Timing transitions: Making sense of life course trajectories in the context of sustainability transitions through the lens of rhythms

Elisa Thevenot

doi:10.3384/rela.2000-7426.6155

Authors

Elisa Thevenot University of Tübingen https://orcid.org/0009-0005-3041-8250

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3384/rela.2000-7426.6155

Keywords:

rhythmic intelligence, rhythmanalysis, sustainability transitions, biographical learning, life course transitions

Abstract

Where institutional pathways are unclear, responses to sustainability transitions are largely individualised, marked by subjectivity and complexity, thereby placing the burden of navigating social change on individuals. This article argues that engaging with temporalities – particularly through rhythms and the practice of rhythmanalysis – offers valuable support for making sense of life-course transitions under uncertain and contested social change conditions. Drawing on biographical narratives with adults in professional transition, the paper examines how individuals connect personal life-course transitions to broader sustainability challenges. Using rhythms as a conceptual lens, the analysis and the subsequent discussion explore processes of sense-making, complex thinking, and engagement with wicked temporalities. This approach is advanced as a relevant resource for adult education in the context of rapid socio-ecological change. In doing so, the article contributes to ongoing debates on rethinking learning by expanding how the unfolding of lives can be framed and understood under complex and uncertain conditions.

Author Biography

Elisa Thevenot, University of Tübingen

Elisa Thevenot is a Margarete von Wrangell Postdoc Fellow in the Department of Social Pedagogies at the faculty of Educational Sciences of the University of Tübingen, Germany. This empirical study is a result of her PhD work conducted within DFG-funded interdisciplinary research training group ‘Doing Transitions – The Formation of Transitions over the Life Course’. Her research focuses on learning in the context of social change and sustainability education, with particular attention to the emergence of new knowledge and cultural practices.

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