Longitudinal Research. An Emergent Method in the Social Sciences

This chapter aims to discuss longitudinal research as a necessary tool for the study of social change. The problems of change have always occupied a central position in sociological thought. The modern social sciences have emerged as a response to an era of very rapid, all-embracing social changes and to the consequent need for greater understanding of social, economic, and political processes. However, even though the analysis of social change represents the touchstone of sociology, and even though the subject studied in sociology is continuously undergoing transformations, the study of social change has, so far, not been developed to its fullest extent.