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The purpose of this chapter is to reconsider the five principles of Elder et al.'s (2003) life course theory while centering disability status as an axis of inequality. We use existing research from the fields of the sociology of disability, disability studies, and aging and the life course to reflect on ways in which each life course principle can better attend to the experiences of disabled people. We start with the principle of time and place and discuss how cohort and period effects facilitate a deeper understanding of disabled people's experiences historically. Next, we analyze the principle of timing with an emphasis on cumulative dis/advantage to establish how disability status is an axis of inequality that contributes to the accumulation of social disadvantage and intersects with other axes of inequality (e.g., race, class, and gender). Then, we discuss the two principles of agency and linked lives and employ the concept of “bounded agency” to describe how ableism limits the agency of disabled people. Finally, we examine the principle of life-span development and discuss how adaptation and resilience are contextual and an ordinary part of human experiences. We conclude by offering recommendations for both life course and disability scholars to consider in hopes of broadening our theoretical and empirical knowledge about the lives of disabled people at every stage of the life course and the mechanisms by which resources are stratified by disability and age.

About 80 per cent of consumers in the world reside in emerging consumer markets (ECM). Thus, consumer behaviour theories and models should be tested for validation in ECM such as South Africa (socio-economically and culturally diverse). The purpose of this paper is to test three (human capital, stress and socialization) life-course theoretical perspectives on materialism among South African young adults. Employing the three life-course theoretical perspectives, it was posited that disruptive family events experienced during adolescence will affect materialism at young adulthood directly and indirectly through family resources received, perceived stress from family disruptions and peer communication about consumption.

In total, 300 South African young adults were surveyed. Structural equation modelling was used to test eight hypotheses developed from the three life-course theoretical perspectives on materialism. Independent-samples t-test was first conducted to assess whether the respondents were materialistic.

The South African young adults were found to be materialistic and this was explained by peer communication about consumption during adolescence (socialization life-course theoretical perspective). Disruptive family events experienced during adolescence significantly affected family resources negatively, and perceived stress positively, but these outcomes had no impact on materialism at young adulthood as the human capital and stress life-course theoretical perspectives suggest.

The results reinforce the need to test the validity of western theories in an African context. The test can improve theories and can help advance knowledge about consumer diversity across cultures.

Purpose: In this chapter, we develop a concept of social biographies which draws on social network and life course theories to examine how a diverse set of social relationships impacts health of sexual and gender minority (SGM) people over time.

Design/methodology/approach: We provide an overview of several decades of research on SGM people's social relationships, organizing this research within a social biographies framework.

Findings: We theorize about the importance of both the structure and content of SGM people's social networks for health, how these social relationships interact with each other, how these social biographies and their impacts shift across SGM cohorts and over the life course, and how they further are shaped by the intersection of a range of factors (e.g., race/ethnicity, social class).

Social biographies can remain constant or change over time, and relationships of all types and durations have the power to significantly improve or undermine health. This is in part because social ties both buffer and exacerbate the inimical effects of stress on health.

Originality/value: Traditional conceptualizations of relationships fail to reflect the diversity of relationships in SGM lives. Studying this diversity deepens our view of how social biographies influence health and how health inequities between SGM and cisgender and heterosexual (cishet) populations emerge. Studying social biographies of SGM people using theoretical and methodological tools from life course and social network perspectives reveals existing voids in the current literature, enabling researchers to better understand the shifting nature of social relationships in the twenty-first century.

To understand how young men with disabilities react against overarching narratives of independence during the transition to adulthood in independent living and interdependent living arrangements with parents in order to address the gap between transition policy and real lived experience.

I use life history interviews and ethnographic “go-alongs” with nine men with mobility impairments to understand how they experience and make sense of independent living and interdependence during the transition to adulthood. Transcripts and field notes were analyzed using grounded theory methodology.

Data reveal diverging pathways participants took to interdependent living situation, rooting before transition, and returning during transition. These pathways are shaped by logics of residential decision-making: accessibility expectations and individual adaptability. Those who rooted before transition developed accessibility expectations that motivated them to remain living their parents’ homes while those who returned during transition relied on individual adaptability to overcome physical inaccessibility. Individual adaptability did not overcome inaccessibility – all returned to their parents’ homes. Pathways shape how each group of participants experienced and made sense of interdependent living arrangements and independent living. Those who rooted before transition found interdependence to be a route to increased independence, and did not consider independent living a marker of adulthood. Those who returned during transition found that the interdependence they experienced increased feelings of dependence.

Experiences and meanings emerging adults with disabilities have during the transition to adulthood reveal the complexity of interdependence and independent living. The pathways and the social forces shaping those pathways to interdependent living arrangements have implications for life course theory and disability policy.

Two life-course theories (human capital and socialization) were employed to examine how childhood family resources received and peer communication about clothes shopping influence consumer decision-making styles (CDMS) at young adulthood.

Young adults (18–35 years old) were surveyed from two large African economies: South Africa (N = 306) and Nigeria (N = 272). The participants were surveyed at the economic capitals (Johannesburg and Lagos) of both countries to identify and explain CDMS related to clothes shopping. Structural equation modeling and multi-group analyses were used to analyze data.

The results found six CDMS in both countries, dominated by four utilitarian dimensions (perfectionist, price, quality and time/shopping uninterested consciousness). Structural equation modeling results revealed that family resources and peer communication received during adolescence predicted most of the six CDMS in both countries. Multi-group analyses found that there were no country differences in constructs' relationships.

From the results that young adults in both countries displayed more utilitarian than symbolic decision-making styles when shopping for clothing, it is suggested that retailers and other companies provide value-for-money to capture and retain this large, lucrative, but disloyal, young adult consumer segment.

Since 1986, when eight consumer decision-making styles were identified, studies of CDMS over the last three decades have focused on validating the scale and exploring demographic and cultural differences. Few studies have examined CDMS drivers, but not using a life-course approach.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to describe and evaluate the life grid as a methodology for historical research; and to provide an example application investigating the dynamics of family meals over a lifetime by pairing life course theory with the life grid method of obtaining oral histories.

To explore how the meanings and processes of meals change, the authors conducted interviews with 15 respondents aged 80 years old and over, on the topic of family meals.

The paper discusses the merits of using the life grid method to analyze lifetime family consumption behavior. The findings of this example study provide insight as to how the roles, responsibilities, and loyalties of our participants had changed through births, deaths, marriages, wars, economic periods, illnesses, and the process of aging, leading to changes in dining.

The benefit of the life grid method described in this paper is its ability to minimize recall bias. In addition, the overt process of cross‐referencing events throughout the course of the interviews via the life grid method proved to be a helpful aid in identifying patterns and symmetries during the interpretation stage.

This chapter focuses on the heterogeneous pathways (including marital and cohabiting union and parenting histories) through which people navigate their family life courses from adolescence through mid-life, and their implications for union dissolution in middle and later life. The analyses draw on data (retrospective, cross-sectional) from the 2011 and 2017 Canadian General Social Surveys. The study sample includes individuals aged 50 and over (n = 14,547) who were in a union at age 50. Sequence analyses are used to identify the most common family life course trajectories among these individuals from adolescence through midlife (ages 15–50). Logistic regression analyses then address the implications of these trajectories for union dissolution in middle and later life (ages 50+). The results reveal four main family trajectories that characterize the earlier years of the adult life course: married with children, cohabiting with children, single or cohabiting without children, and married without children. These family trajectories, together with their level of complexity, play an important role in relation to both marital and cohabiting union dissolution outcomes in later life.

The global pandemic has introduced a new normal as work–life integration (WLI) and work from home (WFH) have become a necessity rather than a nicety. This chapter explores the stories of women globally on WLI issues and offers a strategic framework for WFH that traces theoretical progressions while proposing a new perspective. This chapter is grounded in qualitative and phenomenological research, conducted by the Work–Life Integration Project, comprising findings from over 600 interviews collected from women around the world, including Costa Rica, India, Iran, Nigeria, Norway, Sri Lanka, Uganda, and the United States. These global narratives detail life experiences from childhood and adulthood to future goals using a life course methodology. A new best-practice framework emerged from these findings which provides tools for WLI and WFH: being whole, being innovative, and being real. These mechanisms stem from the evolution of work–life balance theory and practice, starting with Systems Theory, Life Course Framework, Life Stories and Gender Role, and Strategies for Life Balance. This chapter explores a new Life Integration Framework and how it may provide individuals worldwide with the knowledge and strategies necessary towards developing a more personalised ‘ideal’ and therefore increased hope and prosperity for the post-COVID world.

This research seeks to provide a historical review of the life cycle concept in marketing. The paper aims to show the development of traditional life cycle models and links to the life course perspective.

The authors relate to life events and transitions in consumers' life trajectories, life status, role transitions, and role identities as determinants of consumer behavior. The paper reveals future research potential in the field. Essentially, the authors demonstrate the need for life cycle models grounded on empirical data and discuss related methodological issues.

This paper provides a temporal systematization of theoretical and empirical life cycle research. The major outcome is an outline of conceptual and methodological research directions that enable researchers to follow the life course perspective and to derive empirically grounded life cycle models.

Providing chronological literature compilations and an evolutionary review of life cycle research, the authors identify future research directions. To encourage empirical development of the concept, the article also refers to the related methodological literature.

Both marketing thought and practitioners benefit from the insights presented. Marketing managers may better address consumers' changing needs over their lifetime, strengthen customer loyalty and reduce brand switching, thereby enhancing customer lifetime value.

This paper adds to the study of the consumer life cycle by providing a comprehensive anthology of life cycle research from 1910 to 2010. It shows major research streams and reveals future research potential in marketing.