Table Of ContentThe Routledge Handbook of
Contemporary Inequalities
and the Life Course
Drawing upon perspectives from across the globe and employing an interdisciplinary life
course approach, this handbook explores the production and reproduction of different types
of inequality across a variety of social contexts.
Inequalities are not static, easily measurable, and essentially quantifiable circumstances of
life. They are processes which impact on individuals throughout the life course, interacting
with each other, accumulating, attenuating, reproducing, or distorting themselves along the
way. The chapters in this handbook examine various types of inequality, such as economic,
gender, racial, and ethnic inequalities, and analyse how these inequalities manifest them-
selves within different aspects of society, including health, education, and the family, at mul-
tiple levels and dimensions. The handbook also tackles the global COVID-19 pandemic and
its striking impact on the production and intensification of inequalities.
The interdisciplinary life course approach utilised in this handbook combines quantitative
and qualitative methods to bridge the gap between theory and practice and offer strategies and
principles for identifying and tackling issues of inequality. This book will be indispensable
for students and researchers as well as activists and policy makers interested in understanding
and eradicating the processes of production, reproduction, and perpetuation of inequalities.
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 in 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 cur-
rently 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.
The Routledge Handbook
of Contemporary
Inequalities and
the Life Course
Edited by Magda Nico and Gary Pollock
Cover image: © Unsplash
First published 2022
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Magda Nico and Gary Pollock;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Magda Nico and Gary Pollock to be identified as the authors
of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters,
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Nico, Magda, editor. | Pollock, Gary, editor.
Title: The Routledge handbook of contemporary inequalities and the life
course / edited by Magda Nico and Gary Pollock.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2022. |
Series: Routledge international handbooks | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021032262 | ISBN 9781138601505 (hbk) |
ISBN 9780429470059 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Equality—United States. | Income distribution—
United States.
Classification: LCC HM821 .R683 2022 | DDC 305.0973—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021032262
ISBN: 978-1-138-60150-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-16351-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-47005-9 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9780429470059
Typeset in Bembo
by codeMantra
To each of our families for supporting us throughout.
Contents
List of figures xii
List of tables xv
List of contributors xvi
Acknowledgements xxv
SECTION 1
Inequalities as process: doing inequalities over the life course 1
Magda Nico and Gary Pollock
1 Inequality across time: social change, biography, and the life course 4
Dale Dannefer, Chengming Han, and Jiao Yu
2 Poverty and economic insecurity in the life course 15
Leen Vandecasteele, Dario Spini, Nicolas Sommet, and Felix Bühlmann
3 Inequality as process 27
Elisabetta Ruspini
4 Life course inequality and p olicy: a focus on child well-being 39
Gary Pollock, Jessica Ozan, and Haridhan Goswami
SECTION 2
Assessing inequalities: complementary methods:
imagining the understanding of inequalities 51
Magda Nico and Gary Pollock
5 Studying social inequality over the life course in modern
societies: the methodological importance of life course studies 54
Gwendolin J. Blossfeld and Hans-Peter Blossfeld
vii
Contents
6 The analysis of i nequality in life trajectories: an integration
of two approaches 63
Danilo Bolano and André Berchtold
7 Evolution of COVID-19 lethality and geographically contrasting
socio-economic factors in Brazil: a multilevel perspective 81
Joseph F. Hair, Jr., Luiz Paulo Fávero, and Rafael De Freitas Souza
8 Health inequalities across the life course: theories, statistical pitfalls,
and the possible impact of the COVID-19 pandemic 97
Fabian Kratz
SECTION 3
The social stratification of health: the inherent longitudinality
of health inequalities 111
Magda Nico and Gary Pollock
9 Mental health inequalities 113
Jane D. McLeod and Max E. Coleman
10 How an analysis of lifespan i nequality can contribute to our
understanding of life course inequalities 124
Alyson van Raalte
11 Two centuries of inequalities: disability and partnership in Sweden 136
Lotta Vikström, Kateryna Karhina, and Johan Junkka
12 The Covid-19 pandemic: inequalities and the life course 152
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: the challenge of
complexity in the analysis of economic inequalities 173
Magda Nico and Gary Pollock
13 Concepts of social stratification—static and dynamic perspectives 175
Steffen Hillmert
viii
Contents
14 Optimising the use of m easures of social stratification in r esearch
with intersectional and longitudinal analytical priorities 188
Paul Lambert and Camilla Barnett
15 Stagnation and i nequality in a historical view: a comment on
Piketty’s analysis of capitalism and the Portuguese case 199
Francisco Louçã
16 Things can’t only get better: inequality and democracy
over a life-span 208
Kevin Albertson and Richard Whittle
SECTION 5
Youth, education and t ransition to adulthood:
half way down the stairs – somewhere else instead 223
Magda Nico and Gary Pollock
17 Expansion and improved p ermeability of post- secondary
education in Germany: consequences for social inequalities
in educational attainment 226
Nicole Tieben and Daniela Rohrbach-Schmidt
18 Educational expansion across c ohorts and over the life
course: an international comparison of (rapid) educational
expansion and the consequences of the differentiation of tertiary
education 240
Pia N. Blossfeld, Gwendolin J. Blossfeld, and Hans-Peter Blossfeld
19 Class in successive life courses in Britain since 1945 252
Ken Roberts
20 Mapping young Norwegians’ self-projects and future orientations 261
Ingunn Marie Eriksen and Kari Stefansen
SECTION 6
Family and linked lives: families at the heart of linked
(lives and) inequalities 271
Magda Nico and Gary Pollock
21 Care inequality in later life in ageing societies: the unequal
distribution of the intensity of informal support in Europe 274
Marco Albertini and Riccardo Prandini
ix
