Selves and Social Differences in the Contexts of Life Course

Our research group is a collective working at the intersection of social and cultural psychology and life course studies. We examine how self, identity, and social differences (gender, sexuality, age, class) take shape across different contexts of the life course.

Theoretical and methodological foundations

In our research, we approach power in life course studies as an entanglement of macro‑ and micro‑level processes. Our starting point is that power relations are produced in the interplay between structures that sustain social differences (institutions, policies) and the actors who relate themselves to these structures.

At the macro level, we analyse how societal structures and cultural norms shape the possibilities, constraints, and expectations of the life course—what counts as a “normal” life and a valuable self. This includes, for example:

• institutions and policies: the education system, labour markets, family policy, and welfare state structures
• normative life course expectations: what is considered “timely” and “appropriate” in terms of education, family formation, work, entrepreneurship, or retirement
• cultural discourses: individualisation, entrepreneurial agency, active ageing
• hierarchies and inequalities produced by social differences: gender, sexuality, class, and age, and their intersecting effects (intersectionality)

At the micro level, our research focuses on how power becomes concrete in everyday interaction, meaning‑making processes, and identity work. Typical analytical foci include:

• positioning in interaction: how people position themselves in relation to norms and other actors
• identity work and moral categories: what kinds of positions such as “the good student,” “the active employee,” or “the successful retiree” are produced
• counter‑speech and counter‑narratives: how individuals negotiate, resist, or redefine dominant discourses

Methodologically, macro‑ and micro‑level power relations are often analysed by combining life‑course perspectives with research on social representations and governance, discourse and narrative analysis, positioning analysis, as well as critical and intersectional approaches.

Summary

The work of our research group demonstrates that power in the life course is:

• structural (institutions and norms)
• cultural (discourses and moral expectations)
• interactional (positioning and identity work)
• temporally constituted (transitions and trajectories across the life course)

Through this approach, our research aims to produce a multilayered analysis of how selves and social differences are shaped within fields of power at different stages of the life course, and how actors participate in defining what counts as a “normal” life and a valuable self. We also seek to deepen understanding of how individual life trajectories are entwined with structural and cultural conditions.

Our research provides critical insights into, for example:

• education, labour, and family policies
• questions of wellbeing and participation
• the impacts of inequality and normative life course expectations