When demography and lifecourse research meet

On Pentecost Sunday, Dr Juvenal Urbino tried to save his parrot from a mango tree. He climbed a ladder, slipped and fell, ending his life at the age of 81 years. His grieving widow, the 71-year-old Fermina Daza, set up a wake the same evening. After the guests had paid their respects, the president of the riverboat company, 76-year-old Florentino Ariza approached the widow. To her dismay he declared: ‘I have waited for this opportunity for more than half a century, to repeat to you once again my vow of eternal fidelity and everlasting love’ (Garcia Marquez, 1989, p 50). Needless to say, the widow threw him out.

Ariza's out-of-place behaviour is the starting point for Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s world-renowned novel Love in the time of cholera. In this book, Garcia Marquez sends the reader on a journey with Florentino Ariza, starting with his first encounter with Fermina Daza in their teens. After a short period of courtship, Fermina rejected Ariza's advances and instead married the well-situated Doctor Urbino. While Ariza moved on with his life, he could not forget about Fermina and used the first opportunity that presented itself to reiterate his devotion to her. Unfortunately this was decades too late, at her deceased husband's wake. We will not spoil the book by telling what happened next, but instead would like to draw your attention to the fact that it is much easier to understand Ariza’s impromptu declaration after learning about his history with the widow. This is what scholars call a ‘lifecourse perspective’.

The lifecourse perspective looks at the activities and situations of individuals over time. In its most extensive form, it follows them from the cradle to the grave. The sequence of activities and life situations from birth to death is called the lifecourse. The rationale behind the lifecourse perspective is that experiences do not only have immediate effects, but can also affect lives years or even decades into the future (Elder, 1994; Grenier, 2012). For example, the education that youths receive affects their labour market careers when they are of mid-age, the timing of their retirement, and how much pension benefits they receive when they are old (Strandh and Nordlund, 2008; Komp et al, 2010; Vignoli and De Santis, 2010).