Abstract

This project employs innovative multidisciplinary methodology and cutting-edge theory to seek a better explanation for very low fertility by focusing on Italy, a country that for the past 15 years has had one of the lowest fertility rates in the world.
It aims to benefit population studies methodologically by suggesting strategies for multi-method inference, while offering new approaches to understanding demographic dynamics in post-transition societies. The social, economic, and political importance of such low fertility can hardly be exaggerated, producing rapidly aging populations and apparently unsupportable dependency ratios at the societal level (and the prospect of national-level populations that, barring massive immigration, will rapidly dwindle), while having major implications for people's lives. The Italian case has attracted scholarly attention not only because of its extremely low fertility, but because it so dramatically contradicts the predictions of prevailing theories. Economically, Italy has one of Europe's lowest rates of female labor force participation. Moreover, those areas of Italy with the best social services, including public childcare, are among those with the lowest fertility. Nor is the Italian case explained by the predominant cultural theory, which identifies secularization and individualization as the keys to very low fertility, for Italy is arguably the most family-oriented country in Europe. This study, combining anthropological, sociological, and demographic methods and theory, is based on the belief that, while extremely valuable, survey data alone will not allow scholars to adequately explain very low fertility. It views economic and institutional forces as having effects on individual behavior primarily through the lens of cultural processes, rejecting any simple separation of economic and cultural """"""""variables."""""""" Understanding these cultural processes necessitates analysis of local social context, and of how people construct reality, manipulate norms, and the difference between what people say and what they do. Such data can only be obtained through systematic ethnography. Four anthropologists will spend 15 months each doing ethnography focusing on the culture of reproduction in four different Italian cities, two in the north (Bologna, Padua) and two in the south (Naples, Cagliari). Special attention is paid to the impact of parents on their children's fertility decision-making, and to the impact of peers. Each ethnographer will follow a common guide to participant observation, will conduct research both in a working-class and a middle-class neighborhood and employ a common protocol including a life-history matrix. Interviews are to be conducted at each site with 50 women aged 23-42 and with their mothers. In addition, a series of national-level Italian surveys will be examined through longitudinal and multi-level techniques, following a life-course approach. We also examine women's reproductive life courses in conjunction with their work histories, controlling for both individual- and couple-level characteristics, as well as community- and regional-level characteristics, to shed new light on the relationship between women's work and fertility, and on the cultural and community contexts that affect these relationships.

  Funding Agency

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01HD048715-01
Application #
6855351
Study Section
Social Sciences and Population Studies Study Section (SSPS)
Program Officer
Bachrach, Christine
Project Start
2005-05-09
Project End
2008-03-31
Budget Start
2005-05-09
Budget End
2006-03-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2005
Total Cost
$240,468
Indirect Cost

  Institution

Name
Brown University
Department
Type
Organized Research Units
DUNS #
001785542
City
Providence
State
RI
Country
United States
Zip Code
02912