Family Demography and Personal Life

Andrew J. Cherlin ()
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Andrew J. Cherlin: Johns Hopkins University, Department of Sociology

Chapter Chapter 3 in The Demography of Transforming Families, 2023, pp 21-39 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract I address two challenges to the discipline of family demography from scholars, mostly European, who advocate for the broader concept of personal life. The first challenge is that family studies should encompass unrelated individuals such as close friends, intimate partners who maintain separate residences, or housemates. The second challenge, more radically, is that the very concept of family should be de-centered from scholarship due to its over-focus on the couple and on childbearing. I will argue that family demographers should indeed expand their horizons to include non-kin actors inside and outside of the household. However, I will argue against decentering the family. I will review evidence which suggests that we should retain the core concept of family life, even while extending its reach as research on personal life suggests.

Keywords: Personal life; Kinship; Family demography; Research methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:ssdmcp:978-3-031-29666-6_3

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-29666-6_3

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