Love Apocalypse
New Intimacies and the Decline of Marriage and Fertility
Will be published approx. on 11. August 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-1-9788-4767-5 (ISBN)
Description
Marriage and fertility rates are falling around the world, upending social security planning and threatening economic growth. In Love Apocalypse, anthropologists present their insights into this society-altering demographic shift, drawing on their research into the ways love, romantic relationships, and family are being transformed by cultural, social, and economic forces. Each case study in this volume examines a unique cultural context from either Asia (China, South Korea, Japan, India), Europe (Germany, Lithuania), or Latin America (Cuba, Peru), grounded in years of ethnographic research into how communities' experiences and perceptions of love, marriage, and family are changing in response to economic precarity, shifting gender relations, status competition, and diversifying cultural norms. It is increasingly clear that marriage and two-parent nuclear families will not be the universal norm of the twenty-first century even if this arrangement was largely idealized a mere generation ago. However, this does not mean the end of love, intimacy, or family but rather its transformation and the emergence of new intimate relationships and adaptations to the challenges and opportunities of life in the twenty-first century.
Reviews / Votes
"Drawing on rich ethnographic research from diverse global contexts, Love Apocalypse reveals how transformations in intimacy are driving declines in marriage and fertility while giving rise to new forms of family life. This timely collection offers fresh insights into cultural and socioeconomic forces shaping fertility decline and shifting configurations of intimate relations." - Lihong Shi, author of Choosing Daughters: Family Change in Rural China"An excellent collection of case studies from a variety of world areas. The distinction of this volume is that it offers a broad sweep of variables in considering marriage delays and fertility challenges in societies around the world and brings the issue of delayed/non-marriage, declining fertility, and new intimacies up to date. Convincingly argued and thought-provoking, Love Apocalypse offers timely insights into these pressing issues." - Nancy Smith-Hefner, coeditor of Waithood: Gender, Education, and Global Delays
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New Brunswick NJ
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
3 color and 3 B-W images
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-9788-4767-5 (9781978847675)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Alex J. Nelson is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Indianapolis. His research explores the ethnology of romantic love, erotic entrepreneurship in commercial sexual economies, and the transformation of love, marriage, and gender relations in South Korea, where he has been conducting ethnographic field research since 2013.
Victor C. de Munck is a professor of anthropology at Vilnius University in the Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies. He has conducted field work in Sri Lanka, Macedonia, Lithuania, Russia, and the US He is the author of Romantic Love in America (2019) and coauthor of Cultural Models (2014).
William Jankowiak is a professor of anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has authored more than 124 articles/book chapters and nine books (five edited). His research is conducted primarily in Northern China and in the US. His most recent book is Illicit Monogamy: Inside a Fundamentalist Mormon Community (2023).
Victor C. de Munck is a professor of anthropology at Vilnius University in the Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies. He has conducted field work in Sri Lanka, Macedonia, Lithuania, Russia, and the US He is the author of Romantic Love in America (2019) and coauthor of Cultural Models (2014).
William Jankowiak is a professor of anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has authored more than 124 articles/book chapters and nine books (five edited). His research is conducted primarily in Northern China and in the US. His most recent book is Illicit Monogamy: Inside a Fundamentalist Mormon Community (2023).
Content
Contents
List of Tables
List of Figures
Introduction: Love "Apocalypse": Global Concerns about Marriage and Fertility Decline
Alex J. Nelson, Victor C. de Munck and William Jankowiak
Part I: Transformations of Intimacy: Individualization and Declines in Marriage & Fertility
Chapter 1: Gendered Obstacles of Love and Fertility in Contemporary Cuba
Heidi Haerkoenen
Chapter 2: Love's Fallout: Fertility Decline and the Individualization of Intimacy in South Korea
Alex J. Nelson
Chapter 3: China's Independent Women and the Decline in Fertility
William Jankowiak and Shelly Volsche
Chapter 4: Individual choice? On rise of love and decline of fertility in urban middle class India
Anna Romanowicz
Chapter 5: From Courtship to Contingent Intimacies in Lithuania: Love Nomads and Porous dyads
Victor C. de Munck and Ines Torras
Part II - Intimate Innovations: Emerging Adaptations to the Individualization of Intimacy
Chapter 6: Women's Householding in the Rural Andes: Othermothering, Chosen Families, & Demographic Transition
Mary Elena Wilhoit
Chapter 7: Becoming Childless in Reunified Berlin: Narratives of Low Fertility and Emergent Intimacies in Berlin
Meghana Joshi
Chapter 8: Choosing a World of Two: Childfree Intimacies in Contemporary Urban China
Birgit Herrmann
Chapter 9: Seeking a Spouse at the End of the World: "Marriage Hunting" and Neoliberal Capitalism in Japan
Erika R. Alpert
Notes on Contributors
Index
List of Tables
List of Figures
Introduction: Love "Apocalypse": Global Concerns about Marriage and Fertility Decline
Alex J. Nelson, Victor C. de Munck and William Jankowiak
Part I: Transformations of Intimacy: Individualization and Declines in Marriage & Fertility
Chapter 1: Gendered Obstacles of Love and Fertility in Contemporary Cuba
Heidi Haerkoenen
Chapter 2: Love's Fallout: Fertility Decline and the Individualization of Intimacy in South Korea
Alex J. Nelson
Chapter 3: China's Independent Women and the Decline in Fertility
William Jankowiak and Shelly Volsche
Chapter 4: Individual choice? On rise of love and decline of fertility in urban middle class India
Anna Romanowicz
Chapter 5: From Courtship to Contingent Intimacies in Lithuania: Love Nomads and Porous dyads
Victor C. de Munck and Ines Torras
Part II - Intimate Innovations: Emerging Adaptations to the Individualization of Intimacy
Chapter 6: Women's Householding in the Rural Andes: Othermothering, Chosen Families, & Demographic Transition
Mary Elena Wilhoit
Chapter 7: Becoming Childless in Reunified Berlin: Narratives of Low Fertility and Emergent Intimacies in Berlin
Meghana Joshi
Chapter 8: Choosing a World of Two: Childfree Intimacies in Contemporary Urban China
Birgit Herrmann
Chapter 9: Seeking a Spouse at the End of the World: "Marriage Hunting" and Neoliberal Capitalism in Japan
Erika R. Alpert
Notes on Contributors
Index