Barren States

The Population Implosion in Europe

Buch | Softcover

280 Seiten

2005
Berg Publishers (Verlag)
978-1-84520-049-7 (ISBN)

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The fertility rate has dramatically declined across Europe in recent years. Globally, over sixty-four countries have fallen below generation replacement levels and countries in eastern and southern Europe are registering the lowest birth rates in the history of humanity. Demographers emphasize that these developments could have serious repercussions for society and public policy - from a projected drastic loss of national population numbers to labor shortages and a swelling population of over-65s. Typically, analysts have approached the issue of low fertility quantitatively and from state levels. As a result, most research tends to elide any nuanced understanding of this significant trend. Filling a major gap, this timely book goes well beyond existing studies to investigate how people experience, understand and speak about what is called "low fertility." On the individual level, is there such a thing? How do people understand their choices and the perceived limitations on their lives? What is the meaning of motherhood for women today? How has the definition of "family" changed? What are the particularities of fertility decline in each country? And, perhaps most importantly, what does this tendency toward fewer births mean to the women and men who ultimately become demographic statistics? Offering new readings and a much deeper understanding of Europe's decline in fertility, this exciting book adds the voices of everyday people to previous state-centered studies. Overturning a number of assumptions, case studies show that having fewer children is often understood positively in Europe as a means to freedom and self-empowerment. Anyone wishing to understand what low fertility means to the people who live it will find this book essential reading.

Carrie B. Douglass is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Spanish at the Mary Baldwin College, USA

List of Illustrations, Notes on Contributors, 1. Introduction, 2. A Matter of Free Choice? Some Structural and Cultural Influences on the Decision to Have or Not to Have Children in Norway, 3. "Now It is Completely the Other Way Around": Political Economics of Fertility in Re-unified Germany, 4. "Our Nation is Dying": Interpreting Patterns of Childbearing in Post-Soviet Russia, 5. The Economy of Birthrates in the Czech Republic, 6. A Quest for Belonging: The Bulgarian Demographic Crisis, Emigration and the Postsocialist Generations, 7. Underfertility's Challenge to Family and Gender Relations in Urban Greece, 8. "Toys and Perfumes": Imploding Italy's Population Paradox and Motherly Myths, 9. "We're Fine at Home": Young People, Family and Low Fertility in Spain, 10. Making Family: Depopulation and Social Crisis in France, 11. Bodies Coming and Going: Women and Fertility in Postmodern Ireland, 12. A Reflection on Barren States: The Demographic Paradoxes of Consumer Capitalism, Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag	1.1.2005
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Gewicht	399 g
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Empirische Sozialforschung
ISBN-10	1-84520-049-7 / 1845200497
ISBN-13	978-1-84520-049-7 / 9781845200497
Zustand	Neuware