Low fertility in Europe has given rise to the notion of a ‘fertility crisis’. This book shifts the attention from fertility decline to why people do have children, asking what children mean to them. It investigates what role children play in how young adults plan their lives, and why and how young adults make the choices they do.
The book aims to expand our comprehension of the complex structures and cultures that influence reproductive choice, and explores three key aspects of fertility choices:
the processes towards having (or not having) children, and how they are underpinned by negotiations and ambivalences how family policies, labour markets and personal relations interact in young adults’ fertility choices social differentiation in fertility choice: how fertility rationales and reasoning may differ among women and men, and across social classes
Based on empirical studies from six nations – France, Scandinavia, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany and Italy (representing the high and low end of European variation in fertility rates) – the book shows how different economic, political and cultural contexts interact in young adults' fertility rationales. It will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology, anthropology, demography and gender studies.
1. The Social Meaning of Children and Fertility Change 2. The Politics of Parenting: The Meaning of Children, the Meaning of Work 3. Economic Risk, Fertility and the Welfare State: Understanding Individual Rationales 4. Flexible Work: Implications for the Social Meaning of Children 5. Patterns of Partnership and Parenthood: Experiences, Approaches and Readiness Towards Commitment and Creating a Family 6. The Cultural Ideal of the Joint Decision: Illuminating Values of Individuality and Relationality of the Child Choice 7. The Non-Modern Child? Ambivalence about Parenthood among Young Adults 8. Rising Fertility, Fewer Fathers: Crossroads of Networks, Gender and Class 9. Changing Fertility Behavior across Two Generations: The Role of Gender and Class 10. From Mothers to Daughters: Intergenerational Transmission of Fertility Norms 11. The Social Meaning of Children Embedded in Institutions and Personal Relations
Anne Lise Ellingsæter is Professor of Sociology at the University of Oslo. An-Magritt Jensen is Professor of Sociology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Merete Lie is Professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture at Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
