dc.contributor.author | HUININK, Johannes | |
dc.contributor.author | KOHLI, Martin | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2014-12-19T18:00:05Z | |
dc.date.available | 2014-12-19T18:00:05Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2014 | |
dc.identifier.citation | Demographic research, 2014, Vol. 30, pp. 1293-1326 | |
dc.identifier.issn | 1435-9871 | |
dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1814/33980 | |
dc.description.abstract | The life-course approach as a methodological framework for the empirical analysis of longitudinal individual-level data has fundamentally changed the agenda of demographic research. However, these methodological innovations have not been paralleled by a similarly successful theoretical integration in the life-course field. We aim to show that the life course is an indispensable framework for demographic research. Social forces, both structural and cultural, are articulated in the life-course dimension, and the individuals who act under their influence conceive of their actions in life-course terms. Thus, theories of fertility need to be set in these terms as well. In substantive terms, the life-course approach promises to integrate the extra-and intra-individual levels of relevant processes in a system of interdependent dynamics that unfolds over time; to conceptualize fertility and family formation as part of a multidimensional process of welfare production which requires complex decisions on the proper allocation of time and resources to the different life domains; to examine how cultural scripts and institutional programs shape and interact with intentions and preferences; and to highlight the impact of the past and anticipation of the future as a framework for the number, timing and spacing of births. In methodological terms, the life-course approach requires a shift in the efforts to identify complex causal mechanisms in empirical research. Even though the life-course approach still lacks the status of a systematic theory, several hypotheses can already be drawn from it, which extend the scope of fertility research, and demonstrate it to be an indispensable framework for studying fertility decisions. | |
dc.language.iso | En | |
dc.publisher | Max Planck Inst Demographic Research | |
dc.relation.ispartof | Demographic research | |
dc.rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess | |
dc.subject | Western Germany | |
dc.subject | sequence-analysis | |
dc.subject | economic uncertainty | |
dc.subject | multilevel analysis | |
dc.subject | course perspective | |
dc.subject | social-change | |
dc.subject | family | |
dc.subject | parenthood | |
dc.subject | decisions | |
dc.subject | labor | |
dc.title | A life-course approach to fertility | |
dc.type | Article | |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.4054/DemRes.2014.30.45 | |
dc.identifier.volume | 30 | |
dc.identifier.startpage | 1293 | |
dc.identifier.endpage | 1326 | |
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