Life Course Studies

Študije življenjskega poteka

Course credits:

6.00 ECTS / 60 (30 hours of lectures, 0 hours of exercises, 30 hours of seminars, 0 hours other forms of work)

Course holder:

doc. dr. Andreja Živoder

Type:

Required

Language:

English

Semester:

First semester

Study degree

1. level

Course execution:

• Undergraduate Programme of Sociology

Short content

Students learn about theoretical conceptualization of life course approach as well as methodologies and techniques of researching life course and transitions in social sciences. The life course approach provides us with a holistic, interdisciplinary framework for exploring human lives from birth to death, crossing the boundaries of different disciplines, academic fields and cultural contexts, focusing on exploring the ways in which chronological age, life transitions, attitudes and social change shape our lives from birth to death. The course builds on theoretical and empirical findings about the characteristics and changes in life courses and transitions in modern Western societies (e.g. individualization, demographic changes, changes in family life, education, labour and employment sphere etc.), which significantly change modern life course from its linear form with known transitions to plural life course, which becomes unpredictable and nonlinear. The course includes the following themes and concepts of life course: interplay of human lives and historical time (cultural background), timing of lives (strategical adaptation), linked or interdependent lives (social integration), and human agency in making choices (individual agency), key life events, transitions and periods (childhood, youth, adulthood, late adulthood or old age).