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This open access book explores an approach that connects individual and societal processes throughout history and shifting trends in sociological perspectives, influenced by C. Wright Mills' theories of time and temporality. It traces its origins from American pragmatist thought and Chicago qualitative sociology in the early 20th century to the revival of biographical research in European and American sociology during the 1970s. The book shows empirical studies from this vibrant research approach can bridge methodological gaps between qualitative and quantitative biographical studies, applicable to various topics like class, gender, ethnicity, and intergenerational dimensions.

This open access book explores an approach that connects individual and societal processes throughout history and shifting trends in sociological perspectives, influenced by C. Wright Mills' theories of time and temporality. It traces its origins from American pragmatist thought and Chicago qualitative sociology in the early 20th century to the revival of biographical research in European and American sociology during the 1970s. The book shows empirical studies from this vibrant research approach can bridge methodological gaps between qualitative and quantitative biographical studies, applicable to various topics like class, gender, ethnicity, and intergenerational dimensions.

This article seeks to explore if and how period specific conditions affect young women's thoughts about their future lives. A contextualist analysis is done of a small sample of biographical interviews with Norwegian women in two cohorts born 1970–1975 and 1990–1995 interviewed 20 years apart when they were in their early 20s. The focus is on their thoughts about future education, work and family. Theoretically the article relates itself to concepts of time and temporalities in life course theory. Inspired by Ken Roberts' concept of opportunity structures, the notion termed 'temporal opportunity structures' emerged from the analysis. The analyses demonstrate how wider period specific circumstances and standards of timeliness form a landscape that young women navigate when they envisage future options and opportunities. Findings indicate differences between the two cohorts in biographical timing in that standards of timeliness and temporal opportunity structures appear to have narrowed.

'Generation' and 'cohort' are concepts associated with lifecourse and biographical research and are often used interchangeably in studies of social change. Based on the origins of the concepts, this paper draws a distinction between them that can be helpful in discussions about important questions in contemporary society. Empirical examples demonstrate how the concepts are used in research and set these in the context of the history of this particular sociological tradition.

"Long running trends towards increasing inequality between the rich and poor across Europe have been exacerbated by the 2008 global financial crisis and its aftermath. As employment opportunities for young people diminish and as the welfare state is pulled back, pathways to adulthood change and become more difficult to navigate.Transitions to Adulthood Through Recession consists of a collection of papers by researchers from Britain, Norway, Germany, Portugal, Italy and Greece, locating young people's transitions to adulthood in their national social, economic and political contexts. It explores young adulthood with reference to generational continuity and change and inter-generational support. With a cross-national comparative framework, this volume highlights the importance of variations in structural contexts for young people's transitions. Bringing together authors across sub-disciplines such as the sociology of youth, family and kinship, class and inequality and life-course studies, Transitions to Adulthood Through Recession will appeal to academic social scientists as well as final year undergraduate and post-graduate students interested in fields such as political science, sociology, youth studies, social policy, anthropology and psychology; and a wider public readership. "--Provided by publisher.

This chapter sketches some key developments in the framing of youth and early adulthood as life course stages, and situates the influence of the recent economic recession with reference to longer-term trends including increased social inequality. The authors explore different aspects of youth and early adulthood as these relate to labour market and family transitions and inter-generational relationships. These are illustrated by developments across the European nations represented in the book, specifically Norway, the UK, Germany, Greece, Portugal and Italy. The authors discuss the theoretical foundations of youth studies and life course research and set the context for the collection as well as framing the chapters in the book.

During the last decades, early intervention has become a major concern across political parties in Norway. In line with the discourse of early intervention, kindergartens are perceived as important arenas for identifying children at risk and initiating intervention. Equally important in the kindergarten sector is the discourse of diversity, in which a tolerance for behaviours that deviate from the majority norm is assumed. Drawing on an institutional ethnography in Norwegian kindergartens, and in particular the concept of ruling relations, I compare these two discourses in this article and discuss how kindergarten staff have to negotiate between different, and sometimes conflicting, institutional discourses that can justify different interventions. As a consequence, and despite good intentions, kindergarten staff can end up treating children with different backgrounds unequally.

In this paper we discuss the importance of taking an historical, intergenerational approach in sociological research. Lives need to be understood in the contexts of particular times and places. The backcloth to our discussion is the contemporary disruption of many young people's life course transitions from education to work in Europe, particularly in the Mediterranean countries but also among some young people in the UK, the main focus of the paper. We discuss two concepts and debates that have attracted attention in social science and the public domain. One concerns the designation of unemployed young people as a 'lost generation' and the other relates to assumptions about 'intergenerational conflicts'. These concepts are prone to ignore the historical specificity of the contexts in which and to which they are applied. They also take those contexts as impervious to political intervention. In short they serve to uphold a rhetoric of inevitability about the present economic, political and public policies relating to young people and intergenerational relations. In order to demonstrate the importance of historical context on young people's transitions to adulthood, using a life course biographical approach we analyse an empirical example of a father and son taken from an intergenerational family study conducted in the UK. In this case we also adopt an historical intergenerational lens to show how young people's transitions are supported by other family generations and are thus not individualised pathways to adulthood.