Heinz, Walter R. (2009) The life course reader : individuals and societies across time. Frankfurt am Main [u.a.], Campus-Verl. Signature: SOZ 268 : L34

Miller, Robert (2007) Biographical Research Methods. Volume 1. London: Sage. Signature: SOZ 130 : B38-1

The seminar is offered bilingually in English and German. The selected texts (seminar literature) are usually in English.

Das Seminar wird bilingual in Englisch und Deutsch angeboten. Die ausgewählten Texte (Seminarliteratur) sind in der Regel in englischer Sprache.

 Life Course and generation

In the seminar, the basics of sociological life course and generation research are taught and an overview of the research concerning the two concepts is given. The focus is on the following topics and questions:

(1) Social time and life course (C.W. Mills)

(2) The concept of generation (K. Mannheim)

(3) The link between life course and generation in the cohort concept (N. Ryder)

(4) The importance of historical time for the collective time of generations (M. Corsten)

(5) The institutionalisation of the life course (M. Kohli)

(6) The transitional phase of adolescence as a pattern of social order (M. M. Marini)

(7) The concept of auto/biography (L. Stanley)

(8) "Called to Account": Social Expectation Structures for Subjective Biographisation Processes (Miller/Morgan)

(9) Social positioning and autobiography (Langenhove)

(10) Historical time and family time (Glen H. Elder)

(11) Digital change and generation (P. Aroldi)

(12) Historical crisis and generation (back to Mannheim)

Themes 1-4 deal introductively with the relationship between social time, life time and generational time; this is followed by an in-depth examination of the social construction of life time in themes 5-8; themes 9-12 examine life time and social time in relation to specific social sectors and dynamics of social change.