The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Inequalities and the Life Course

Drawing upon perspectives from across the globe and employing an interdisciplinary life course approach, this handbook explores the production and reproduction of different types of inequality across a variety of social contexts. Inequalities are not static, easily measurable, and essentially quantifiable circumstances of life. They are processes which impact on individuals throughout the life course, interacting with each other, accumulating, attenuating, reproducing, or distorting themselves along the way. The chapters in this handbook examine various types of inequality, such as economic, gender, racial, and ethnic inequalities, and analyse how these inequalities manifest themselves within different aspects of society, including health, education, and the family, at multiple levels and dimensions. The handbook also tackles the global COVID-19 pandemic and its striking impact on the production and intensification of inequalities. The interdisciplinary life course approach utilised in this handbook combines quantitative and qualitative methods to bridge the gap between theory and practice and offer strategies and principles for identifying and tackling issues of inequality. This book will be indispensable for students and researchers as well as activists and policy makers interested in understanding and eradicating the processes of production, reproduction, and perpetuation of inequalities.

Magda Nico is a Researcher at the Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology (CIES-ISCTE) and Assistant Professor at the Department of Social Research Methods at ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon. She is currently coordinating a project on the importance and dynamics of 'linked lives' within families. Her research interests include life course theory and methods, family histories, social mobility, and the processes of inequalities. Gary Pollock is Professor of Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University. He currently coordinates the European Research Council-funded Cohort Community Research and Development Infrastructure Network for Access Throughout Europe (COORDINATE) project and has previously led the European Cohort Development (EDCP) and Measuring Youth Well-Being (MYWEB) projects. His research interests include the design and analysis of survey data on children and young people and their life trajectories, particularly using longitudinal techniques.

Section 1- Inequality as process Introduction - Doing Inequalities over the life course Magda Nico and Gary Pollock - Inequality across time: social change, biography and the life course Dale Dannefer, Chengming Han, and Jiao Yu - Poverty and economic insecurity in the life course Leen Vandecasteele, Dario Spini, Nicolas Sommet, and Felix Bühlmann - Inequality as process Elisabetta Ruspini - Life course inequality and policy: a focus on child well-being Gary Pollock, Jessica Ozan, and Haridhan Goswami Section 2- Assessing inequalities: complementary methods Introduction - Imagining the understanding of inequalities Magda Nico and Gary Pollock - Studying social inequality over the life course in modern societies. The methodological importance of life course studies Gwendolin J. Blossfeld and Hans-Peter Blossfeld - The analysis of inequality in life trajectories: an integration of two approaches Danilo Bolano and André Berchtold - Evolution of COVID-19 lethality and geographically contrasting socio-economic factors in Brazil: a multilevel perspective Joseph F. Hair, Jr, Luiz Paulo Fávero, and Rafael de Freitas Souza - Health inequalities across the life course: theories, statistical pitfalls, and the possible impact of the COVID-19 pandemic Fabian Kratz Section 3 - The social stratification of health Introduction - The inherent longitudinality of health inequalities Magda Nico and Gary Pollock - Mental health inequalities Jane D. McLeod and Max E. Coleman - How an analysis of lifespan inequality can contribute to our understanding of life course inequalities Alyson van Raalte - Two centuries of inequalities: disability and partnership in Sweden Lotta Vikström, Kateryna Karhina, and Johan Junkka - The Covid-19 pandemic: inequalities and the life course Richard A. Settersten, Jr., Laura Bernardi, Juho Härkönen, Toni C. Antonucci, Pearl A. Dykstra, Jutta Heckhausen, Diana Kuh, Karl Ulrich Mayer, Phyllis Moen, Jeylan T. Mortimer, Clara H. Mulder, Timothy M. Smeeding, Tanja Van Der Lippe, Gunhild O. Hagestad, Martin Kohli, René Levy, Ingrid Schoon, and Elizabeth Thomson Section 4 - Economic and wealth inequalities Introduction - The challenge of complexity in the analysis of economic inequalities Magda Nico and Gary Pollock - Concepts of social stratification-static and dynamic perspectives Steffen Hillmert - Optimising the use of measures of social stratification in research with intersectional and longitudinal analytical priorities Paul Lambert and Camilla Barnett - Stagnation and inequality in a historical view: a comment on Piketty's analysis of capitalism and the Portuguese case Francisco Louçã - Things can't only get better: inequality and democracy over a life-span Kevin Albertson and Richard Whittle Section 5 - Youth, education and transition to adulthood Introduction - Half way down the stairs - somewhere else instead Magda Nico and Gary Pollock - Expansion and improved permeability of post-secondary education in Germany: consequences for social inequalities in educational attainment Nicole Tieben and Daniela Rohrbach-Schmidt - Educational expansion across cohorts and over the life course: an international comparison of (rapid) educational expansion and the consequences of the differentiation of tertiary education Pia Blossfeld, Gwendolin J. Blossfeld, and Hans-Peter Blossfeld - Class in successive life courses in Britain since 1945 Ken Roberts - Mapping young Norwegians' self-projects and future orientations Ingunn Marie Eriksen and Kari Stefansen Section 6 - Family and linked lives Introduction - Families at the heart of linked (lives and) inequalities Magda Nico and Gary Pollock - Care inequality in later life in ageing societies: the unequal distribution of the intensity of informal support in Europe Marco Albertini and Riccardo Prandini - The apple, the tree and the forest: family histories as radars of social mobility and inequalities Magda Nico and Maria Gilvania Valdivino Silva - Family formation and social inequalities. A life course perspective Stefano Cantalini - Farewell's children: using the life course perspective to understand female late fertility Rosalina Pisco Costa Section 7 - Gender inequalities Introduction - Gender inequalities: time-varying and trajectories Magda Nico and Gary Pollock - The mutual constitution of gendered and sexualised inequalities in life courses José Fernando Serrano-Amaya - Gender trajectories and the production of inequalities from a life course perspective Sofia Aboim and Pedro Vasconcelos - Inequalities in work and the intersectional life course Phyllis Moen and Mahala Miller - LGBTIQ+ life course inequalities and queer temporalities Maria do Mar Varela and Yener Bayramoglu Section 8 - Racial and ethnic inequalities Introduction - The weight of structure on the skin Magda Nico and Gary Pollock - The centrality of race to inequality across the world-system Manuela Boatca - A life course approach to understanding ethnic health inequalities in later life: an example using the United Kingdom as national context Sarah Stopforth, Laia Bécares, James Nazroo, and Dharmi Kapadia - The inequalities of empire: comparative perspectives Cátia Antunes and Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo - How the COVID-19 pandemic is shifting the migrant-inequality narrative Ferdinand C. Mukumbang