Life course studies and inequality in Brazil: income inequality and socioeconomic disparities in health.

• Grant number: 13/01764-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: April 01, 2013
• End date: December 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Other specific Sociologies
• Principal Investigator: Nadya Araujo Guimarães
• Grantee: Flavio Alex de Oliveira Carvalhaes
• Host Institution: Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento (CEBRAP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The focus of this proposal lies on two types of socioeconomic inequality. I plan to analyze income inequalities and socioeconomic disparities in health in Brazil. What unites such different themes is the analytical approach I use to interpret them. Trough both life course and cumulative dis/advantage discussions I make an effort to interpret these two important themes about inequality in the country. Both perspectives help me highlight the meaning of age and time in the structuring of these two types of inequality in Brazil. In the study of income inequality I try to highlight how the sociological approach to socioeconomic inequalities is useful in the interpretation of how the occupational structure and educational achievement of Brazilians relate to structure inequality. What is particularly new in our approach is the specific focus on time trough the use of models that are specifically developed to scrutinize time-dependent effects. We also make use of life course perspectives to study socioeconomic disparities in health. Trough the focus on how age and education interact, we test the hypothesis of the accumulation of inequality in health over the life course. The objective of the proposal is twofold. We want both to understand the themes in focus and their dynamics, but we also want to make inferences about how inequalities in general are structured in the life course of Brazilians. Taking two different paths, this is the final objective of the proposal.