RICERCA ITALIANA     

BIOGRAPHICAL TRANSITIONS: A COMPARISON BETWEEN OBJECTS AND MODELS.

Università degli Studi di Torino

Abstract

Our research is dedicated to the study of biographical transitions using a combination of competences and research methods pertaining to two disciplines, sociology and social psychology. The expression "biographical transition" indicates a process by which one or more individuals move from one state to another, thus modifying – partially or wholly – their personal identity profile and/or the set of social relationships of which they are a part. The study of these processes is directed at understanding the significance attributed to the passages by the social actors involved, and explaining the factors which determine possible outcomes.
Two broad classes of biographical transition will be analyzed, the first defined as normative or near-normative, the second as non-normative. We consider normative or near-normative those transitions which can be expected for most people, and which are sometimes regulated by norms in the strictest sense, sometimes by social conventions; non-normative transitions are those which are not regulated by norms or social pressures. These two concepts will guide the creation of our repertory of biographical transitions, defined through a procedure of theoretical sampling. More specifically, the cases will be chosen for their theoretical relevance, in other words their capacity to illustrate the implications for identity and social relations specific to the two classes of transition.
Each class is represented by three types of >>>

Principal Investigator

Mario CARDANO Università degli Studi di TORINO

Research Objectives

The research program elaborated by the local units of Naples, Trento and Turin (two local units are based, respectively, in the departments of Social Science and Psychology of the University of Turin) is dedicated to the study of biographical transitions. The expression "biographical transition" indicates a process by which one or more individuals move from one state to another, thus modifying – partially or wholly – their personal identity profile and/or the set of social relationships of which they are a part (Elder 1985; Bronfenbrenner 1979; Saraceno 2001; Olagnero 2004).
The study of these processes is directed at understanding the significance attributed to the passages by the social actors involved, and explaining the factors which determine possible outcomes. Our focus on the latter aspect will be developed in two directions: one epistemic, aimed at enriching scientific knowledge of the phenomenon, the other operative, aimed at identifying useful indications for public policies designed to prevent or counteract undesirable outcomes.
The research program is characterized by a strong multidisciplinary orientation. The repertory of biographical transitions will be analyzed using a combination of different disciplines (sociology, psychology and pedagogy) and, within each disciplinary field, different specializations (sociology of cultural processes, sociology of economic and work processe, developmental and educational psychology, work and organizational >>>

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

In very general terms a biographical transition can be defined as a change of position in time or in social space, or the transition from one space-time complex to another. The two dimensions, time and social space, emerge from the comparison of two theoretical frameworks, the life course theory and the ecology of human development, derived respectively from sociology and psychology, the two disciplines which together form the basis of this research.
From the life course perspective, transitions are "changes of state, more or less radical, within a trajectory" (Olagnero and Saraceno 1993: 69). The notion of trajectory has, in this framework, a clear temporal connotation, referring to the "path followed in a given experience or position with the passage of time" (ibid). These transitions, which can be identified by comparing a before and an after, may originate in specific life events or in changes involving the larger social context within which the trajectories of single individuals unwind.
In Bronfenbrenner's scheme, attention is shifted from time to social space. In the framework of human development a transition, or more precisely an "ecological transition", occurs "every time an individual's position in the ecological environment changes following a change of role, environmental situation, or both." (Bonfenbrenner 1979, trad. It. 1986: 61) Thus, just as in the life course perspective the notion of social space is associated with the notion of >>>