This introductory book provides an insight into sociological life course research and informs
about its theoretical assumptions analytical concepts and main results. Sociological life
course research - like biographical research - has developed into an independent and fruitful
field of research since the end of the 1960s. It is true that half a century earlier in their
famous study of The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (1918-20) Thomas and Znaniecki had
already used life records to examine the connection between social change social structures
and the life histories of individuals. However such a research perspective was supplanted by
other methodological-conceptual approaches to empirical social research for over fifty years.
It was not until the 1960s that sociological interest in life course and biographical
theoretical issues reawakened. Today life course research is considered one of the most
important conceptual innovations in sociology in recent decades. The content The life course as
a social construction - What is life course research? - The life course as an institution -
Collective life courses: generations cohorts and social change - Structures of the life course
- Life course research - a conceptual perspective - Life course research quo vadis? The author
Prof. Dr. Matthias Wingens teaches sociology at the University of Bremen Bremen International
Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS).
