Enriching the Tapestry: Expanding the Scope of Life Course Concepts

Abstract

UANE Alwin is to be thanked for an ambitious effort to provide a systematic review of the diverse array of meanings of “life course” and related terms and to contrib-ute to the discussion of the possibilities of integration of this important but often unwieldy literature. It is an undertaking that invites reaction at many points. Of course, space pre-cludes a comprehensive response to the full range of ideas and issues Alwin presents. I limit my comment to three top-ics that warrant further attention: (a) the importance of the life course as a social institution, (b) the relation of the “life span” and “life course” concepts, and (c) the need to address what I have earlier identified as theoretical deficiencies that are common to both life span and life course perspectives.At the beginning of his essay “Integrating Varieties of Life-Course Concepts” (hereafter termed “IVLC”), Alwin counter-poses the risks that may be present when a single term is used to connote “a multiplicity of meanings that are at variance with one another” with the benefits that may come from a concept whose breadth offers “rich tapestry of different emphases.” I am sympathetic to Alwin’s caution of the dangers inherent in requiring a single term—life course—to carry a “multiplicity of meanings,” which is the more worrisome when the use of the term is accompanied by unexamined assumptions and a lack of consistency in explanatory objectives. In attempting to bring some order to this unwieldy domain, I applaud and appreciate the taxonomic and integrative objectives of IVLC. In this comment, I will note some significant arenas in which the formulation offered in IVLC needs to be extended in terms of conceptual scope, precision, and critical analysis.Although the array of terms, concepts, and issues intro-duced in IVLC do indeed represent quite a varied collec-tion, I must begin by taking note of the need to add yet even more “richness to the tapestry.” The task of integration pre-supposes that the components essential to the integrative ef-fort have been identified, and it is necessary to begin by pointing out at least one omitted but essential class of phe-nomena, which revolve around the concept of the life course as a social institution.