The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Inequalities and the Life Course

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 Bayramoğlu

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