ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a conceptual union between individual-level factors and contextual considerations as they play out in life course change and personal agency. Sense of self is frequently portrayed from a “multilevel life course” perspective incorporating: situated interactions; structural aspects of social roles and group life; personal experience in time and place; and intrapersonal processes linked to biological and psychological processes of an ontogenetic or corporeal nature. In melding temporal perspectives, actors draw upon generative memories and proleptic imagery of plausible futures to steer a desired course, to plot their own destinies. Social roles are affirmational conduits between structural conditions and individual lives, and they are also constitutive of consciousness. Human capital is an amalgamation of personality, talents, training, competencies, physical, and/or psychological capabilities. The dynamic interleaving of fiduciary, psychological-physiological, and social-familial resources circumscribe life course, life space, and life chances.
