolts from below' (Skocpol 1979:4). Because of their dramatic nature and their large-scale effects, revolutions must be firmly placed on the agenda of any sociological approach, as they can be seen as providing a crucial empirical test for any general theoretical approach. But neither the study of social movements nor of revolutions exhausts the range of investigations required into broad processes of change and struggle between social

The power of a life course perspective comes from showing the extent to which people's present attitudes and behaviour is explained by their past positions in the social structure

Some of the methodological difficulties of analysing trajectories are intractable. In principle, at least, one must envisage two time-slices of social structure and then map the linkages

In this perspective, the analyses focus on ordered patterns of change, and how these both

Some of the complexity comes, therefore, from the multiple viewpoints from which social trajectories can be viewed. They may be seen from the perspective of the situation out of

groupings.

between these two:

are:



**4.6 Life courses (Moving through and around the boxes)** 

(or by the line of their trajectory through the social structure).


which they arose, the situation which resulted, from the changing situation of those changing, or against the background of those not contemporaneously involved in change.

While many studies of social trajectories emphasise the smooth flow and long-term consistency of social trajectories, other studies focus on discontinuities and the effects of these on life-courses and contemporary situations. Such interruptions include deaths, major injuries or illnesses, mental breakdown, unemployment and other shocks, either to a person themself or to someone close to them. In 'life events' analysis it is assumed that individuals and social units are subject to occasional (perhaps regular and frequent) social shocks and that these contribute stress which is variously coped with.

Life courses also needed to be viewed from the viewpoint of the social structure itself. At any one time, when a social structure is analytically frozen for viewing (as in a single camera shot) it must be remembered that, in fact, that any social structure is composed of various social groups and individuals each with different types of trajectory, different start-points and different destinations. Often the vectors of this past and future movement are not captured by social analyses which concentrate solely on the present. Differentiating between the variety of groupings, each on their different trajectories, may reveal a rather different understanding of social change.

The succession of statuses occurring with sufficient frequency as to be socially patterned will be designated as a status-sequence, as in the case, for example, of the statuses successively occupied by a medical student, intern, resident and independent medical practitioner. In much the same sense, of course, we can observe sequences of role-sets and status-sets (Merton 1968: 424). Such sequences are not only recognised and expected but are often governed by 'socially expected durations' concerning the timing of each phase. An example of this is that of a 'lame duck' politician, after being defeated in the polls but not yet replaced by the victor. One mechanism tying such sequences together is 'anticipatory socialisation' in which people may orientate themselves to views and behaviour associated with subsequent stages.

Major portions of culture are orientated around providing meaning and a social context of social support through involvement in rituals around the time of the various break-points: birth, adolescence, adulthood, marriage, death etc. 'Rites de passage' serve to shore up the uncertainties and risks associated with people's movement between stages.

A range of quite different types of study have been concerned with the patterns of people's movement within the social structure. Perhaps the most arduous producers of basic information about change are the demographers through their cohort analyses of births, deaths, migration, divorce etc of different age-sex groupings. Another important type of study are those which trace inter-generational occupational mobility between parents and sons or daughters (notably Blau and Duncan 1967). This type of study is vital in understanding how open or closed a social formation is to change over time: a 'closed' society sharply reproduces in the children their parent's social position, whereas a more 'open' society allows room for individual talent and other social factors to result in changed social arrangements between generations. This makes the study of occupational mobility of very considerable theoretical interest, although in practise the similarities of findings across divergent contexts seems to reduce the excitement that this type of study seems to promise.

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As well as studying the transmission of occupations, studies have examined the sociallystructured patterns through which this transmission is shaped, through mediating variables such as schooling, parental household resources, sibling order, military service, first job and so forth. These can be summarised in concepts such as the pattern of 'status-attainment'. In addition, the transmission of a huge range of other values and characteristics between generations is possible.

Studies may look much more closely at the complex twists and turns of sequences of social positions. For example, the work histories or residential histories of people can be immensely varied. Moreover, these are complicated further by the different exposures people have as a result of their age or their differential involvement: as a result the histories of older people are likely to be more varied than those of younger. Sifting through such rich data in order to yield clear-cut patterns is not easy, especially with little in the way of theoretical guidance.

The types of study noted so far are those which tend to emphasise the objective patterns of lifecourse changes. In addition, some studies emphasise the more qualitative and subjective aspects. One important concept that can be used to guide this type of study is that of a 'moral career' as suggested by Becker (1970). In this approach, analysts are sensitised to the different stages through which people meaningfully commit themselves to a particular role. For example, a marijuana smoker has to learn not just how to smoke, but how to do so in the style to which they are supposed to grow accustomed. A criminal may be so labelled by police or courts, and then may get to accept this label of themselves, which then creates them as a criminal.

A wider application of this approach is that of the 'life history' where aspects of all of the above are combined: together with locating the person within their own wider but changing social contexts. In a life-history, the sequences through which a person has lived is reconstructed, particularly in the subjective terms through which that person sees their own biography.
