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Social Science General

Opportunity and Uncertainty

Life Course Experiences of the Class of '73

by (author) Paul Anisef & Paul Axelrod

Publisher
University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Initial publish date
Nov 2000
Category
General, Research, Demography
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780802083647
    Publish Date
    Nov 2000
    List Price
    $49.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442678101
    Publish Date
    Oct 2000
    List Price
    $103.00
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780802048356
    Publish Date
    Nov 2000
    List Price
    $81.00

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Out of print

This edition is not currently available in bookstores. Check your local library or search for used copies at Abebooks.

Description

Based on the longest running panel study of its kind in Canada, this book examines events in the lives of a generation of Ontario residents who graduated from grade twelve in 1973. The study recreates the world of the early 1970s in which these high school students faced the future. It recounts their educational and occupational experiences in the late 1970s, follows their vocational and career pathways during the subsequent decade, and searches for patterns in their personal and family lives through the late 1980s and early 1990s. By painting a portrait of a little-known cohort, this interdisciplinary project provides a wealth of information about the links between schooling and employment in a time of economic instability and addresses the different ways in which women and men attempt to reconcile familial and occupational demands.

The study employs life course theory, which explores the dynamic relationship between the individual and the social order. Structural forces such as social class, gender, ethnicity, and race played an unmistakable role in the lives of the Class of '73. So, too, did human agency. Using survey research, historical documentation, in-depth interviews, and personal biographies, the authors seek to explain one generation's emergence from adolescence into adulthood in an era characterised by both opportunity and uncertainty.

About the authors

Paul Anisef is a professor of Sociology and associate director of the Centre of Excellence for Research in Immigration and Settlement (CERIS) at York University.

Paul Anisef's profile page

Paul Axelrod is professor and former dean of the Faculty of Education at York University.

Paul Axelrod's profile page