This is a newly developing area in which sociologists are taking their lead mainly from the other social sciences.
TIME SEQUENCE ANALYSIS SERIES
Some sequence analysis is interested merely in determining patterns in a series of events as an end in itself-as, for example, in the case of research into the ordering of steps in a dance. Sequence can be investigated as an independent or dependent variable for example, we may wish to know which sequence of job experiences best predicts unemployment, or which prior variables explain sequential steps in an occupational career. Whole sequences may themselves be interrelated. Events in any sequence can be unique or can repeat and may have varying degrees of interdependence. Since there is no assumption of real time (as opposed to symbolic time), it is possible also to examine the successive parts of a ritual, or the order of steps in a manufacturing process (where the ‘time’ involved is in some sense artificial), as well as the sequencing of real-time events such as the changes of status involved in a work history or criminal career. Sequence analysis seeks to determine the patterning of events (types of job shifts or whatever) in an ordered list or chain. The literatures on careers and the life-course are obvious examples. Many areas of sociology are concerned with events or actions in their temporal context-or with what we might call sequence problems. Sequence analysis A series of questions about how social processes are ordered, either temporally or spatially, together with the techniques for answering these.
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