Generations and the life-course(s): a longitudinal approach to the contemporary demographic phenomena

Abstract

Demography is an essential discipline, transversal to all the Social Sciences. It also maintains a particularly tight link with Sociology, given their shared use of theories and methods of analysis. Despite its relevance, publications dealing with the study of social processes from a specifically demographic point of view are still relatively scarce in Spain. To contribute to filling this gap, the Sociology of Population and Demography Research Committee of the Spanish Federation of Sociology (FES) coordinates this special issue, which revolves around one of Demography’s main contributions to the Social Sciences: the longitudinal perspective. As starting point, this article reflects on the relevance that Demography has for the study of social processes, highlighting the necessity to take longitudinal approaches as a generational or a biographical perspective to explore the main demographic challenges that contemporary societies are faced with: family formation, fertility, health, and ageing.