Institutionalisation of the life course - what does it explain?
There has been an ongoing debate about the characteristic features of the modern life course. Some claim that the life course have become more predictable and institutionalised while others indicate the emergence of a post modern or deconstructed life course. By the means of the analytical distinction between two different types of live events - culturally prescribed transitions and occasional incidents I will scrutinise the hypnotises of the institutionalisation of the life course. The institutionalised life course is a new historical phenomena and only possible under certain demographic and social conditions. Of specific importance is the emergence of the welfare state. The data I base my analysis upon are life history interviews with 97 men and women born before the First World War. This generation is interesting in this respect because they grew up and became old under different welfare regimes.
