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Childfree Phenomenon as Part of a Biographical Project

Student: Ryzhikh Elena

Supervisor: Yulia Epanova

Faculty: Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences

Educational Programme: Sociology and Social Informatics (Bachelor)

Year of Graduation: 2020

In the modern world, the phenomenon of childfree is known as a confident position of voluntary rejection of having children. Despite the impact on the transformation of established values in society, this phenomenon has not yet been sufficiently studied in Russia. This lack of data leads to the formation of false beliefs about people with childfree position. The focus of this final qualifying work is to study the biographical trajectories of "childless by choice" people, which lead to the justification of their choice and their connections with life plans. During the research 13 in-depth narrative interviews were conducted with representatives of the childfree phenomenon, which then were analysed with the usage of hermeneutical approach. As a result of the reconstruction of respondents' autobiographies, two types were identified: "Childfree from birth" and "Childfree as acquired position". Thus, the studied phenomenon should be considered from the point of view of biographical projects not only in terms of influencing life factors and events but also from the perspective of the biological aspect.

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