Disturbing the Nest: Family Change and Decline in Modern Societies (Social Institutions and Social Change)
“Disturbing the Nestprovides an excellent, empirically supported sociological analysis of the family. Popenoe’s book is more than a discussion about family change, it is a picture of the future post-nuclear family in modernized(ing) nations… Popenoe succeeds in placing the family at the center of society, and without moralizing, he challenges the citizenry to be socially responsible for preserving and supporting our greatest national attribute, the cultural value of famialism.”—Kimberly A. Folse,Sociological Inquiry“Disturbing the Nestis based on a simple but provocative thesis: The family in postindustrial nations is in decline and the society that most manifests this decline is Sweden, usually regarded as a model for progressive family policy… Popenoe presents statistics to show how all these trends are well entrenched in Sweden.”—Linda Haas,Journal of Marriage and Family“During the last quarter century the family in industrialized countries has undergone a transformation from the closely knit nuclear family of the era immediately following World War II to the less stable post-nuclear form of today. Rising rates of cohabition and procreation outside of marriage, high and rising rates of dissolution of unions, and low fertility are among the characteristics of the post-nuclear family that cause concern to many… Popenoe’s analysis focuses primarily on Sweden, where he considers the decline to have proceeded the furthest… Popenoe has produced a significant book on an important topic and has given us a useful framework for comparative analysis.”—Alison McIntosh,Population and Development Review“The book raises a number of important questions for sociologists, policy-makers, and social workers the world over… It is important for its presentation of the subject, for the wealth of up-to-date information it provides in tracing the development of this type of family, and for making the reader aware of the positive and negative implications of the post-nuclear family for the individual, the community, and the entire society.”—Ruth Katz,European Sociological Review“In this provocative and ambitious book David Popenoe sets out to describe and explain long-term changes in family life in Western societies… The book is successful in laying out a number of interesting hypotheses. It should help motivate cross-cultural comparative studies of family change to evaluate the impacts of socioeconomic, cultural, and governmental factors on family life, an agenda that is becoming increasingly important for scientific and public policy issues related to the family and individual well-being.”—Arland Thornton,Contemporary Sociology“David Popenoe’sDisturbing the Nestis no ordinary jeremiad about the decline of the family. Popenoe posits a global trend of family deinstitutionalization in advanced societies; he maintains that we are now entering a post-nuclear-family era… Using the rich ethnographic sources on the Swedish family, Popenoe describes the evolution of family patterns and norms.”—Barbara Hobson,American Journal of Sociology“David Popenoe hereby joins the ranks of the decline theory of family sociology, a membership that stretches back to the 19thcentury and includes sociologists of conservative and radical persuasion alike… His main concern here is to underline the connection between on the one hand the weakening of family and on the other the increase in the cultural value that individualism is given by society. He shows how this change in cultural values can have serious consequences for the relationship between adults, between children and adults and note the least for children, whom he sees as the real losers  in this harsh game.”—Lis Höjgaard,Acta Sociologica