A Companion to Life Course Studies: The Social and Historical Context of the British Birth Cohort Studies

Since the end of the Second World War, society has been characterised by rapid and extensive political, economic, scientific, and technological change. Britain, uniquely, has five large-scale life course studies that began at intervals throughout that period, which have shown how lives are shaped by individual characteristics, their past and current experiences and opportunities, and so reflect their times. This book describes those fundamental changes, and examines the innovations in government policy that were made in accordance with them.