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Social policies and the life course – a complex relationship re-visited

  • Simone Scherger EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: March 15, 2024

Abstract

Social policies structure individual life courses, cushion individual life course risks, and provide normative orientation. The paper brings together literature from life course sociology and welfare state research in order to provide an updated systematisation of the relationship between individual life courses and social policies. The modern life course regime and its welfare regulation are described as centred around individual actors, and as part and parcel of modernisation processes and the institutional arrangement mediating between the modern (democratic) state and the capitalist economy. Furthermore, the paper discusses these structural roots of life course policies, their resulting characteristics and their normativity. Key aspects in this are individualisation and its limits, the multilevel implementation of social policies and their life course effects with regard to inequalities.

Zusammenfassung

Sozialpolitische Maßnahmen strukturieren individuelle Lebensläufe, federn Lebenslaufrisiken ab und geben normative Orientierung. Der Beitrag führt Perspektiven aus der Lebenslaufsoziologie und aus der Wohlfahrtsstaatsforschung mit dem Ziel zusammen, die Diskussion um die Beziehung zwischen Lebensläufen und Sozialpolitik unter Berücksichtigung neuerer Debatten zu aktualisieren, zu systematisieren und zu ergänzen. Dazu wird herausgearbeitet, inwiefern der individuelle Akteur Dreh- und Angelpunkt des modernen Lebenslaufregimes und seiner Regulierung durch Sozialpolitik ist. Dieses Lebenslaufregime wird als Ergebnis von Modernisierungsprozessen und eines institutionellen Arrangements beschrieben, welches zwischen modernen (demokratischen) Staaten und kapitalistischer Ökonomie vermittelt. Der Beitrag geht weiterhin genauer auf die historischen Wurzeln von Lebenslaufpolitiken ein, ihre Merkmale und ihren normativen Charakter. Dabei liegt der Schwerpunkt auf Individualisierung und ihren Grenzen, die über mehrere Ebenen erfolgende Umsetzung von Sozialpolitik und deren Auswirkungen auf die Herausbildung von Ungleichheiten im Lebenslauf.

Funding

  1. Funder Name: Fördernetzwerk interdisziplinäre Sozialpolitikforschung (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales)

  2. Grant Number: FIS.00.0011.18

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Published Online: 2024-03-15
Published in Print: 2024-03-06

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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