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Chapter1:Introduction
dealtwithbyyoungpeopleintheidiosyncraticcontextofPoland.Inadditionto
studyingtheissueoffertilityatanindividuallevel,weexaminethequestion
fromanindividualperspective.Inourresearch,theactorsthemselvesareinvited
toexplaintheirmotivations.Insteadofhypothesisingabouttheroleofdifferent
factors,weaskyoungPolishcoupleswhatissuestheyconsidertobeimportant
fortheirchildbearingplans,andwhy.Suchaperspectiveallowsfortheefficient
incorporationofbothmicro-andmacro-levelfactorsintoouranalysis.Allfactors
areincludedinourstudythroughthesubjectiveperspectiveoftherespondents.
InordertoobtainarichanddeepaccountofyoungPoles’experiencesand
perceptions,weapplyaquantitativemethodologywhichisexplorative,process-
orientedandmostimportantlyallowsustocapturean“insider’sperspective”
andinterprettheworld“intermsofthemeaningspeoplebringtothem”(Denzin
andLincoln2000,p.3).Wecanalsobenefitgreatlyfromtheuseofqualitative
methodologybecauseofitsholismandcontextualism:thequalitativeapproach
seekstograspthecompletepictureofthephenomenonstudied,anditsrelation-
shiptootherelementsofreality.Itisparticularlyusefulforstudyingcompound
phenomena(e.g.,Bryman1988,Maxwell1996,RandallandKopenhaver2004).
Lowest-lowfertilityisanexampleofsuchcomplexphenomena.Wetrustthat
aqualitativeapproachwillallowustoreconstructacompositepictureofthe
individualchoicesthathaveresultedinlowest-lowfertilityinPoland.Wehope
tobeabletodisentangletheroleofvariousforcesinthispicture,improvingour
understandingofthedynamicoffertilitydecline.
Althoughqualitativemethodsarenottheprimaryapproachesemployedin
demography,theusefulnessofthesemethodsforstudyingpopulationprocesses
hasbeenwidelyacknowledged(e.g.,Coast,HampshireandRandall2007,Ber-
nardiandHutter2007,Hantrais2005,KertzerandFriecke1997,Knodel1997,
RandallandKopenhaver2004).Therefore,lastbutnotleast,wewanttoillus-
tratewithourstudythevalueofthequalitativeapproachindemography.
1.2.Outlineofthebook
Thestructureofthebookisasfollows.InChapter2,wedrawanoverall
pictureofthePolishsituation.First,weindicatethekeydemographicchangesof
thepost-socialistera,focusingofcourseonthefertilitychanges.Nextweputthe
demographictrendsintocontext,bysketchingtheeconomic,institutional,and
culturallandscapeofPoland.
InChapter3,wereviewthekeytheoreticalapproacheswhichattemptto
explainthelowfertilitypatternsingeneral,andoutlinetheirmainlimitations.In