Barren States The Population Implosion in Europe

by Douglass, Carrie B.

• ISBN13: 9781845200497
• ISBN10: 1845200497
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-04-02
• Publisher: Berg Pub Ltd

Summary

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.

Author Biography

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

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	vii
Notes on Contributors	ix
1 Introduction
Carrie B. Douglass (with Rebecca Nash, Susan L. Erikson and Anna Lim)	1	(28)
2 A Matter of Free Choice? Some Structural and Cultural Influences on the Decision to Have or Not to Have Children in Norway
Malin Noem Ravn	29	(20)
3 "Now It is Completely the Other Way Around": Political Economics of Fertility in Re-unified Germany
Susan L. Erikson	49	(24)
4 "Our Nation is Dying": Interpreting Patterns of Childbearing in Post-Soviet Russia	73	(20)
Cynthia Gabriel
5 The Economy of Birthrates in the Czech Republic
Rebecca Nash	93	(22)
6 A Quest for Belonging: The Bulgarian Demographic Crisis, Emigration and the Postsocialist Generations
Maria Stoilkova	115	(22)
7 Underfertility's Challenge to Family and Gender Relations in Urban Greece
Heather Paxson	137	(22)
8 "Toys and Perfumes": Imploding Italy's Population Paradox and Motherly Myths
Elizabeth L. Krause	159	(24)
9 "We're Fine at Home": Young People, Family and Low Fertility in Spain
Carrie B. Douglass	183	(24)
10 Making Family: Depopulation and Social Crisis in France
Anna Lim	207	(22)
11 Bodies Coming and Going: Women and Fertility in Postmodern Ireland
Jo Murphy-Lawless	229	(20)
12 A Reflection on Barren States: The Demographic Paradoxes of Consumer Capitalism
Gail Kligman	249	(12)
Index	261