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The Contribution of the Life-Course Perspective to the Study of Family Relationships: Advances, Challenges, and Limitations

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The Palgrave Handbook of Family Sociology in Europe

Abstract

In this chapter, we discuss the contribution of the life-course perspective to the study of changes in family relationships over time. By considering how lives are structured at the intersection of different systemic levels, this perspective opened up to an interdisciplinary approach moving beyond synchronic family developmental models. We focus on three topics of interest for the sociology of family: diversity of family forms through the concepts of the life course’s institutionalisation and (de-)standardisation, gender roles with the concept of the life course regime, and family configurations, in the light of participation profiles. Overall, we argue that the life-course perspective sheds new light on changes in family relationships, both over socio-historical time and throughout individuals’ life courses, and can also be applied to significant relationships beyond family.

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Acknowledgements

This publication benefited from the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant number: 100017_130343/1), and of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES – Overcoming vulnerability: Life course perspectives (NCCR LIVES), which is financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant number: 51NF40-160590). The authors are grateful to the Swiss National Science Foundation for its financial assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Sociological Research, Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    Gaëlle Aeby

  2. Life Course and Inequality Research Centre, Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Jacques-Antoine Gauthier

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  1. Gaëlle Aeby
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  2. Jacques-Antoine Gauthier
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Correspondence to Gaëlle Aeby .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland

    Anna-Maija Castrén

  2. Faculty of Human and Social Studies, Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania

    Vida Česnuitytė

  3. Department of Education, Cultural Heritage and Tourism, University of Macerata, Macerata, Italy

    Isabella Crespi

  4. University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Jacques-Antoine Gauthier

  5. Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Rita Gouveia

  6. EHESP, CNRS (National Centre of Scientific Research), Rennes, France

    Claude Martin

  7. Campus María Zambrano, University of Valladolid, Segovia, Spain

    Almudena Moreno Mínguez

  8. Institute of Sociology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland

    Katarzyna Suwada

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Aeby, G., Gauthier, JA. (2021). The Contribution of the Life-Course Perspective to the Study of Family Relationships: Advances, Challenges, and Limitations. In: Castrén, AM., et al. The Palgrave Handbook of Family Sociology in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73306-3_28

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