Doing Transitions in the Life Course: Processes and Practices

This open access book provides a unique research perspective on life course transitions. Here, transitions are understood as social processes and practices. Leveraging the recent “practice turn” in the social sciences, the contributors analyze how life course transitions are “done.” This book introduces the concept of “doing transitions” and its implications for theories and methods. It presents fresh empirical research on “doing transitions” in different life phases (e.g., childhood, young adulthood, later life) and life domains (e.g., education, work, family, health, migration). It also emphasizes themes related to institutions and organizations, time and normativity, materialities (such as bodies, spaces, and artifacts), and the reproduction of social inequalities in education and welfare. In coupling this new perspective with empirical illustrations, this book is an indispensable resource for scholars from demography, sociology, psychology, social work and other scientific fields, as well as for students, counselors and practitioners, and policymakers.

Barbara Stauber is Professor for Educational Science in the sub-discipline of Social pedagogy at Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Germany.  She is one of two coordinators of the collaborative PhD programme Doing Transitions at Goethe University of Frankfurt and University of Tübingen. She has published on youth and young adults, transitions in the life course (especially school to work transitions and transitions into parenthood), and on (riskful) youth cultural practices – both nationally and internationally. 

Andreas Walther is Professor for Educational Science, Social Pedagogy and Youth Welfare and Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He is Director of the research unit Education and Coping in the Life Course and one of two coordinators of the collaborative PhD programme Doing Transitions at Goethe University of Frankfurt and University of Tübingen. He has published on youth and young adults, transitions in the life course (especially school to work transitions), and on youth participation both nationally and internationally.

Richard A. Settersten, Jr., is University Distinguished Professor of Human Development and Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at Oregon State University, USA, where he also served as head of the School of Social and Behavioral Health Sciences and founding director of the Hallie E. Ford Center for Healthy Children and Families. A specialist in life transitions, Settersten works flexibly across different life phases and disciplines. He has played leadership roles in the American Sociological Association and the Gerontological Society of America and has received numerous awards for his research, teaching, and service.