Family and Fertility Issues in Value Conflicts During the 2010s

Family and Fertility Issues in Value Conflicts During the 2010s


Klupt M.A.

Dr. Sci. (Econ.), Professor, St. Petersburg State University of Economics, St. Petersburg, Russia klupt@mail.ru

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For citation:

Klupt M.A. Family and Fertility Issues in Value Conflicts During the 2010s. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2021. No 5. P. 36-46




Abstract

The article discusses the conflicts of values related to family and fertility in the turbulent 2010s. Three conflicting value complexes, the traditional natalism, the new natalism and post-materialism are examined. It is argued that in the period under review all of them, both in Russia and in the West, failed to prove their undeniable advantages. Enthusiasm of the new natalism’s proponents was to some extent dispelled by dramatic decline of fertility in the Scandinavian countries during the 2010s. Backlash of “authoritarian populism” (in Norris and Inglehart terms) as well as the labour market precarisation questioned further expansion of emancipative values even in the most developed countries. In Russia, unlike many western countries, the conflicts over issues of gender and reproductive rights were not among main items of political agenda and protest rallies. Although these issues were widely disputed by the experts and media, the paternalist paradigm of state-family relations remained dominant, indeed. Surveys show that adherence to certain concepts of theoretical discourse, such as traditional values, or family egalitarianism declared by respondents often disagrees with their real practices caused by many circumstances of the everyday life. Given a variety of family life patterns in contemporary Russia, demographic and family policy should be multifaceted and friendly to all of them


Keywords
family; value conflict; fertility; new natalism; traditional natalism; post-materialism; precarisation

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Content No 5, 2021