Life Course Events, Transitions & Trajectories

ILAS considers the life course in terms of events, transitions and life trajectories (or pathways). Individuals’ lives are shaped by the events and transitions that happen over the course of their lives, with these combining to create a particular pathway through life. This involves considering events like entering and leaving education, starting and leaving work, transitioning into or out of state care, entering into personal relationships. It also relates to life course experiences of loss and change, such as bereavement, or the onset of chronic ill-health. In addition, it entails looking at transitions into certain roles, such as becoming a parent, a family carer or a grandparent.

Individuals in the same group, such as people with disabilities, children, and older adults, can have very different life events and transitions. Different life course periods, like youth transition to adulthood and aging post-work and retirement, also need particular attention. Such life course events and transitions can bring resources and opportunities, but they can also be challenging and reduce well-being. Studying these differences helps us understand the diverse life experiences within a community and why some individuals or groups are better off than others.

Illustrative projects demonstrating Events, Transitions & Trajectories include:

Context-Care: This project explores person- and place-centred approaches to integrated care that support equitable ageing in place for older people in peripheral communities
PLACED-Lives: This project examines the influence of critical transitions in the older adult life course on the accumulation of multidimensional social exclusion in later life, and the role of place and community in mediating this exclusion
GENPATH: This project aims to analyze gender differences in the construction and consequences of exclusion from social relations across European countries, and its impact on health and well-being
Mascage: This project aims to explore and critically analyze the representations of ageing masculinity in European fiction and film