生命时间的结构性

The Structuredness of the Life Time

时间结构的形成与变迁是时间社会学的重要主题之一。不同于以往研究仅聚焦在日常时间结构,本文主要聚焦在生命时间结构,并且试图论证两个命题。第一,生命时间结构意指生命时间被社会依照年龄,规划出人生在不同生命阶段当中所需扮演的角色与拥有的权利、义务;同时生命时间结构会随着社会变迁而改变。第二,生命时间结构可以粗略区分为两个变迁阶段,"生命历程的制度化"与"生命历程的去制度化"。通过这两个命题的确立,中国的生命时间结构的描述与分析,势必会是接下来值得、也需要继续进行的工作。

The formation and development of the structure of time is an important topic of the sociology of time.Different from most of the past studies which merely concentrate on the structure of daily time,the present essay focuses on the structure of life time and attempts to demonstrate two propositions.Firstly,the structure of life time means that the life time would be socially divided into several stages according to age.In each stage,people have corresponding role expectations.The structure of life time would change along with the social change.Secondly,in the process of modernization,we can distinguish two main phases of the changes of the structure of life time,namely the“institutionalization of life course”and the“de-institutionalization of life course”.With the analysis of the formation and development of the structure of life time,we might open a distinguished approach to study the life time in China.