Doing Transitions in the Life Course: Processes and Practices contributes to the
book series Life Course Research and Social Policies by providing a new perspective
on transitions in the life course. Transitions are a central element of life course
research and the object of social policies that undergird the institutionalized life
course and affect the life trajectories of individuals.
This book is the culmination of a longer process of academic networking - and
a document that reflects the transformation from being colleagues to becoming
friends: in 2014, Rick Settersten accepted the invitation of Andreas Walther and
Barbara Stauber to serve as a "critical friend" in the process of developing a proposal
to the German Research Foundation (DFG) to fund a research training group
on how transitions in the life course are shaped, practiced, and performed.
The "Doing Transitions" program was successfully funded for a first phase
(2017-2021) and is now in its second phase (2021-2025). It is a joint partnership
between Goethe University Frankfurt and the University of Tübingen, and codirected
by Walther and Stauber at these respective institutions. Two cohorts of
early career researchers (30 thus far) have conducted their PhDs in this framework
or are in the process of doing so.
Along the way, our partnership, the evolution of the framework and research, and
the progress of the students have been especially facilitated by constructive
exchanges and presentations at international conferences held in Frankfurt (2017)
and Tübingen (2020). These encounters and discussions generated many exciting
ideas expressed through student and faculty projects on how transitions are "done"
from childhood through old age, and in schooling, work and careers, social policies,
family, health, and other domains and contexts.
The second phase of the program has emphasized a relational perspective, which
is also foundational to this book, which began to take shape during the second international
conference, in Tübingen in February 2020, just weeks before the COVID-19
pandemic unfurled so dramatically across the globe. We remain eternally grateful
that we had the opportunity to be together in that moment before the world
shut down.
