This paper analyses the project of the private insurance sector to assume the role of protagonist in guaranteeing social protection and investigates its consequences for the management of inequalities. In Brazil, as in other countries, austerity policies have been implemented causing significant impacts on social insurance and benefits reduction. Based on multisite ethnographic research (2017-2019), developed with insurance market agents, this article analyses the processes of financialisation of social protection and popularisation of private insurance in contemporary Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
*SOCIOLOGY, *EQUALITY, *MODERNITY, *MODERN society
Abstract
In this paper, we trace a conceptual roadmap aimed at reconciling a life course perspective with the sociology of class and social inequality. We begin by presenting the life course perspective, reflecting on the central role it grants to processes of institutional regulation. Taking stock of critiques to both atomist explanations of agency and structural determinisms, we advocate for a longitudinal reading of how inequalities shape individual and collective trajectories, mobilizing concepts advanced by Pierre Bourdieu. We then demonstrate the potential of this approach to discuss how life course trajectories unfold in late modernity, drawing on recent research on Portugal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]