The Structure of the Life Course: Classic Issues and Current Controversies

The structure of the life course occupies a central, yet often unacknowledged, position in life course research. On the one hand, life course theory emphasizes in various and often disparate ways life stages, role trajectories and transitions, and the timing and ordering of events in the life course. All these coalesce to produce a “normative” life course that corresponds to social timetables of given times and given places. At the same time, empirical efforts seldom describe the life course in a sufficiently holistic manner that adequately reflects existing theory. The gap between theory and research is all the more significant with the emergence of current debates over the problematic nature of the life course in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Here, scholars argue that the overall structure of the life course has changed in profound ways, becoming “destandardized,” “de-institutionalized,” and increasingly “individualized.” Equally important, there is increased recognition of social differentiation in the unfolding of human lives based on time, place, and social position. Both the changing nature of the life course in general and differences across social groups are further connected to increases in and the reproduction of inequalities through the undermining of life chances in a wide number of domains. This chapter reviews some of the key issues and debates and discusses the relevant contributions of the various chapters included in this volume.