Glen H. Elder, Jr., and the Importance of Lived Experience

Abstract

This special issue of Research in Human Development celebrates the work of Glen H. Elder, Jr., founder of the life course paradigm. Central to this perspective is the embeddedness of individual development as it reflects social context changing through time and across place. In exploring these themes, Elder acknowledges the importance of “lived experience”—what happens to real people in the real world in all of its complexity. The contributors to this special issue—criminologists, psychologists, and sociologists—discuss how his foundational insights have animated their research on diverse aspects of behavioral development.