Page 241 - The ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

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not only markets, they are also at the conflu- provided by their past. At each stage of their
ence of numerous collective influences and lives, they examine their circumstances,
institutional interventions, which shape using whatever information, ideas, and
supply and demand. And welfare states have beliefs life has made available to them. They
precisely been set up to rectify, up to a point then adopt a course of action in order to
and in a variety of ways, social inequalities maintain or alter this situation. The process is
and their reproduction. iterative, as circumstances change, in part as
According to Hout and DiPrete, a growing a result of the course of action selected ear-
proportion of research in the field of social lier. There are of course significant disparities
mobility focuses on the lifecourse rather than in the circumstances of individuals, as well as
on the more traditional intergenerational in the quality of the knowledge available to
issues. This is what we want to briefly docu- make decisions. Moreover, lifecourse research
ment here. But we first need to circumscribe has shown that initial differences in opportuni-
the notion of the lifecourse. ties, sometimes relatively limited, tend to be
amplified with the passage of time. The timing
and sequence of events and transitions also
What does the notion of lifecourse play a key role, and consequences of these
events and transitions unfold in the short, but
mean?
also in the middle and the long term.
This is a rich and growing research perspec- In the second place, life is multifaceted:
tive, going all the way back to Wright Mills’ Individuals contribute to, and derive
The Sociological Imagination (1959). It can resources from various institutions with
be, and has been, summarized in a number of which they are in contact – the family, com-
ways. Marshall and Mueller’s account (2003) munities, markets, the State. Indeed, the life-
is particularly useful because it identifies course of individuals essentially depends on
connections initially established by Glen the extent to which they enjoy resources such
Elder (1992), a major figure in lifecourse as good health, a mastery of knowledge, and
research, with the social mobility research a certain level of economic security. These
agenda. In Blau and Duncan’s work, as well three basic resources can be seen as both
as in analysis by means of social mobility causes and consequences of one another, as
tables initiated by Sorokin, time-ordered the lifecourse unfolds: at various junctures,
variables are crucial, as well as the diversity individuals only fare as well as their health,
both in individual experiences, and in social literacy, and economic security will allow;
environments, especially national environ- and in turn health, literacy, and income secu-
ments. As Marshall and Mueller point out, rity are largely the product of what happens
this is closely related to the notion of differ- at these successive junctures. The reference
entiation over time, or cumulative advantage, to various interdependent forms of capital is
which plays an increasingly key role among useful here: resources are not only used, they
lifecourse researchers (Elman and O’Rand, are also accumulated (or depleted) over the
1995; Ferraro and Kelley-Moore, 2003; lifecourse, thus affecting life chances and
O’Rand, 1996). social conditions in a cumulative and interac-
We are offering here our own version of the tive way. Besides economic capital, human
basic principles of lifecourse analysis, a ver- and cultural capital, and health capital, social
sion well suited to identifying the contours of capital is increasingly evoked. Through
an emerging paradigm in the social mobility social networks, individuals can indeed
field. We identify four such principles. mobilize other useful resources for them-
In the first place, life is longitudinal: Indi selves, their families, and their communities.
viduals, as human agents, build their future on In the third place, lives are linked. This
the basis of the constraints and opportunities means that the lifecourse of individuals is