The low importance of marriage in eastern Germany - social norms and the role of peoples’ perceptions of the past

Klärner, Andreas

doi:10.4054/demres.2015.33.9

Cited by 27 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 74 publications

(78 reference statements)

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“…Marriage has become a personal choice, sometimes linked to having a child, but not at all mandatory. This finding was similar in Eastern Germany, in that partnerships were more often defined by childbearing than marriage; however, unlike in the UK and Norway, Eastern Germans generally expressed a low desire to marry, even when the couple had children (Klärner 2015). Some mentioned that marriage provides legal protections when a couple has children, but this reason was of little importance for most, who struggled to provide reasons for marrying at all.…”

Section: Life Courses Sequences and Intersectionsmentioning

confidence: 59%

“…In Eastern Germany, post-socialist cultural developments are changing the meaning of marriage and leading to a preference for cohabitation (Klärner 2015). Eastern Germans increasingly think marriage is irrelevant, or just a "paper" that provides little indication of the strength of the relationship.…”

Section: Culture Religion and The Persistence Of The Pastmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This Special Collection presents the results of this project in medium-sized cities in eight European countries: Vienna, Austria (Berghammer, Fliegenschnee, and Schmidt 2014); Florence, Italy (Vignoli and Salvini 2014); Rotterdam, the Netherlands (Hiekel and Keizer 2015); Oslo, Norway (Lappegard and Noack 2015); Warsaw, Poland (Mynarska, Baranowska-Rataj, and Matysiak 2014); Moscow, Russia (Isupova 2015); Southampton, the United Kingdom (Berrington, Perelli-Harris, and Trevena 2015); and Rostock, Germany (Klärner 2015). (For brevity, we refer throughout this introduction to the countries rather than the cities or authors).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring social norms around cohabitation: The life course, individualization, and culture

Perelli‐Harris¹,

Bernardi²

2015

DemRes

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Section: Life Courses Sequences and Intersectionsmentioning

confidence: 59%

Section: Culture Religion and The Persistence Of The Pastmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Exploring social norms around cohabitation: The life course, individualization, and culture

Perelli‐Harris¹,

Bernardi²

2015

DemRes

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“…In general, there was a relatively low desire to marry in the eastern German groups and many participants stated that they did not necessarily want to marry (see also Klärner 2015). As a justification, it was frequently mentioned that nowadays there is no need to be married in order to be happy and satisfied.…”

Section: The Eastern German Focus Groupsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the normative foundations of marriage and cohabitation: Results from group discussions in eastern and western Germany

Klärner¹,

Knabe²

2017

DemRes

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BACKGROUNDSince the 1960s the inclination to get married has been declining in almost all western industrialised countries. Partnership arrangements have become more diverse and the share of cohabiting couples and nonmarital births has been increasing. Yet there are substantial regional differences in marriage and childbearing patterns, and the differences between eastern and western Germany are especially striking. We assume those differences can be partially explained by social norms and different attitudes towards marriage, cohabitation, and childbearing. OBJECTIVEWe explore the views and values young people in eastern and western Germany hold about marriage, cohabitation, and childbearing and how those views relate to individual life experiences. We also examine different social norms and contexts in both parts of the country. METHODSWe analyse data from qualitative focus group interviews conducted in in Rostock (eastern Germany) and Lübeck (western Germany) with women and men aged 25−40. RESULTSOur findings indicate that there are normative differences between eastern and western Germans in their attitudes towards partnership, marriage, and family formation that can be traced back to the social and political conditions prior to German unification in 1990. The harmonisation of family laws and policies across Germany after 1990 did not automatically lead to a convergence in the norms and behaviours of the people living in these two regions.

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“…The focus of relationships was more on the present rather than whether they would last into the future, and for the most part, participants in eastern Germany thought marriage was irrelevant. Klärner (2015) speculates that the disinterest in marriage is due to the influence of the former socialist regime, which devalued the institution of marriage, but high levels of nonmarital fertility also have historical roots in the Prussian past (Klü sener and Goldstein 2014), again suggesting that culture shapes behavior.…”

Section: Culture and Religion: Universal Themes -Unique Discoursesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unequal Family Lives

2018

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Across the Americas and Europe, the family has changed and marriage is in retreat. To answer the question of what is driving these changes and how they impact social and economic inequality, progressives have typically focused on the economic causes of changing family structures, whereas conservatives tend to stress cultural and policy roots. In this illuminating book, an international group of scholars revisit these issues, offering competing and contrasting perspectives from left, center, and right, while also adding a third layer of analysis: namely, the role of gender -changes in women's roles, male employment patterns, and gendered family responsibilities -in driving family change across three continents. Unequal Family Lives: Causes and Consequences in Europe and the Americas adds richness and depth to our understanding of the relationship between family and economics in the United States, Europe, and Latin America. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core at http://dx

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The low importance of marriage in eastern Germany - social norms and the role of peoples’ perceptions of the past

Cited by 27 publications

References 74 publications

Exploring social norms around cohabitation: The life course, individualization, and culture

Exploring social norms around cohabitation: The life course, individualization, and culture

On the normative foundations of marriage and cohabitation: Results from group discussions in eastern and western Germany

Unequal Family Lives

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