Mapping inequalities through the life course

The MapIneq project studies the trends and drivers of intergenerational, educational, labour market and health inequalities over the life course during the last decades. Our main driving research questions are: 1. How do local and national opportunity structures enhance, suppress or mediate inequalities? 2. How do changes and spillovers across the life domains and over life course contribute to inequalities? 3. How are inequalities influenced by policies and societal shocks? Opportunity structures refer to social institutions, demographic and macroeconomic conditions and socio-environmental context, which we analyse across countries, regions and localities. We focus on societal changes influencing inequalities, including those related to family diversity and complexity, fertility, migration and population ageing, digitalization, the 2007-08 global financial crisis and how the covid-19 pandemic revealed and exacerbated inequalities. We compile a policy database of the educational, family, labour market, social benefits and tax-related policies, matched with subnational-level information on social and institutional structures and physical environments. This results in an easy-to-use, open access MapIneq product which consists of visualization and mapping tools, all underlying data, statistical programming tools, and open-access code. We link the information in the database to individual-level longitudinal and cross-country datasets to study the dynamic interplay between the spheres of life. This research is conducted under life-course stage specific work packages: Inequalities in the early childhood and families, Educational inequalities, Inequalities in school-to-work transitions, Unequal mid-career trajectories and Labour market exits. We consider how the covered societal changes are linked with the perceptions on inequalities across and within countries. We co-create solutions through discussion fora for stakeholder groups across multiple levels of governance.