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European Sociological Review Advance Access originally published online on August 25, 2008
European Sociological Review 2009 25(1):53-71; doi:10.1093/esr/jcn033
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Life Courses in the Globalization Process: The Development of Social Inequalities in Modern Societies

Sandra Buchholz, Dirk Hofäcker, Melinda Mills, Hans-Peter Blossfeld, Karin Kurz and Heather Hofmeister

Dirk Hofäcker, Staatsinstitut für Familienforschung an der Universität Bamberg (ifb), Heinrichsdamm 4, D-96047 Bamberg, Germany. Email: dirk.hofaecker{at}uni-bamberg.de
Melinda Mills, Department of Sociology/ICS, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, Grote Rozenstraat 31, 9712 TG, Groningen, The Netherlands. Email: m.c.mills{at}rug.nl
Hans-Peter Blossfeld, Lehrstuhl für Soziologie I, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, Postfach 1549, D-96045 Bamberg, Germany. Email: soziologie1{at}sowi.uni-bamberg.de
Karin Kurz, Universität Leipzig, Institut für Soziologie, Beethovenstraße 15, 04107 Leipzig, Germany. Email: kurz{at}sozio.uni-leipzig.de
Heather Hofmeister, Department of Sociology, RWTH Aachen University, Eilfschornsteinstr. 7, 52062 Aachen, Germany. Email: heather.hofmeister{at}rwth-aachen.de

Correspondence: Sandra Buchholz (to whom correspondence should be addressed), Lehrstuhl für Soziologie I, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, Postfach 1549, D-96045 Bamberg, Germany. Email: sandra.buchholz{at}uni-bamberg.de

This article examines the impact of the globalization process on individual life courses and employment careers in modern societies from an international comparative perspective. Empirical results are summarized from the GLOBALIFE research project (Life Courses in the Globalization Process), which studied the effects of globalization on life courses for the first time. As the results demonstrate, the globalization process has had diverse effects on different phases of the life course. Qualified men in their mid-careers are broadly protected from the effects of globalization, while young adults are the losers of the globalization process. We also find that educational and class characteristics determine the extent to which an individual faces increasing labour market risks. Under globalization, these effects have intensified. The results of the GLOBALIFE project thus indicate that globalization triggers a strengthening of existing social inequality structures. Another central finding is that globalization has not led to the same outcome across various modern societies. Globalization appears to be distinctly filtered by deeply embedded national institutions. These ‘institutional packages’ entail diverse strategies of labour market flexibilization which themselves differentially shape patterns of social inequality in modern societies.


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