This book presents and discusses an approach that connects processes at the individual level with those at the level of society, against a backdrop of shifting trends in social science perspectives on social change. The history-biography dynamic, as introduced by C. Wright Mills, is the book’s analytical frame of reference. Its relevance is traced from its origin in American pragmatist thought and Chicago sociology at the beginning of the 20th century. Throughout periods of rapid social change over this century an approach that looked into the intertwining of processes at both levels proved helpful from many methodological starting points. Quantitative longitudinal studies in psychology and sociology in the 1930s and 40s were forerunners to Glen Elder’s later contextualist life course approach inspired by Mills’ writings. The revival of the biographical approach in European and American sociology in the 1970s marked the starting point of a current vibrant research tradition. The book demonstrates how empirical studies from this approach can bridge methodological gaps between quantitative life course research and varieties of qualitative biographical designs. Such methodological approaches can together or separately, be applied to increase knowledge about processes that impact on societal conditions related to social class, gender, ethnicity and generational dimensions. weiterlesen