Introduction

Companionship and family-building in a world of social, environmental, and economic crises

What might the future look like in terms of how family and intimate lives are composed?

Meanings of ‘family’ are changing and complex; companionship and family life increasingly consist of important non-kin others, such as friends and pets, yet young people are still subject to societal expectations of biological procreation. In the background are the economic hardships wrought by the financial crisis, the war in Ukraine, and the global Covid 19 pandemic, as well as fears around climate change and an unviable reproductive future.

NETREP (Networks of Reproduction in Complex Planetary Futures) is a 4-year, qualitative study, funded by the Kone Foundation, Finland. We will use multiple methods to collect data on the views and experiences of young adults about their future intimacies and their networks of significant others across the European countries of Finland, Portugal, and Scotland. We aim to grasp similarities and differences between socioeconomic contexts, cultural ideas about starting a family, and the responses of young people to these. The findings will enable us to sketch a wider scenario for European reproductive futures.

The project is being led by Anna-Maija Castrén at the University of Eastern Finland.  Anna-Maija is joined by project research colleagues Aino Luotonen and Jenna Siivonen at the University of Eastern Finland, Vanessa Cunha and Rita Gouveia at the University of Lisbon, and Lynn Jamieson, Emma Davidson, Liliana Arias-Urueña, and Lisa Howard at the University of Edinburgh. As well as contributing to academic theory on family life and risky futures, our findings will be key to informing policy and practice in the areas of, for example, family, fertility, public health, and migration.