Colloquium Series: Peter Marsden, Harvard University

Life Course Events and Network Composition
Presented by Peter V. Marsden
Edith and Benjamin Geisinger Professor of Sociology, Harvard University

Life course transitions—such as entry into marriage, divorce, labor market entry, or retirement—prompt people to increase their involvement in some social foci (e.g. family, workplace, neighborhood) and decrease it in others, thereby heightening or dampening opportunities for contact with different types of people.  This colloquium examines variations in the composition of social networks associated with important life course phases and transitions.  Drawing on both cross-sectional and longitudinal data from the General Social Survey (GSS), it examines the extent to which networks are composed of social contacts such as family, friends, and neighbors, and how this differs both between people at distinct life course stages and within people who move from one state to another.