Description

Birth rates are falling and fertility rates are well below replacement levels. At the same time, the economic crisis has forced governments to scale back public spending, reduce child support, and raise the retirement age, causing immense social conflict. Taking a step outside the disciplinary comfort zone, Whither the Child? asks how demography affects individuals and society. What does it feel like to live in a low fertility world? What are the consequences? Is there even a problem - economically, culturally and morally? No other book confronts so many dimensions of the low fertility issue and none engage with the thorny issues of child psychology, parenting, family, and social policy that are tackled head-on here.

Author Info

Eric Kaufmann is Reader in Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London, and author of Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth (Profile 2010).

W. Bradford Wilcox is Director of the National Marriage Project and Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia.