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	Optimal Matching Analysis	Sequence Analysis
Ämnesområde	Sociology	Sociology
Familj	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Ursprungsår	1970 (algorithm); 1980s (sociology)	1980s–2000 (sociological consolidation)
Upphovsperson	Needleman & Wunsch (algorithm); Andrew Abbott (sociological use)	Andrew Abbott (introduced to sociology)
Typ	Edit-distance dissimilarity between categorical sequences	Holistic analysis of categorical state sequences over time
Ursprungskälla	Abbott, A., & Tsay, A. (2000). Sequence analysis and optimal matching methods in sociology: review and prospect. Sociological Methods & Research, 29(1), 3–33.	Abbott, A., & Tsay, A. (2000). Sequence analysis and optimal matching methods in sociology: review and prospect. Sociological Methods & Research, 29(1), 3–33.
Alias	optimal matching, OMA, edit-distance sequence comparison, Levenshtein sequence distance	social sequence analysis, life-course sequence analysis, categorical sequence analysis, trajectory analysis
Närliggande	5	5
Sammanfattning	Optimal matching analysis measures how dissimilar two categorical sequences are by computing the minimum total cost of editing one sequence into the other through substitution and insertion/deletion operations. Borrowed from computer science and molecular biology and introduced to sociology by Andrew Abbott, it supplies the pairwise distances that underpin sequence analysis of careers, family histories, and other life-course trajectories.	Sequence analysis is a holistic method for studying ordered categorical trajectories — such as month-by-month employment states, family life-course events, or daily activity patterns — by treating each individual's whole sequence as a unit, measuring how dissimilar pairs of sequences are, and grouping them into a typology of characteristic pathways. Introduced to sociology by Andrew Abbott, it shifts attention from isolated transitions to the shape of entire life courses.