The Dictionary of Human Geography

life expectancy The additional number of
years of life that individuals who reach a cer-
tain age can anticipate. It is calculated by
using current data onmortalityand making
assumptions about future trends in growth
rates within the framework of thelife table.
Life expectancy is most often reported for in-
dividuals at age zero (i.e. at birth) and shows
marked variation over space and time, and by
sex andethnicity/race(Shaw, Davey and
Dorling, 2005). Such variations are linked to
the access that individuals and groups have to
economic, social and political resources, mak-
ing life expectancy a surrogate measure of
social justicewithin society (e.g. thehuman
development indexcompares overall well-being
between societies and is calculated using life
expectancy, measures of knowledge and
standard of living). ajb

Suggested reading
Weeks (1999, ch. 4).

life table An accounting framework that
shows how many persons die before, and
survive beyond, successive birthdays. The
methodology dates to the seventeenth century
and calculates, among other measures,life
expectancyon the basis of how many mem-
bers of a hypothetical cohort of 100,000
newly borns survive to reach each of their
subsequent birthdays, assuming that the pat-
tern of age specific death rates that prevailed
at the moment of birth continues into the
future. While the intermediate information
on survival rates continues to be of direct
interest to those calculating insurance and
pension premiums, the related method of sur-
vival analysis has emerged as an important tool
in longitudinal studies of migration, marriage
and poverty (Plane and Rogerson, 1994). ajb

Suggested reading
Rowland (2003, ch. 8).

life course/life-cycle The notion of life
course has largely replaced life-cycle in social
science research, to call attention to the
socially constructed nature of shifts in experi-
ence and practice associated with ageing.
Research examines both the normative pat-
terns of behaviour associated with different
life stages, and the relationships among social
actors at different stages, weaving together
production and social reproduction to
address such issues as child and elder care,
labour force participation, residentialmobil-
ity and migration(see McDowell, 2003;

Bailey, Blake and Cooke, 2004). While stages

in the life course are associated with biological

age, these associations vary across time and

place, given widespread differences in life

expectancy and chances depending on polit-

ical economic conditions. ck

Suggested reading

Cortesi, Cristaldi and Fortuijn (2004); Katz and

Monk (1993).

lifeworld Synonymous with thetaken-for-

granted world, the everyday lifeworld of

habitual actions and attitudes is the founda-

tional setting of Schutzianphenomenology

and the closely relatedsymbolic interac-

tionismof G.H. Mead. Introduced to geog-

raphers in the humanistic geography of

Anne Buttimer (1976) and others, lifeworld

comprised the relational and meaningful

places of direct experience where intentional

actions unfolded and identity was assembled.

Lifeworld is socio-centric and corporeal in its

range and clarity. However, it is not static but,

as Buttimer stressed, dynamic, concerned with

movement and rhythm that integrates parts

into an experienced whole, with routines that

sediment a way of life in a geographic setting

(Mels, 2004). Such a fusion of intersubjective

meaning and physical location is inherent to

the geographies ofhome,communityand

nation. The lifeworld is a basic building

block in attempts to construct a meta-social

theory by Berger and Luckmann, Giddens

and others. In his influential formulation,

Ju ̈rgen Habermas counters the practical inter-

subjective interests of the lifeworld, retrieved

throughhermeneuticstudy, with the instru-

mentality of political and economic systems

accounted for through positivist methods (see

critical theory). dl

Suggested reading

Dyck (1995); Jackson and Smith (1984, ch. 2);

Mels (2004).

limits to growth The proposition, central to

much modernenvironmentalism, that the

finiteness of biophysical resources places

absolute limits on demographic and economic

growth. Although the idea is important in clas-

sical political economy, the phrase entered

widespread modern circulation only in 1972,

when it appeared as the title of a report by a

group known as the Club of Rome (Meadows,

Meadows, Randers and Brehens, 1972).

Based on early exercises in computer model-

ling, the report argued that humanity was on

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_L Final Proof page 418 31.3.2009 2:44pm

LIFE EXPECTANCY