Editorial, Historical Life Course Studies (original) (raw)
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Historical life course studies, 2023
Historical Life Course Studies is the electronic journal of the European Historical Population Samples Network (EHPS-Net). The journal is the primary publishing outlet for research involved in the conversion of existing European and non-European large historical demographic databases into a common format, the Intermediate Data Structure, and for studies based on these databases. The journal publishes both methodological and substantive research articles. Methodological Articles This section includes methodological articles that describe all forms of data handling involving large historical databases, including extensive descriptions of new or existing databases, syntax, algorithms and extraction programs. Authors are encouraged to share their syntaxes, applications and other forms of software presented in their article, if pertinent, on the EHPS-Net website. Research articles This section includes substantive articles reporting the results of comparative longitudinal studies that are demographic and historical in nature, and that are based on micro-data from large historical databases.
Sowing - The construction of Historical Longitudinal Population Databases
Radboud University Press, 2023
Twenty-three major databases containing historical longitudinal population data are presented and discussed in this edited volume, focusing on their aims, content, design, and structure. Some of these databases are based on pure longitudinal sources, such as population registers that continuously observe and record demographic events, including migration and family and household composition. Other databases are family reconstitutions, based on civil records. The third and last category consists of semi-longitudinal databases, that combine, for instance, civil records and censuses and/ or tax registers. The volume traces the origins of historical longitudinal databases from the 1970s and discusses their expansion worldwide, in terms of sources and hard- and software. The contributions highlight the unique genesis and common developmental arcs of these databases, which are rooted in the fields of quantitative history, social and demographic history, and the history of ordinary people. The importance of these databases in advancing knowledge and insights in various disciplines is emphasized and demonstrated, along with the challenges and opportunities they face. The collection of technical descriptions of these databases represents the most comprehensive and up-to-date overview of large databases with longitudinal micro-data on historical populations. It includes descriptions of databases from Europe, North America, East Asia, Australia, South Africa, and Suriname. Technical details, in terms of data entry, cleaning, standardization, and record linkage are meticulously documented. The volume is a must-have for all scholars in the field of historical life course studies.
The Intermediate Data Structure (IDS) for Longitudinal Historical Microdata, version 4
Historical Life Course Studies, 2014
The Intermediate Data Structure (IDS) is a standard data format that has been adopted by several large longitudinal databases on historical populations. Since the publication of the first version in Historical Social Research in 2009, two improved and extended versions have been published in the Collaboratory Historical Life Courses. In this publication we present version 4 which is the latest ‘official’ standard of the IDS. Discussions with users over the last four years resulted in important changes, like the inclusion of a new table defining the hierarchical relationships among ‘contexts’, decision schemes for recording relationships, additional fields in the metadata table, rules for handling stillbirths, a reciprocal model for relationships, guidance for linking IDS data with geospatial information, and the introduction of an extended IDS for computed variables.
The Demographic Database — History of Technical and Methodological Achievements
Historical Life Course Studies
The Demographic Data Base (DDB) at the Centre for Demographic and Ageing Research (CEDAR) at Umeå University has since the 1970s been building longitudinal population databases and disseminating data for research. The databases were built to serve as national research infrastructures, useful for addressing an indefinite number of research questions within a broad range of scientific fields, and open to all academic researchers who wanted to use the data. A countless number of customized datasets have been prepared and distributed to researchers in Sweden and abroad and to date, the research has resulted in more than a thousand published scientific reports, books, and articles within a broad range of academic fields. This article will focus on the development of techniques and methods used to store and structure the data at DDB from the beginning in 1973 until today. This includes digitization methods, database design and methods for linkage. The different systems developed for imple...
Longitudinal Analysis of Historical Demographic Data
2015
This study contains teaching materials developed over a period of years for a four-week workshop, Longitudinal Analysis of Historical Demographic Data (LAHDD), offered through the ICPSR Summer Program in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013, with one-day alumni workshops in 2010, 2012, and 2014. Instructors in the workshops are listed below. Funding was provided by The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, grants R25-HD040525 and R25-HD-049479, the ICPSR Summer Program and the ICPSR Director. The course was designed to teach students the theories, methods, and practices of historical demography and to give them first-hand experience working with historical data. This training is valuable not only to those interested in the analysis historical data. The techniques of historical demography rest on methodological insights that can be applied to many problems in population studies and other social sciences. While historical demography remains a flou...
2009
Konzept einer intermediären Datenstruktur (IDS) zur Integration national unterschiedlicher Datenbanken«. In recent years, studies of historical populations have shifted from tracing large-scale processes to analyzing longitudinal micro data in the form of 'life histories'. This approach expands the scope of social history by integrating data on a range of life course events. The complexity of life-course analysis, however, has limited most researchers to working with one specific database. We discuss methodological problems raised by longitudinal historical data and the challenge of converting life histories into rectangular datasets compatible with statistical analysis systems. The logical next step is comparing life courses across local and national databases, and we propose a strategy for sharing historical longitudinal data based on an intermediate data structure (IDS) that can be adopted by all databases. We describe the benefits of the IDS approach and activities that will advance the goals of simplifying and promoting research with longitudinal historical data.
Dancing with Dirty Data: Problems in the Extraction of Life-Course Evidence from Historical Censuses
Population Reconstruction, 2015
This chapter builds on a recent use of SVM classification to create linked sets of Canadian 1871 and 1881 census records. The census data are imprecise and have limited granularity; many records share identical detail. In spite of these challenges, the SVM generates life-course information for large numbers of individuals with a low (3 %) false positive error rate. However, there is a higher incidence of error among apparent migrants when the true rate of migration is small. The linked data are broadly representative of the population with some underrepresentation of illiterates, young adults (especially unmarried women), older people (especially men), and married people of French origin. The new longitudinal data are of considerable research value but users must take into account these weaknesses.
A computerized approach to the processing and analysis of life histories obtained in sample surveys
Behavioral Science, 1969
Life histories undeniably offer many advantages, especially in examining sequences of behavior. Their high cost and difficulties in analyzing large numbers have restricted the use of life histories to case studies. In a sample survey of 1640 men in Monterrey, Mexico, partial life histories were systematically obtained on residence, education, marital status and family formation, health impairment, and work.