Welcome to the Social History Society

Life-cycles and Life-styles

This conference strand considers the role of life-cycles and life-styles as key elements of everyday life, tracing their manifestations across time and space. Contributors may consider the centrality of ages and stages of the human life-cycle in shaping historical subjectivities. The construction and differentiation of these experiences may be addressed in their biological, medical, social, political and cultural contexts. Contributors might examine the shifting material dimensions of everyday life and/or changing understandings of temporality and belief. Papers could also probe the relationship between life-courses and patterns of memory, both in an individual and a collective sense. Concepts of transition (e.g. rites of passage) between life stages will be considered alongside themes of time, age, generation and agency.

The second key focus falls upon life-styles and their social meanings, which may be explored within a variety of contexts, including material culture, sex and gender, religious beliefs, political, social and cultural identities. The conference strand will examine the relationship between life-styles and the creation of personal identities, whilst also debating whether life-styles were products or creations of social fragmentation by class, gender, ethnicity or ‘race’. Contributors may also consider the way in which transnational processes – from migration to cultural transfers – have influenced life-styles.

Submissions are welcomed which address these themes, whether in relation to individuals, groups or societies. Contributors can pitch their enquiries into life-cycles or life-styles at a variety of levels, allowing for a scope that ranges from micro-historical case studies to global approaches.


Strand Convenors:
Daniel Laqua: daniel.laqua@northumbria.ac.uk
Jane Hamlett: Jane.Hamlett@rhul.ac.uk
Sasha Handley: sasha.handley@northumbria.ac.uk

Enquiries about specific strands should be addressed to the relevant Strand Convenors.
For general enquiries about the conference, please contact Linda Persson, the Administrative Secretary: L.Persson@lancaster.ac.uk

Papers presented at the Conference can be submitted to the Society’s journal, Cultural and Social History, to be considered for publication. For details, see
http://www.socialhistory.gellius.net/Journal.php