Course guide of Sociology of the Life Course (21411B8)

Curso 2023/2024
Approval date: 23/06/2023

Grado (bachelor's degree)

Bachelor'S Degree in Sociology

Branch

Social and Legal Sciences

Module

Sociología Aplicada al Ámbito de la Educación y la Cultura

Subject

Sociology of the Life Course

Year of study

2

Semester

1

ECTS Credits

6

Course type

Elective course

Teaching staff

Theory

Mariano Sánchez Martínez. Grupo: B

Practice

Mariano Sánchez Martínez Grupos: 1 y 2

Timetable for tutorials

Mariano Sánchez Martínez

Email
  • First semester
    • Tuesday
      • 09:00 a 11:00 (Decanato)
      • 18:00 a 21:00 (Decanato)
    • Thursday de 20:00 a 21:00 (Decanato)
  • Second semester
    • Wednesday de 09:00 a 12:00 (Decanato)
    • Thursday de 09:00 a 12:00 (Decanato)

Prerequisites of recommendations

To ensure the viability and academic quality of teaching and learning in a foreign language, it is important that the students enrolled have the necessary competences to be able to deal with the course successfully. For this reason, a recommended B2 or higher level of English (CEFR's framework) is established for students intending to enroll in this course. Students with a B1 language level (or lower) should refrain from registering.

PLEASE, TAKE THIS RECOMMENDATION INTO ACCOUNT SERIOUSLY WHEN CONSIDERING REGISTRATION FOR THIS COURSE. Should you have any question, please get in touch with the course's lecturer at marianos@ugr.es

Brief description of content (According to official validation report)

  • Concepts and theories about age and ageing from a life course perspective.
  • Age stratification, integration and differentiation in social structures.
  • The ageing and society paradigm.
  • Life course trajectories, transitions and institutionalisation.
  • Social problems and inequalities across the life course.

General and specific competences

General competences

  • CG01. Ability to analyse and summarise 
  • CG04. Ability to manage information 
  • CG07. Ability to communicate results and knowledge 
  • CG08. Ability to work in a team
  • CG10. Ability to cater for diversity and multiculturalism 
  • CG11. Ability to engage in critical reasoning 
  • CG12. Ethical commitment 
  • CG14. Commitment to respect for human rights and non-discrimination
  • CG15. Ability to learn autonomously 
  • CG16. Ability to adapt to new situations 
  • CG18. Knowledge of other cultures and traditions 
  • CG22. Ability to recognise the global and local character of social phenomena 
  • CG24. Ability to recognise the complexity of social phenomena 
  • CG25. Ability to relate knowledge of sociology to other related disciplines 

Specific competences

  • CE01. Understand the main concepts and generalisations regarding human society and its processes 
  • CE02. Learning of history, theory and its main schools to the present day 
  • CE04. Knowledge of the methodology of the social sciences and its basic and advanced techniques (quantitative and qualitative) in social research, with special attention to aspects of sampling and applicable software 
  • CE06. Knowledge of the basic components of social inequalities and cultural differences 
  • CE13. Skills to propose and develop applied research in the different areas of society 
  • CE14. Skills in the search for secondary information from different sources (official institutions, libraries, internet, etc.) 
  • CE15. Technical skills for producing and analysing quantitative and qualitative data (interpreting and constructing figures, tables, graphs, as well as writing reports, etc.) 
  • CE16. Abilities in developing, using and interpreting social indicators and social measurement instruments 
  • CE18. Know how to choose the relevant social research techniques (quantitative and qualitative) at any given moment 
  • CE20. Ability to recognise the complexity of social phenomena 
  • CE21. Ability to contribute to the design of public policies aimed at addressing social problems 
  • CE22. Ability to establish and implement social intervention programmes and projects 
  • CE23. Ability to evaluate public policy and social intervention projects, as well as their results 
  • CE34. Ability to relate knowledge of sociology to that of other related disciplines 
  • CE35. Critical attitude towards social doctrines and practices 
  • CE37. Attitude of commitment to social and cultural problems 

Objectives (Expressed as expected learning outcomes)

  • Being able to identify and critically assess the basic components and theories of the life-course paradigm through a sociological lens.
  • Getting acquainted with and evaluating the ways in which social context, social history, and social structures affect and are affected by individual life courses.
  • Understanding the basic quantitative and qualitative methodologies used to study the life course.
  • Envisaging pathways for professionalisation in Sociology linked to life-course developments.

Detailed syllabus

Theory

1a. Life course: It is about time!

2a. Age, the life course, and the sociological imagination.

3a. Structuration and institutionalisation of the life course.

4a. Social contexts and life-course patterns.

5a. The craft of life-course studies.

Practice

1b. Integrating varieties of life-course concepts. Distinguishing age, period, and cohort effects.

2b. Identifying life-course events: timing, duration and sequencing.

3b. Generational and intergenerational connections across the life course.

4b. Ageing and social intervention: life-course perspectives.

5b. Data collection and measurement. Strategies for analysis.

Bibliography

Basic reading list

  • Dannefer, D. (2021). Age and the reach of sociological imagination. Power, ideology and the life course. Routledge.
  • Heinz, W. R., Huinink, J., & Weymann, A. (Eds.). (2009). The life course reader. Individuals and societies across time. Campus Verlag.
  • Wingens, M. (2022). Sociological life course research. Springer.

Complementary reading

  • Adam, B. (1990). Time and social theory. John Wiley & Sons.

  • Levy, R., & Widmer, E. D. (2013). Gendered life courses between standardization and individualization: a European approach applied to Switzerland. Lit.

Teaching methods

  • MD01. Master class/lecture 
  • MD02. Discussion and debate sessions 
  • MD03. Problem solving and practical case studies 
  • MD06. Computer room sessions 
  • MD07. Seminars 
  • MD08. Simulation exercises 
  • MD09. Source and document analysis 
  • MD10. Group projects 
  • MD11. Individual work 

Assessment methods (Instruments, criteria and percentages)

Ordinary assessment session

In order to emphasise continuous assessment, both with regard to the learning of content and the acquisition of competences, a diversified assessment system is established based on the following instruments:

  • A) Assessment of cognitive competences:
    • Individual final exam [mandatory]. Assessment criteria: 1) understanding of theoretical content covered throughout the course; 2) use of specialised language; 3) use of diverse theoretical content when analysing a given issue. Weighting: 30% of the final grade (up to 3 points).
  • B) Assessment of instrumental competences:
    • B.1. Practical seminars and activities [mandatory]. Assessment criteria: 1) topic contextualisation; 2) literature review; 3) clarity of presentation; 4) technical accuracy in the use of scientific knowledge; 5) methodological mastery. Weighting: 50% of the final grade (up to 5 points). Instrument B1 shall be taken into account only in the case of students who have attended at least 80% of our seminars.
    • B.2. [optional] Students may get up to 1.5 of B.1.'s 5 points by participating in activities within the framework of the Open Education Programme carried out at the Faculty of Political Sciences and Sociology. The lecturer shall provide instructions on how to get involved in Open Education activities.
  • C) Evaluation of attitudinal competences:
    • [optional] Individual planned contributions in either lectures or seminars. Assessment criterion: 1) connection to the course; 2) contribution's originality and thoroughness. Weighting: 20% of the final grade (up to 2 points). This instrument shall be taken into account only in the case of students who have attended at least 80% of our seminars.

Extraordinary assessment session

Students who do not pass the course in the ordinary session, will be able to pass the course in the extraordinary one by means of the following instruments:

  • D) Assessment of cognitive competences:
    • Individual exam on the course's theoretical contents [mandatory]. Assessment criteria: 1) understanding of theoretical content covered throughout the course; 2) use of specialised language; 3) use of diverse theoretical content when analysing a given issue. Weighting: 30% of the final grade.
  • E) Assessment of instrumental and attitudinal competences:
    • Individual exam on the course's practical contents [mandatory]. Assessment criteria: 1) understanding of practical content covered throughout the course; 2) use of specialised language; 3) use of diverse practical tools when analysing a given issue. Weighting: 70% of the final grade.

Further details on the course's didactics will specify the way in which those students who, by virtue of the continuous evaluation system, have achieved, in the framework of the ordinary evaluation system, some of the competences mentioned above, may attend these extraordinary exams under specific conditions.

These exams can be prepared through using sources and materials made available to students on PRADO.

Single final assessment

Those students who cannot follow the continuous evaluation assessment system for reasons regarding work, health, disability, mobility programs or any other duly justified may apply to the Head of the Department of Sociology, in the way and within the deadlines established in Article 8 of the current "Normativa de evaluación y de calificación de los estudiantes de la Universidad de Granada", may apply for single final assessment. The lecturer of the course is not competent to grant this type of evaluation. As far as possible, we recommend students to follow the continuous evaluation system.

In the case of the singel final assessment, the following instruments apply:

  • F) Assessment of cognitive competences:
    • Individual exam on the course's theoretical contents [mandatory]. Assessment criteria: 1) understanding of theoretical content covered throughout the course; 2) use of specialised language; 3) use of diverse theoretical content when analysing a given issue. Weighting: 50% of the final grade.
  • G) Assessment of instrumental and attitudinal competences:
    • Individual exam on the course's practical contents [mandatory]. Assessment criteria: 1) understanding of practical content covered throughout the course; 2) use of specialised language; 3) use of diverse practical tools when analysing a given issue. Weighting: 50% of the final grade.

These exams can be prepared through using sources and materials made available to students on PRADO.

Additional information

1) Following recommendations by CRUE Universidades Españolas and the Secretariat for Inclusion and Diversity of the UGR, the systems of acquisition and evaluation of competences included in this guide will be carried out in accordance with the principle of design for all people, facilitating learning and knowledge demonstration according to the specific needs and functional diversity of the students.

2) In this course, teaching of instrumental competences may use PoliSocioLAB (Laboratories of the Faculty of Political Sciences and Sociology), which includes: Quantitative Studies Laboratory (SPSS, R, Visual QSL, Bellview Cati, Phyton...), Qualitative Studies and Multimedia Analysis Laboratory (NVIVO, QDA miner liter, Gephy...) and Radio Laboratory. Depending on teaching coordination with other courses, such use may take place during the regular teaching schedule of the course or outside our regular schedule as complementary non-compulsory sessions.

3) It is reminded that the University of Granada has a Protocol to prevent, avoid and deal with possible situations of harassment of any kind. To this regard, please read this DECLARATION.

4) How does the "Sociology of the Life Course" course connect with sociologists' professional practice? Professor Matthias Wingens has explained that life-course studies are about "relating the dynamics of social structures to the dynamics of life courses and analyzing their interactions". Moreover, he makes this interesting remark: "Life course research is primarily interested in the asynchronies or synchronization problems between the social and the individual time dimension". A good example to this regard are efforts for facilitation of work-family reconciliation. Another example touches transitions into retirement and their impact on workers' lives depending on age, cohort and period effects. Generally speaking, the planning, implementation and evaluation of programs and policies articulating welfare regimes would need at some point input from life-course sociologists since temporalization and chronologization of our lives have increased dramatically.