School of Social and Political Science

Description

NETREP (Networks of Reproduction in Complex Planetary Futures) is a 4-year, qualitative study, using multiple methods. Family forms and configurations are increasingly diverse in advanced industrialised nations, yet cultural expectations of having biologically-related children persist.  Contextual constraints on planning and raising a family are becoming more salient,for example: the cost of childcare and housing; the spectres of climate change, wars, and geopolitical instability; and the social and economic harms wrought by global pandemics. The research aims to understand the experiences and views of young adults about their future intimacies and their networks of significant others across the European countries of Finland, Portugal, and Scotland. We aim to grasp similarities and differences between socioeconomic contexts, cultural ideas about starting a family, and the responses of young people to these. The findings will enable us to sketch a wider scenario for European reproductive futures.

The project is funded by the Kone Foundation (Finland), and is being led by Anna-Maija Castrén at the University of Eastern Finland.  Anna-Maija is joined by project research colleagues Aino Luotonen and Jenna Siivonen at the University of Eastern Finland, Vanessa Cunha and Rita Gouveia at the University of Lisbon, and Lynn Jamieson, Emma Davidson, Liliana Arias Uruena, and Lisa Howard at the University of Edinburgh. As well as contributing to academic theory on family life and risky futures, our findings will be key to informing policy and practice in the areas of, for example, family, fertility, public health, and migration.