Understanding the Life Course

Sociological and Psychological Perspectives

Lorraine Green

• Publisher: Polity
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780745697963
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Social Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Understanding the Life Course provides a uniquely comprehensive guide to the entire life course from an interdisciplinary perspective. Combining important insights from sociology and psychology, the book presents the concepts theoretical underpinnings in an accessible style, supported by real-life examples. From birth and becoming a parent, to death and grieving for the loss of others, Lorraine Green explores all stages of the life course through key research studies and theories, in conjunction with issues of social inequality and critical examination of lay viewpoints. She highlights the many ways the life course can be interpreted, including themes of linearity and multidirectionality, continuity and discontinuity, and the interplay between nature and nurture. The second edition updates key data and includes additional material on topics such as new technologies, changing markers of transitions to adulthood, active ageing, resilience and neuropsychology. This comprehensive approach will continue to be essential reading for students on vocational programmes such as social work and nursing, and will provide thought-provoking insight into the wider contexts of the life course for students of psychology and sociology.

1
Key Life Course Principles and Theories

Introduction

This chapter introduces the concept of the life course and the disciplines of sociology and psychology through which the life course will principally be investigated. Initially, key changes in UK society impacting on people’s lives since the early 1970s will be outlined, many being discussed further in later chapters. Following this, there will be a consideration of why lay theories of human behaviour are flawed. The key tenets of sociology and psychology will then be explained, and their relationship to sociology of the life course, life span psychology and general social science research methods will be clarified, with key terms explained. Finally, the current state of the field of life course studies in relation to multi-disciplinarity, and its future potential, will be explored, alongside some classic examples of life course research. This chapter offers an underpinning for the following chapters and does not presuppose readers have any prior knowledge of social science. The other chapters can be read without this one but understanding this chapter will enrich the reader’s overall experience and it can be revisited to clarify key terms used.

Changes affecting the contemporary life course in the UK

Changes in work, the family, lifestyle and education

Any understanding of the life course, as well as being embedded within historical and cultural influences, needs to consider societal, technological and political changes. Irwin (2005) cautions that life course analysis frequently fails to engage sufficiently with the enormity of change in most domains of social life in the late twentieth century, such as re-organization of the family (and living arrangements) and expected roles and practices, with particular reference to gender. The demise of class-based solidarities, whereby families and communities intergenerationally were traditionally allied to specific political parties and philosophies but no longer are, alongside the associated rise of individualization, as opposed to collectivization, are also important. These occur when individuals are more concerned about themselves and their small kinship or friendship groups, rather than about the whole society’s wellbeing, and feel, often wrongly, that a multitude of life choices is open to them and that age-related life stages are increasingly less relevant. Where people live is also changing, and in Western societies around 90 per cent of the population now inhabit urban areas.

Rapid technological change is, furthermore, highly significant and associated with many social repercussions (Hunt, 2005). Today’s young adults have grown up with computers, the internet and mobile phones. Most people in their fifties upwards, who did not personally encounter computers until their twenties or thirties, will be much be less au fait with some aspects of ‘new’ technology. The popular UK television series Life on Mars, aired on BBC1 between 2006 and 2007, provides an excellent fictional illustration. A detective is ‘apparently’ involuntarily transported from contemporary society back to the 1970s, a society he initially experiences as completely alien. He is frustrated and initially immobilized by the lack of technological resources at his disposal, no longer being able use mobile phones, the internet and DNA markers as key work or lifestyle tools, frequently having to resort to face-to-face investigative policing, pen and paper and delving through old books. New technology has also contributed to significant medical advances, with both prototype and successful bionic hearts, lungs, pancreases, exoskeletons, eyes, noses, hands and even penises having been developed in recent years (Guardian, 2015c).

A transition has also occurred from being a factory-based producing, industrial society to being a service-orientated, consumerist society. This, alongside intermittent financial crises, heralded initially by the 1973 OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) oil crisis, has impacted on the availability of employment and the types of work now obtainable, and our lifestyles and attitudes towards purchasing goods. Many jobs today are part-time and temporary, offering comparatively less security, lower pay and poorer conditions than prior to the 1980s – a process known as casualization of the labour force.

Klein (2000) documents the transition in the late twentieth century from generic goods to branded designer goods, whereby shopping becomes a source of status, meaning and desire. Many people today affiliate to, and derive their self-perceived status from possession of, the newest offerings from these brands (for example, ‘having to have’ the latest PlayStation console, Apple iPhone or Nike trainers). Sandel (2012) argues that, in the West, consumerism and the prime emphasis placed on money and market philosophies have undermined important principles such as equality, fairness and democracy. The rise of consumerism, clearly evident since the 1970s (Garnett, 2007), and associated designer labels therefore places pressures on poorer families to compare themselves to others, aspiring to ever more expensive goods and services. When poorer families are comparatively worse off than other sectors of society they judge themselves against, precluding them from buying items and partaking in activities normal for their group, this is known as ‘relative poverty’. In some other countries, income may be far lower, but because people compare themselves to similar others, they may experience fewer negative psychological symptoms.

Although few in the UK die today of ‘absolute poverty’ in terms of starvation or lack of shelter, some old people still die of hypothermia nearly every winter because they cannot afford heating, and some communities are dispossessed and alienated, ravaged by poverty, crime and violence. Education has also changed and, despite political rhetoric surrounding lifelong education, this has never been incentivized and older people do not have access to higher education loans. The demise of means-tested ‘liveable’ grants and huge rises in university fees may also have deterred many working-class and mature students from going to university. Nevertheless, young adults are increasingly encouraged to enter higher education or post-18 vocational training.

Demographic changes

Life expectancy has increased phenomenally in the UK, and is now almost double what it was at the start of the Victorian era (Mathers, 2015), and from the 1980s until around 2001 the birth rate was steadily declining. This led to families becoming smaller and a rapidly ageing ‘greying’ population, with older people living longer and their numbers growing proportionally larger compared to other ages in the population. These changes link with many others, such as the death of the parent of a middle-aged child now becoming a life course marker. Life expectancy increased because of vastly improved environmental conditions and diet, alongside major advances in medical knowledge and technology. The birth rate initially declined because of successful contraception, such as ‘the Pill’ in the 1950s, the increasing social and economic independence of women, alongside sex-equality laws, long working hours and the steady decrease in full-time housewives. However, both birth rates and life expectancy vary according to age, gender, ‘race’ and ethnicity, disability and social class – and their interactions. One reason for increases in the birth rate, from 2000 onwards, is immigration alongside, more marginally, many women bearing children later than in previous generations. The number of people living in the UK by mid-2014 was estimated to be 64.6 million, an increase of 491,000 from the previous year, with 583,000 immigrants, 323,000 emigrants, 778,000 births and 568,000 deaths contributing to the wider picture. Between 2004 and 2014, the average percentage growth of the UK population was 0.7 per cent each year, higher that decade than in the fifty years preceding it, and a faster growth rate than the EU as a whole (0.3 per cent) (ONS (Office for National Statistics), 2015c).

In 2008, Britain’s birth rate was also at its highest for fifteen years (Savage, 2009), and it continues to increase. In England and Wales in 2014, 27 per cent of births were to mothers born outside of the UK, with Poland, Pakistan and India being the most common countries of birth for both mothers and fathers not born in the UK. These countries are very pro-family and patriarchal. In Poland, Catholicism is the dominant religion and forbids contraception, although it is not illegal. In Pakistan, 97 per cent of the population are Muslim and, although Islam’s teachings mostly permit contraception, there is significant resistance. In India, although approximately 15 per cent of the population are Muslim, over 78 per cent are Hindu and although Hinduism similarly does not forbid contraception, many Hindus feel that having a family is their duty.

Globalization

Globalization is a contested, complex concept but challenges the view that nation states such as England and France are self-enclosed, self-governing territories with ‘native’ citizens and clear national behaviour and cultural attributes. It puts forward the viewpoint that the globe is becoming more interconnected as people increase their knowledge of other parts of the world and have greater access to and communication with them. National boundaries, practices and identities are therefore becoming weaker and loosening. Economic globalization is related to the expansion of capitalism through international trade, and economic imperialism forged by multinational corporations. Political globalization focuses on transnational governance, for example, the United Nations or the European Union. Cultural globalization describes the interconnectivity between the global and the local in terms of social practices and customs. Economic globalization may lead to events such as recessions, in one area of the world, impacting significantly on other areas. Furthermore, the power of transnational companies can greatly affect many nations’ economies and employment conditions, and affect disease, crime and pollution.

The ‘global village’ metaphor, referring to the whole world becoming smaller (Robertson, 1992), holds true in relation to the potential that new technology – including computers, telecommunications and air travel – holds for instant/rapid communication and fast access to previously difficult-to-reach places of the globe (Urry, 2000). People also communicate differently because of this, and, for some, their key social relations and activities may be disembedded from their geographical locality and take place in virtual digital environments. However, some people have greater opportunities than others. A girl in India who assembles computer components for a Western company may not be able to purchase a computer and may have even less possibility of ever being able to travel outside her own country.

Some theorists consequently see globalization as entrenched Western imperialism of the globe, whilst others view the whole process as being ‘up for grabs’ once it has been set in motion, and Western countries are increasingly concerned about the potential power of nations like China (Jordan, 2006). There is, however, increasing evidence that global capitalism – its ability to influence the financial and welfare policies of individual nations and to move resources, money, labour and production to whatever parts of the globe are cheapest at that particular time – has resulted in increasing inequalities in modern society. Such processes have impacted particularly negatively in Europe on the financial security and employment prospects of young adults, midlife females and people near to retirement (Bucholz et al., 2009). The 100 richest people in the UK also have the same amount of combined wealth as the poorest 18 million people – 30 per cent of the population. Poverty also contributes to increased mental illness, higher crime levels and lowered life expectancy (McVeigh, 2014), the gap between rich and poor having substantially widened since the 1980s, also impacting on the country’s overall economic growth (Elliot, 2014). The welfare budget in the UK, furthermore, pays out huge amounts of corporate welfare in the form of tax allowances and grants to global companies like Amazon and Dell, at the same time as disability and other benefits are significantly reduced (Chakrabortty, 2015).

Temporary and permanent immigration into the UK have been increasing, particularly with the influx of new countries into the European Community and unrestricted movement within it (ONS, 2015c). However, in June 2016 in a referendum, the public voted to leave the EU (52% to 48%), with London and Scotland voting to remain but most other regions having a leave majority, and fears about immigration seeming paramount. In England and Wales, the 2011 census showed that, although 86% (48.2 million) of the population were white, in London only 45% (3.7 million out of 8.2 million) described themselves as White British. Britain’s ethnic-minority population increased from 9% according to the 2001 census to 14% in the 2011 census (Rogers, 2012), with UK projections of 20% by 2051 (Tran, 2010). Of children under 5, 6% were categorized as of mixed ethnicity in 2011, rendering it the UK’s biggest ethnic-minority group (The Economist, 2014). The UK is therefore now a country of many different ethnicities and ‘colours’ although the 2016 EU vote suggests it is simultaneously a divided and polarized country.

A key feature of globalization is hybridity, in which different cultural tastes, pastimes and goods are fused. The term ‘Asian fusion cuisine’ is now becoming mainstream in the UK. Curry has replaced the traditional Sunday roast as the favourite meal and is a strong competitor with the traditional fish and chip takeaway. Musical styles s...