Households Matter: The Quiet Demography of Urban Transformation
Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 29, No. 4
Posted: 6 Feb 2006
Abstract
During the last three decades, the household has become the focus of a wide range of socio-demographic processes, including the destabilization of traditional patterns of marriage, cohabitation, and divorce; the growing fluidity of ties of kin and friendship; and increasingly complex transitions through the life course. However, these dynamics - which are often summarized under the common heading of the 'second demographic transition' - have been marginalized in the mainstream geographical literature. In this paper, we draw attention to the extensive, albeit fragmented, body of sociological, economic, feminist and geographical insights into the changing social geometry of the household. Recent developments in these domains have affirmed the pivotal role of the household in shaping the geographies of gender, home, and everyday life. We underline the importance of households as agents of urban transformation, arguing in favour of the further incorporation of household demography into the interpretation of contemporary urban problems and trends.
Keywords: households, second demographic transition, cities, reurbanization, everyday life
JEL Classification: J1, J11, J12, J13, J15, O18, R2, R20, R21, R23
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation