EVENT HISTORY ANALYSIS OF GROUPS - INITIA L RESULTS FROM AN ON-GOING RESEARCH-PROJECT

The event history approach, which has led to a reformulation of the ba ses of demographic methodology in terms of analysis of complex stochas tic processes (Courgeau and Lelievre, 1989; 1996), is applied using in dividual longitudinal data. Ideally, however. each individual itinerar y would be situated in as broad a context as possible, and the analysi s of individual demographic processes would take account of the close or competing events affecting the individual's entourage. In event his tory modelling, a shift from the individual to their entourage, for bo th data collection and analysis, implies a reconsideration of the choi ce of entities for longitudinal monitoring. A compromise must be reach ed between conceptual operationality and analytical consistency, in te rms of both theory and models: this article presents the formal develo pments, then the more applied results from this on-going research.