Life Course Transitions, Intergenerational Transfers, and Social Stratification (Part I)

Life-Course Transitions and Social Stratification: Education, Work, Family Formation, and Mobility

This session invites theoretical and empirical papers on the relationship between life-course transitions and social stratification. The transition to adulthood is a multidimensional process involving the end of schooling, entry into the labor market, union formation, marriage, household establishment, and the birth of a first child. These transitions are not only individual biographical events; they are also structured by social origin, class, gender, race/ethnicity, migration background, and institutional contexts. They may therefore contribute to the reproduction, transformation, or interruption of intergenerational inequalities.

The session welcomes studies examining how educational trajectories, school-to-work transitions, assortative mating, family formation, residential independence, and fertility are linked to patterns of social mobility and inequality. Comparative papers across countries or regions are especially welcome, as are single-country studies that illuminate broader theoretical or methodological questions. We encourage contributions using quantitative, qualitative, historical, demographic, or mixed-methods approaches.

The session aims to bring together research from different national contexts to discuss how transitions to adulthood vary across societies, cohorts, and institutional regimes, and how these variations shape the production and reproduction of social stratification. Particular attention will be given to the mechanisms connecting family background, educational attainment, labor-market incorporation, partnership patterns, and family formation. The format will consist of paper presentations followed by collective discussion, with the goal of fostering dialogue among scholars working on life-course sociology, social mobility, demography, family sociology, and inequality.

Word count: approximately 223 words.