Social Structures and Human Lives: Social Change and the Life Course Volume 1: Social Structures and Human Lives v. 1 (American Sociological Association Presidential Series) Book

Social Structures and Human Lives consists of papers from the 1986 American Sociological Association annual meeting selected to reflect the rich and diverse array of conceptual, methodological, and substantive reports presented there. Leading academics and researchers offer information about aging over the life course; the relationship between aging and the changing structure of families, firms, state, and society as a whole; and implications for equality of opportunity for people of differing age, gender, race and socioeconomic status. Part One, serving as an overview, stresses the importance and potential riches to be gained in examining the dynamic interplay between changing social structures and the ways in which people moving through these structures experience and organize their lives. Part Two then examines the interdependence of system levels, especially the interrelationship between the rhythm of human lives and the less predictable timing of societal change, while Part Three discusses the relation of age stratification to class, inequality, and social policy. Part Four examines instances in which myriad events of the collective lives of individuals generate changes in ethnic age and class structure, and Part Five considers events in early life which can have life-long consequences for a person's relationships to primary groups and intellectual functioning.The final chapter, linking selected topics from previous chapters to established sociological concerns, clarifies the broad scope of the book's central theme. Addressed to pioneering sociologists seeking avenues for enlarging and integrating the field and to students of sociology and related disciplines, the volume provides state-of-the-art assessments and a vision of where sociology is heading.Read More