ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how societal changes across historical time intersect with change at the level of the individual and this has included change that take place within a lifetime and across generations. ‘Childhood’ provides a useful means of looking at the intersection of society and the individual because discussions about childhood, and the nature of childhood, are often deeply emotive and visceral and can galvanise different societal concerns at particular moments in time. Change following a transition is not something that just occurs within a person, through maturation. There are a number of substantive areas of investigation in qualitative longitudinal research that specifically speak to the link between society and the individual. One way to avoid the unnecessary split between the individual or society is to focus on ‘mediated action’
