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Panel on Transitions to Adulthood in Developed Countries (2006-2009)
Call for papers
Seminar on Early Adulthood in Time and Space: Multidimensional
and Multilevel Perspectives
Organized by the IUSSP Panel on Transitions
to Adulthood in Developed Countries,
the Dondena Centre, Università Bocconi, Milan, Italy, and
the French National Institute of Demographic Studies (INED), Paris, France
Paris, France, 26-27 June 2008
Transition to adulthood may be described as the acquisition of various adult roles, including the transition from school to work, transitions to financial independence, residential independence, partnership (through cohabitation or marriage) and parenthood.
Recent research has shown that transitions to adulthood in developed countries vary greatly across societies, and often change quickly within a society. Also, societies are heterogeneous both because of social stratification and because of cultural variation, and gender differences in the transitions to adulthood still remain. Institutional variation (i.e., welfare regimes) and cultural differences (e.g., normative expectations) are not sufficient per se to explain such variation across time and space. A multilevel approach, where macro-level determinants are studied together with micro-level determinants (at the family, household, or individual level) is therefore essential to explain transitions to adulthood. Meso-level factors (e.g., related to the community or to the region) may also play important roles. Papers using this macro-(meso)-micro explanatory framework will be welcome in this seminar.
The consequences of transitions to adulthood, especially when conceived as complex trajectories, have not been thoroughly investigated so far. Some of the social and economic consequences are known, e.g. the adverse consequences of teenage motherhood on education, work careers and income, although their international variation (and therefore the role of macro-level factors) is under-investigated. Other consequences, such as the demographic ones, are also under-investigated. For example, does the transition to adulthood matter for parenthood and fertility? Does it matter for union stability? This will constitute the second line of research within the seminar.
Methods for the study of transitions to adulthood have advanced significantly
during recent years. Some have been used for complex descriptions (e.g.,
sequence analysis, information theory), others have been used in order
to explain the different paths to adulthood (e.g., hazard models and their
generalisations, causal modelling). The explanatory study of transitions
to adulthood should allow for the exploitation of best-practice longitudinal
data available in a limited set of societies as well as other data that
are more widely accessible.
This seminar welcomes contributions of innovative pieces of research on
what we know about the transition to adulthood, seen as a set of interrelated
processes concerning the transition from education to work, residential
autonomy, and family formation. Especially welcome are contributions that
bridge theory and empirical analysis, perform international comparisons,
analyse behaviour from a multilevel, multiprocess longitudinal perspective,
assess the socioeconomic or demographic consequences of the transition
to adulthood.
Although the focus is on developed countries, contributions on early adulthood at the global level or comparisons between developed and developing countries are welcome.
The IUSSP Scientific Panel on Transitions
to Adulthood in Developed Countries invites researchers in the above
field to submit a short abstract (no more than 300 words) and a detailed
abstract (and if the author(s) wish, a full paper which must be unpublished)
and fill out the online
submission form before 11 April 2008
If the paper is co-authored, please indicate the names of co-authors at
the end of the abstract. Submission should be made by the author who will
attend the seminar.
Abstracts must be submitted in English only and the working language at the meeting is English. In addition to dissemination through posting on the member-restricted portion of the IUSSP website, seminar organizers will explore possibilities for publishing the papers in a scientific journal, after the seminar.
Applicants will be notified whether their paper has been accepted by 21 April 2008. In the case of acceptance on the basis of an abstract, the completed paper must be uploaded on the IUSSP website by 31 May 2008.
Current funding for the seminar is very limited; efforts are under way to raise additional funds, but the outcome is at this point uncertain. Participants are therefore encouraged to seek their own funding to cover the cost of their participation in the seminar. Those who are applying for financial assistance from the IUSSP should indicate their need when they submit by ticking the appropriate box on the on-line submission form when submitting paper or abstract.
For more information, please contact Francesco Billari (francesco.billari@uni-bocconi.it) and Laurent Toulemon (toulemon@ined.fr).
IUSSP Scientific Panel on Transitions to Adulthood in Developed Countries
Francesco C. Billari (DONDENA, Università Bocconi, Milan, Italy),
Chair
Ann Evans (The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia)
Beth Fussell (Tulane University, New Orleans, USA)
Aart C. Liefbroer (NIDI, The Hague and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The
Netherlands)
Laurent Toulemon (INED, Paris, France)