Abstract
This chapter proposes a conceptual model that can guide the study of welfare states and the life course. I first distinguish between risk (the probability of a hazard or negative event) and adversity (disadvantage that results from risk). Both the person and the state may attempt to avoid risk and, should it occur, to be prevent disadvantage. At the level of the person, risk is a developmental process involving genetic propensities and early experiences and then embodied characteristics (e.g., behaviors such as decision-making), which may in turn increase the likelihood of risk and disadvantage. States differ greatly in how they attempt to manage the individual’s risk and disadvantage. Further, groups in society (e.g., high and low SES) differ greatly in their developmental patterns of risks and disadvantages. The issue is whether the state attempts to mitigate risk exposures and to compensate for disadvantages among all groups in society. Comparisons of life course risk and disadvantage across states are difficult, with some studies focused on one policy (e.g., involving marital dissolution) and other studies focused on policy regimes. Directions for future research and policy-makers are discussed.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Avent-Holt, D., & Tomaskovic-Devey, D. (2014). A Relational Theory of Earnings Inequality. American Behavioral Scientist, 58, 379-399.
Breen, R., & Goldthorpe, J. H. (1997). Explaining educational differentials: Towards a formal rational action theory. Rationality and Society, 9(3), 275–305.
Cardona, A., & Diewald, M. (2014, May). Opening the black box of primary effects: Relative risk aversion and maternal time investments in preschool children. Paper presented at the spring meeting of the RC 28 in Budapest.
Cunha, F., Heckman, J. J., & Schennach, S. M. (2010). Estimating the technology of cognitive and noncognitive skill formation. Econometrica, 78(3), 883–931.
Diewald, M., & Faist, T. (2011). From heterogeneities to inequalities: Looking at social mechanisms as an explanatory approach to the generation of social inequalities. Bielefeld: SFB 882 Working Paper Series No. 1.
Diewald, M., & Mayer, K. U. (2009). The sociology of the life course and life span psychology: Integrated paradigm or complementing pathways? Advances in Life Course Research, 14(1–2), 5–14.
Diewald, M., Baier, T., Schulz, W., & Schunck, R. (2015). Status attainment and social mobility– How can genetics contribute to an understanding of their causes? In K. Hank & M. Kreyenfeld (Eds.), Demographie. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, Special issue 55. doi: 10.1007/s11577-015-0317-6
DiPrete, T. A. (2002). Life course risks, mobility regimes, and mobility consequences: A comparison of Sweden, Germany, and the United States. American Journal of Sociology, 108, 267–309.
Elder, G. H., Jr. (1995). The life course paradigm: Social change and individual development. In P. Moen, G. H. Elder, & K. Lüscher (Eds.), Examining lives in context. Perspectives on the ecology of human development (pp. 101–139). Washington, DC: APA. doi:10.1037/10176-003.
Esping-Andersen, G. (1999). Social foundations of postindustrial economies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ferraro, K. F., Shippee, T. P., & Schafer, M. H. (2009). Cumulative inequality theory for research on aging and the life course. In V. L. Bengtson, D. Gans, N. M. Putney, & M. Silverstein (Eds.), Handbook of theories of aging (pp. 413–434). New York: Springer.
Gangl, M. (2004). Welfare states and the scar effects of unemployment: A comparative analysis of the United States and West Germany. American Journal of Sociology, 109(6), 1319–1364.
Guo, G., & Stearns, E. (2002). The social influences on the realization of genetic potential for intellectual development. Social Forces, 80, 881–910.
Heckman, J. J., & Borjas, G. (1980). Does unemployment cause future unemployment? Definitions, questions, and answers from a continuous time model of heterogeneity and state dependence. Economica, 47, 247–283.
Hofäcker, D., Buchholz, S., & Blossfeld, H. (2010). Globalization, institutional filters and changing life course patterns in modern societies: A summary of the results from the GLOBALIFE project. In R. Silbereisen & X. Chen (Eds.), Social change and human development: Concept and results (pp. 101–125). London: SAGE. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446252161.n5
Jackson, M., Goldthorpe, J. H., & Mills, C. (2005). Education, employers and class mobility. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 23, 3–33.
Kalil, A., & Wightman, P. (2011). Parental job loss and children’s educational attainment in black and white middle-class families. Social Science Quarterly, 92, 57–78.
Kaufmann, F.-X. (2012). European foundations of the welfare state. New York: Berghahn Books.
Leisering, L. (2003). Government and the life course. In J. T. Mortimer & M. J. Shanahan (Eds.), Handbook of the life course (pp. 205–225). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Mandel, H., & Semyonov, M. (2005). Family policies, wage structures, and gender gaps: Sources of earnings inequality in 20 countries. American Sociological Review, 70, 949–967.
Mandel, H., & Shalev, M. (2009). Gender, class, and varieties of capitalism. Social Politics, 16, 161–181. doi:10.1093/sp/jxp006.
Mayer, K. U. (2005). Life courses and life chances in a comparative perspective. In S. Svallfors (Ed.), Analyzing inequality: Life chances and social mobility in comparative perspective (pp. 17–55). Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.
Mayer, K. U. (2009). New directions in life course research. Annual Review of Sociology, 35, 413–433. doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.34.040507.134619.
Mayer, K. U., & Müller, W. (1986). The state and the structure of the life course. In A. B. Sorensen, F. E. Weinert, & L. R. Sherrod (Eds.), Human development and the life course: Multidisciplinary perspectives (pp. 217–245). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
Nisbett, R. E., Aronson, J., Blair, C., Dickens, W., Flynn, J., Halpern, D. F., & Turkheimer, E. (2012). Intelligence: New findings and theoretical developments. American Psychologist, 67, 130–159.
O’Rand, A. M. (2001). Stratification and the life course: Life course capital, life course risks, and social inequality. In R. H. Binstock & L. K. George (Eds.), Handbook of aging and social sciences (pp. 145–162). San Diego: Elsevier.
O’Rand, A. M. (2003). The future of the life course: Late modernity and life course risks. In J. T. Mortimer & M. Shanahan (Eds.), Handbook of the life course (pp. 693–701). New York: Plenum.
Reskin, B. (2003). Including mechanisms in our models of ascriptive inequality. American Sociological Review, 68, 1–21.
Roemer, J. E. (1998). Equality of opportunity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Schoon, I. (2006). Risk and resilience: Adaptations in changing times. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schoon, I., & Bynner, J. (2003). Risk and resilience in the life course: Implications for interventions and social policies. Journal of Youth Studies, 6(1), 21–31.
Shanahan, M. J., Vaisey, S., Erickson, L. D., & Smolen, A. (2008). Environmental contingencies and genetic propensities: Social capital, educational continuation, and dopamine receptor gene DRD2. American Journal of Sociology, 114(Suppl), S260–S286.
Tilly, C. (1998). Durable inequality. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Tomaskovic-Devey, D. (2014). The relational generation of workplace inequalities. Social Currents, 1, 51–73.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Diewald, M. (2016). Life Course Risks and Welfare States’ Risk Management. In: Shanahan, M., Mortimer, J., Kirkpatrick Johnson, M. (eds) Handbook of the Life Course. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20880-0_30
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20880-0_30
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-20879-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-20880-0
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)