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Timescapes

An ESRC Qualitative Longitudinal Initiative

Timescapes was the first major qualitative longitudinal study to be funded in the UK, and explored how personal and family relationships develop and change over time. The original website for the project has been archived in the UK Web Archive:

Timescapes ran for five years from February 2007, and was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council under the ESRC Changing Lives and Times initiative. The broad aim was to scale up and promote Qualitative Longitudinal (QL) research, create an archive of data for preservation and sharing, and to demonstrate and encourage re-use of the resource. We achieved these aims through a network of empirical projects, the creation of an archive of QL data, a secondary analysis programme and a range of training and capacity building activities.

Timescapes Projects

The Timescapes projects explored how personal and family relationships develop and change over time.Our researchers focused on relationships with significant others: parents, grandparents, siblings, children, partners, friends and lovers.

We investigated how these relationships affected people's well-being and life chances, and considered the implications for the long term resourcing of families.

Siblings and Friends

The Changing Nature of Children's Lateral Relationships

Young Lives and Times

The Crafting of Young People's Relationships and Identities over Time

The Dynamics of Motherhood

An Intergenerational Project

Masculinities, Identities and Risk

Transition in the Lives of Men as Fathers

Work and Family Lives

The Changing Experiences of Young Families

Intergenerational Exchange

Grandparents, Social Exclusion and Health

The Oldest Generation

Events, Relationships and Identities in Later Life

Making the Long View

Sharing the inventing adulthoods project

Partners