Family/peer relationships and reproductive careers of men and women in Ukraine (1950-1975)
Author: Hilevych, Yuliya , yuliya.hilevych@wur.nl
Department: Sociology of Consumption and Households /Economic, social & demographic history
University: Wageningen University/Radboud University, Netherlands
Supervisor: prof. Hilde Bras, prof. Theo Engelen
Year of completion: In progress
Language of dissertation: English
Keywords:
social and personal relationsh
, reproductive behaviour
, family cultures
, Ukraine
Areas of Research:
Family Research
, Population
, Social Psychology
Abstract
My scientific areas of interests include life-course studies, social and personal relationships, anthropological and social demography and gender studies.
As of September 2011, I have been working on the PhD project focuses on family relationships and reproductive careers during the fertility decline in Ukraine (1950-1975). Within this study, I combine anthropological, demographic and historical inquiries to study men’s and women’s reproductive careers, focusing on the pre-war generation.
Particularly, I investigate how relationships with family and peers could have influenced individuals reproductive decisions. Among the mechanisms of social influence I distinguish social learning, social contagion, social pressure, social support and competition relationships, which derive from social physiology and were implemented in qualitative demographic and social network studies by Bernardi (2003), Keim (2011) etc.. I am also trying to explain the particularities of analyzing social influence in retrospective interviews.
To approach these questions, I use in-depth biographical interviews conducted with men and women whose reproductive years comprise the period between 1950-1975 in two field sites - Lviv and Kharkiv, located in Western and Eastern Ukraine, respectively. Alongside with the interviews, I also analyse life history calendars (LHC) and family photographs of the same informants, as well as, archival and secondary materials as the supplementary sources for the study contextualization.
This PhD project is a part of the VIDI-project 'The Power of the Family. Family Influences on Long-Term Fertility Decline in Europe, 1850-2010' led by prof. Hilde Bras at Wageningen University. Within the project, I work with two other PhD students, Paul Rotering and Bastian Moenkediek.
