Call for participants

‘Fertility declines in the past, present and future: what we don’t know and what we need to know’

A joint workshop of

 the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research,  

the British Society for Population Studies

and

the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure

Dates: 15-17^th July 2009

Location: Cambridge Group for the History of Population, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge & Downing College, Cambridge, UK

Organising committee

Dr Eilidh Garrett, Cambridge Group (eilidh.garrett@btinternet.com )

Dr Rebecca Sear, London School of Economics (r.sear@lse.ac.uk )

Dr Mikolaj Szoltysek, Max Planck Institute of Demographic Research (szoltysek@demogr.mpg.de )

Administrative Team:

Anne Shepherd BSPS

Birgit Moeller MPIDR

Workshop description

Fertility decline is now universal. But, despite decades of research, we still have no universal explanation for why fertility declines. Changes in reproductive patterns due to the demographic transition have been a central focus of research within post-war demography. However, over recent years fertility research has confronted challenges to almost all its initial presumptions, models and theories. This critical process has been accompanied by an extensive accumulation of detailed empirical evidence which has emphasized localized cultural, economic and environmental factors affecting family formation rules and couples’ reproductive decisions in a variety of ways. Unfortunately, this new evidence has been piling up faster than its theoretical implications could be assimilated.

The time is therefore right to assess the current state of research into fertility decline, and the theories underpinning it, to suggest future directions for both research and policy. At this meeting, we intend to gather an inter-disciplinary and international group of researchers to discuss what is known about fertility decline, what remains unknown, and how might the unknown become known and better understood. It is our hope that bringing together representative demographers, economists, historical demographers, evolutionary biologists  and anthropologists drawn from of all three ‘strands’ of fertility research  –  i.e. working in the context of historic, contemporary developed and contemporary developing populations – who do not often have the opportunity to meet and communicate fruitfully with one another,  will facilitate new energies and research initiatives to understand fertility change in the past, present and future. Our intention is to re-evaluate ways in which fertility research has been conducted so far, and to open new horizons by pushing forward methodological and theoretical frameworks for the study of human reproduction. Such an endeavour to generate a new understanding of fertility trends is particularly timely given current concerns across the contemporary developed world about extremely low rates of fertility. 

Conference programme

We intend the format of the meeting to a mix of short presentations of pre-read papers followed by discussion panels, leading to more general discussion. The pre-read format will allow participants to make best use of the time available during the workshop to move forward the discussion. The number of participants will be limited so that all those attending can actively take part in the discussions.

Speakers & discussants

The following have stated their intention of attending as either speakers or members of discussion panels:

George Alter, Indiana University

Greg Clark, University of California, Davis

John Cleland, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

David Coleman, University of Oxford

Paul Demeny, Population Council

Tim Dyson, London School of Economics

Joshua Goldstein/Sebastian Klüsener, Max Planck Institute of Demographic Research

Ruth Mace, University College London

Geoffrey McNicoll, Population Council

Mike Murphy, London School of Economics

Lesley Newson, University of Exeter

Máire Ní Bhrolcháin, University of Southampton

Dimiter Philipov, Vienna Institute of Demography

David Reher, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Tomáš Sobotka, Vienna Institute of Demography

Simon Szreter, University of Cambridge

Arland Thornton, University of Michigan

Dirk Van de Kaa, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute

Frans van Poppel, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute

Sarah Walters, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Chris Wilson, University of St Andrews

Bob Woods, University of Liverpool                 

Call for participants

We would like to invite applications for the remaining places for participants from individuals working in the field of fertility decline who wish to contribute to this workshop. We already have a full line-up of speakers but would like to invite non-presenting participants to attend the workshop and engage in discussion and debate. Please copy your email response to all 3 members of the organising committee (at the addresses given above) by 15 May 2009 including a short statement of your research activities and the reasons for your interest in participation in this meeting. Owing to the limitation on the number of participants it may not be possible to accept all applications to take part in this workshop, so please state as clearly as possible your reasons for wishing to take part.

Those responding to this call should be aware that they will be expected to meet their own travel, subsistence and accommodation costs. However, a small number of travel bursaries (to a maximum of £100 each, on provision of receipts) will be available for post-graduate students and post-doctoral researchers. Please state in your email whether you would like to be considered for one of these bursaries.