TY - JOUR
T1 - De-Standardization of the Life Course
T2 - What it Might Mean? And if it Means Anything, Whether it Actually Took Place?
AU - Brückner, Hannah
AU - Mayer, Karl Ulrich
N1 - Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, especially the research assistance of Karola Rockmann and the help of Helena Maravilla in preparing the manuscript. We thank Ross Macmillan for his helpful comments. The paper is part of a research project supported by the Center for Research on Inequalities and the Life Course (CIQLE) at Yale University.
Funding Information:
The surveys of the GLHS have been funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Sonderforschungsbereich 3 “Mikroanalytische Grundlagen der Gesellschaftspolitik”), the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, the Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, and the European Social Fund.
PY - 2005
Y1 - 2005
N2 - We explore both conceptually and empirically whether and how precise meanings and measures can be attached to recent ideas about the transformation of the life course. With data from the German Life History Study (GLHS), we assess social change in the transition to adulthood for birth cohorts born between 1921 and 1971, focusing on the de-standardization hypothesis. While we see increasing de-coupling of events in the connections between the school-training-work nexus and family formation, the institutional environment continues to structure the school-training-work nexus and not much change was seen in the way in which cohort members undergo these transitions. On the contrary, there is actually a homogenization as women's and men's life courses converge in terms of education and labor force participation. It is the family formation nexus that shows the most pronounced changes. This is also the realm in which gender differences persist across cohorts. While we find strong evidence for period effects that produce inter-cohort differences in life course patterns, taken as a whole our indicators do not point to a general process of a de-standardization of the life course.
AB - We explore both conceptually and empirically whether and how precise meanings and measures can be attached to recent ideas about the transformation of the life course. With data from the German Life History Study (GLHS), we assess social change in the transition to adulthood for birth cohorts born between 1921 and 1971, focusing on the de-standardization hypothesis. While we see increasing de-coupling of events in the connections between the school-training-work nexus and family formation, the institutional environment continues to structure the school-training-work nexus and not much change was seen in the way in which cohort members undergo these transitions. On the contrary, there is actually a homogenization as women's and men's life courses converge in terms of education and labor force participation. It is the family formation nexus that shows the most pronounced changes. This is also the realm in which gender differences persist across cohorts. While we find strong evidence for period effects that produce inter-cohort differences in life course patterns, taken as a whole our indicators do not point to a general process of a de-standardization of the life course.
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U2 - 10.1016/S1040-2608(04)09002-1
DO - 10.1016/S1040-2608(04)09002-1
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:33749338655
SN - 1040-2608
VL - 9
SP - 27
EP - 53
JO - Advances in Life Course Research
JF - Advances in Life Course Research
ER -