Life Course & Society

To realise the ILAS mission, our work has a central focus on the life course. The life course captures our interest in how individuals and groups, from potentially marginalised sections of the population, can participate as full members of our society throughout their lives. We adopt a broad understanding of the life course, which draws attention to how major life events and social contexts shape the life paths and available opportunities for individuals and groups. This work has a number of dimensions to the research of the institute framed around intersecting life course themes including:

• How people experience life transitions and pursue human flourishing
• How intergenerational relationships shape social health and wellbeing
• How civic engagement and participation can be strengthened across society
• How life course perspectives on policy can enhance commitment to solidarity across generations
• How to ensure that voice of persons directly impacted by themes we study are meaningfully included in research, practice, and decision-making

The broad and interdisciplinary approach to life course is reflected in the Institute’s diverse centres. Some have a primary focus on specific population cohorts or stages of life, including the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, the Centre for Disability Law and Policy, and the Irish Centre for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Research. Others have a thematic focus like the Centre for Applied Linguistics and Multilingualism (CALM), Community Engaged Research in Action (CORA), and the Health Economics and Policy Analysis Centre (HEPAC). Alongside these are two are University-wide units that strengthen how ILAS engages with wider society: Community Engagement and Patient and Public Involvement in Research – PPI Ignite Network (also supported by CMNHS), both of which support deeper and more structured forms of public participation in research.

The unifying purpose emerges to enable equity across the life course. This includes research focused on disability across the life course, support and protection of children and families, and transitions across the life course, such as care provisions for children, persons with a disability, and older people. Focus on agency and voice, as well as health and wellbeing, are emphasised. Diverse projects are focused on community and place, informing human rights and social justice, such as access to health and social care interventions and health technologies to improve health and wellbeing. Alongside this, critical engagement with structure, policies, and processes that affect persons across their lifecourse is key. This includes a focus on social exclusion, diminished powers and rights, economic insecurity, accumulated disadvantage, solidarity and justice, and collaboration between systems and services. Throughout this work, there is consistent emphasis on “meaningfully involved voice”. This reflects a commitment to more inclusive and equitable approaches to research and service development, ensuring that those most affected by policies, systems, and interventions are actively involved in shaping them.

In sum, for the institute, equity across the life course relates to our ambitions to contribute to processes, outcomes and access with attention to equality, diversity and inclusion.  In particular, the work of ILAS is focused on promoting equity across the life course with regard to:

• Equity in relation to Knowledge production, access, dissemination and impact
• Processes for equity of inclusion and engagement in research, teaching and public engagement
• Use of evidence and research to promote better outcomes regarding equity across domains of health, education, social service, wellbeing and public policy
• A focus on exposing and informing measures to address inequities, social inequality, discrimination, and marginalisation
• Advocacy for resource equity to enable full participation of diverse populations and stakeholders

To inform our activities across our work strands and strategic themes, scholars draw from a range of life course theory and approaches to collectively contribute to five intersecting themes relating to life course theory and translation to practice, policy, public and societal impact as detailed in the sections below that provide further insight into the conceptualisation and application of life course theories, principles and approaches in our work: