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Age, Cohorts, and the Life Course

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Handbook of the Life Course

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

Abstract

The bond between age and time is central to a theoretical understanding of the life course and its foundational traditions, sociocultural and cohort-historical (Elder 1975). In the sociocultural perspective, age distinctions are expressed as social expectations regarding the timing of events and social roles, whether early, on time, or late. As normative age grades from childhood to old age, these age groups constitute a basis for self-other definition and evaluation as exemplified by the process of leaving childhood for the transition to young adult status. From a cohort-historical perspective, chronological age as birth year locates individuals in historical context and time through membership in a particular cohort, such as the Americans born during the first decade of the twentieth century.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Glen H. Elder Jr.

  2. Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Linda K. George

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  1. Glen H. Elder Jr.
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  2. Linda K. George
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Correspondence to Glen H. Elder Jr. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

    Michael J. Shanahan

  2. Life Course Center and Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

    Jeylan T. Mortimer

  3. Department of Sociology, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA

    Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson

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Elder, G.H., George, L.K. (2016). Age, Cohorts, and the Life Course. In: Shanahan, M., Mortimer, J., Kirkpatrick Johnson, M. (eds) Handbook of the Life Course. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20880-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20880-0_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-20879-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-20880-0

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