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Life Course Approaches to Health, Illness and Healing

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Handbook of the Sociology of Health, Illness, and Healing

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

The life course perspective provides a theoretical framework, concepts, and analytical tools for examining how individual lives unfold in historical and institutional contexts. Nearly a half century ago, C. Wright Mills described the task and promise of the sociological imagination as the ability to “grasp history and biography and the relations between the two” (Mills 1959: 6). In the intervening decades since Mills’ plea for the sociological imagination, life course scholars have illuminated both the challenge and promise of this endeavor, focusing on the importance of a dynamic view of individuals and their social contexts. The growth of a wide array of large, longitudinal data collections and the increasing availability of a wide range of statistical tools for longitudinal analysis have made attention to the dynamics of lives in context increasingly possible. In turn, interest in innovative methodologies and the availability of large, national data sets that focus on particular life stages, such as adolescence, midlife, or later life, have encouraged more scholars to incorporate elements of life course perspective in their research.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For example, comparing the content of articles published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior from 1986 to 2006, in 1986 none of the 28 articles published referred to the life course in the title or abstract and only four referred to life course concepts in either the title or the abstract. In contrast, 4 of the 28 articles published in 2006 mentioned the life course perspective explicitly in the title or abstract, and 11 (or nearly 40%) invoked key life course concepts such as timing, sequencing, life transitions, age/cohort analyses, or specific life stages.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Indiana University, Ballantine 744, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA

    Eliza K. Pavalko

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  1. Eliza K. Pavalko
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  2. Andrea E. Willson
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Correspondence to Eliza K. Pavalko .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Social Research, Indiana University, E. Third Street 1022, Bloomington, 47405, Indiana, USA

    Bernice A. Pescosolido

  2. Institute of Social Research, Indiana University, E. Third Street 1022, Bloomington, 47405, Indiana, USA

    Jack K. Martin

  3. Institute of Social Research, Indiana University, E. Third Street 1022, Bloomington, 47405, Indiana, USA

    Jane D. McLeod

  4. , National Primary Care Research and Devel, The University of Manchester, Oxford Street, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom

    Anne Rogers

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Pavalko, E.K., Willson, A.E. (2011). Life Course Approaches to Health, Illness and Healing. In: Pescosolido, B., Martin, J., McLeod, J., Rogers, A. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of Health, Illness, and Healing. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7261-3_23

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