Isabel Rundle
Student Number: 11569336
22/06/2018
izzyrundle@hotmail.com
Supervisor: Dr Trudie Gerrits
2
ndand 3
rdReaders: Dr Julie McBrien
and Dr Danny de Vries
MSc Cultural and Social Anthropology (GSSS)
Home and Away: An exploration of the interrelationship between
context and reproductive behaviours among British women from
the rural county of Devon who have stayed local, and those who
have migrated to the urban context of London
Word Count: 25,416
Acknowledgements:
First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Trudie Gerrits for
supporting me wholeheartedly throughout the process of this study. I would
also like to thank my family for enabling me to do this Masters’ Degree and
encouraging me all the way through. Last but my no means least, I would like
to say a big ‘thank you’ to all of the women who volunteered to participate in
this study, without whom there would be no thesis to write.
"Declaration: I have read and understood the University of Amsterdam plagiarism policy [http://student.uva.nl/mcsa/az/item/plagiarism-and-fraud.html?f=plagiarism]. I declare that this assignment is entirely my own work, all sources have been properly acknowledged, and that I have not previously submitted this work, or any version of it, for assessment in any other paper."
Summary
Key Words: Reproductive behaviours, contraceptive decision making, United Kingdom, vital conjunctures, urban and rural contexts.
This thesis explores the interrelationship between urban and rural contexts and the reproductive desires and practices of young, British women. Research focuses on Devon, a rural county in the south west of the United Kingdom and analyses the reproductive aspirations, practices, and contraceptive practices of 13 women who have stayed living in rural Devon and 11 who have migrated to urban London. The study employ’s Johnson-Hanks’ theory of vital conjunctures to conceptualise the women’s reproductive trajectories as formed by a number of decisions made at ‘socially structured zones of possibility’, oriented towards achieving desired social horizons (2002, 871). Findings show how the contexts of Devon and London influenced the formation of alternative social horizons among the women who reside there, and how women exercised agency to manipulate their context (place of living) in order to enable actualising their social horizons. Horizons were personal, contextual and temporal therefore whilst there were observable patterns, each individual’s horizons were unique. Informants’ contraceptive practices were analysed in relation to how they were informed by dominant biomedical context, social horizons, experiences of side effects and personal contexts. Generally, in the rural environment, women were more likely to prioritise family cohesion which lead to a desire to have children younger and a more ambiguous attitude towards postponing pregnancy. This uncertain attitude towards pregnancy prevention motivated less stringent contraceptive practices in some rural women which in turn lead the occurrence of some unintended pregnancies. Some rural-residing women aspired to achieve heightened social status in relation to their higher education or career progression before having children, which illustrates the danger in reducing rural women to a domestic stereotype consumed by the prospect of motherhood (cf. Bryant and Pini 2011). Urban women desired to delay childbearing until later than the rural research-cohort, prioritising enjoying their child-free youth and progressing their professional status in their immediate horizons. On the whole, this motivated more rigorous contraceptive practices among urban-women. Finally, this study argues that whilst context can inform women’s reproductive desires and practices, reproductive desires can also motivate women to exercise their agency and manipulate their context in order to enable actualising their desires.
Contents:
1. Introduction - 7
2. Key Concepts - 9
2.1 Reproduction, autonomy, and social constraints - 9 2.2 Vital conjunctures - 10 2.3 Normative discourse versus autonomy - 12 2.4 Contextual experiences of contraceptive side effects - 13 2.5 Place - 13 2.6 Sub-questions - 143. Methods - 15
3.1 Entry into the field - 15 3.2 Conducting fieldwork - 16 3.3 Analysis - 194. Context: The Seaside and the Cityscape - 21
4.1 An introduction to Devon - 21 4.2 London: The urban capital - 23 4.3 Employment - 24 4.4 Politics and diversity - 255. Alternative contexts and social horizons: Context informs horizons -
horizons inform context -26
5.1 Social horizons of rural informants - 27 5.2 Social horizons of the rural-urban migrant women - 33 5.3 Conclusion - 416. Contraception: Actualising reproductive horizons at the conjuncture of
context and agency - 42
6.1 Reported contraceptive use - 44 6.2 First encounters with contraception within the context of dominant medical discourse - 45 6.3 Bodily side effects - 50 6.4 Hormonal contraception and the impact on mental health - 53 6.5 Actualising social horizons and the impact of perceive efficacy - 55 6.6 Conclusion - 597. Forks in the reproductive pathway: Navigating vital conjunctures -60
7.1 Confronting an unintended pregnancy - 61 7.2 Encountering a crossroads: unprotected ex and the possibility of pregnancy - 69 7.3 Returning to rurality or a shift towards urbanity?: Manipulating context to align with social horizons -74 7.4 Conclusion - 77
8. Conclusion - 79
9. Bibliography - 83
10. Appendix - 91
1. Table comparing birth rates in Devon and London by age group per 1000 women in the category. 2.List of codes 3. Facebook post used to advertise for urban participants 4. Facebook post used to advertise for rural participants 5. Explanation of generic, mainstream, British schooling and higher education system up to Bachelors’ Degree 6. Table of reported social and reproductive (desire) characteristics of informants, organised by rural/urban 7. Table showing the reported contraception trajectories of urban informants up to the point of interview including age and reason of onset, methods, length of use and reason for change. 8. Table showing the reported contraception trajectories of rural informants up to the point of interview including age and reason of onset, methods, length of use and reason for change.
List of figures:
Figure 1 - Blackpool Sands, a popular beach in Devon. Figure 2 - Map of UK counties with Devon marked in red.List of Tables:
Table 1- A table showing the reported frequency of use of different contraceptive techniques among rural and urban research cohorts at the time of interview.List of abbreviations:
NHS - National Health Service UK - United Kingdom GP - General Practitioner (doctor) O.C. - Oral Contraceptive LARC - Long Acting Reversible Contraceptive
Research question - How are reproductive desires and practices influenced by
context, and how is choice of context influenced by reproductive desires? A
case study of young, British women from the rural country of Devon who have
stayed local and those who have migrated to London
1. Introduction
This thesis explores the relationship between rural and urban contexts and the reproductive trajectories of young women from the rural, British county of Devon who live locally and those who have migrated to London. Birth rates in the United Kingdom (UK) vary cross-regionally, suggesting the presence of a relationship between regional environments and reproductive practices (Office for National Statistics 2017a). Alternative reproductive patterns have been observed in Devon and London: in 2016, central London had the lowest total fertility rate (TFR) in the country with just 1.72 births per woman, in comparison, in the same year Devon had an above average TFR of 1.9 births per woman (compared to a national rate of 1.82) (ibid.). Additionally, trends in national statistics show that on average women in Devon have children at a younger age than those who live in London (Office for National Statistics 2017b) (Appendix 1). This thesis examines these reproductive patterns, focussing on how the social contexts encountered in rural and urban settings influence reproductive decision-making and how reproductive aspirations reflect which context individuals choose to live in (cf. Russell and Thompson 2000, 4).
Initially, the aim of this study was to explore the influence of context on women’s reproductive desires and practices, however after conducting fieldwork and analysing the findings, it became apparent that reproductive desires influenced (choice of) context as much as context influenced desires. Building on this realisation, the aim of this thesis is to explore the two-way relationship between context and reproductive desires, and how this relationship is reflective of the dominant values and socioeconomic structures of rural-Devonian and urban-London society. In 1994 the United Nations defined optimal reproductive health as the ability to reproduce and the freedom to do so and decide if and when and how often to do so and to have a safe and
satisfying sex life (United Nations 1995, 40). One way that this definition of optimal reproductive health can be achieved is through the use of contraceptive technologies. Women’s reproductive aspirations vary widely within different contexts. These aspirations, along with a multitude of other influences, contribute towards motivating contraceptive practices as a way of achieving reproductive goals, thus contraceptive practices constitute part of an individual’s reproductive behaviour (Ginsburg and Rapp 1991, 330). This study analyses women’s contraceptive practices, viewing contraceptive use as a form of action through which women can exercise their agency to actualise their reproductive desires.
This thesis uses Johnson-Hanks’ theory of vital conjunctures to analyse the relationship between context and reproductive desires and practices. The theory of vital conjunctures positions social life trajectories as formed by a number of decisions made by individuals at certain vital points in the trajectories of their life, motivated by aspirations to achieve a specific social horizon (Johnson-Hanks 2002, 2006). Social horizons are contextual, temporal and specific to the individual (ibid.). Van der Sijpt built upon the theory of vital conjunctures to position reproductive practices as informed not only by social context and individual agency, but also by the actions of the physical body (2014). This thesis utilises the work of Johnson-Hanks and van der Sijpt, and argues that within the context of the UK, women can also exercise their agency to manipulate their social context, in order to align their context with their desired social trajectories. Firstly the thesis outlines the alternative socioeconomic contexts of rural Devon and urban London, and how the values and structure of Devonian society enables childbearing (and rearing) whilst London’s context facilitates professional social progression. Secondly, these contexts are discussed in relation to how they informed the imagining of social horizons among the informants residing there, and how social horizons also informed individuals’ actions in manipulating their social contexts (place of living) to enable actualising their horizons. Next, contraceptive practices are discussed as a method of agency through which informants can achieve their reproductive horizons. Contraceptive decision-making is analysed in relation to national, social, and personal contexts. Finally, the actions taken by informants at vital conjunctures experienced throughout their social trajectories so far are analysed in relation to the roles of context, social horizons, the physical body, and agency.
2. Key concepts
2.1 Reproduction, autonomy, and social constraints The term ‘reproduction’ encompasses a number of events that occur throughout the human lifecycle related to practices of fertility, childbirth and childcare (Ginsburg and Rapp 1991, 311). The biological realities of male and female reproductive roles make it a deeply gendered process, inseparable from social influences such as gender relations and inequalities, control of socioeconomic resources, and a multitude of micro and macro power structures (Greenhalgh 1995, 14). The influence of these factors on the social construction of reproductive behaviours means no lived aspect can be assumed a universal, unified experience as each individual interacts with social worlds in a different way (Ginsburg and Rapp 1991, 330).
Social status, related to education, economic independence and female autonomy (among other things), is one of the most influential aspects in affecting women’s reproductive behaviours (Greenhalgh 1995, 7). Other socio-structural factors (eg. economy, politics, religion) also contribute to shaping society’s norms and ideologies surrounding gender roles and how men and women ‘should’ behave, including in relation to reproductive decision making (Browner 2000, 774). Each individual interacts with these structures within their own, specific, sociohistorical context. Reproductive and contraceptive decisions are further informed by women’s personal reproductive trajectories so far, and their social status that has derived from it (Van der Slijpt 2014b, 287).
Though women’s reproductive behaviours may be influenced by structural factors such as social status and gender roles, this does not mean to say that practices are only determined by external powers, but rather that women’s reproductive decisions are affected by the broader sociocultural process that they find themselves part of (Browner 2000, 774). Women’s reproductive behaviours are never wholly autonomous nor completely constrained: even in a subordinated social position women exercise agency over their practices, therefore reproductive decision making must be positioned in a way that challenges the dichotomy of autonomy versus determinism (ibid. 784). This thesis will employ the concept of vital
conjunctures to conceptualise women’s (primarily) autonomous reproductive decisions within the social structures that they are encountered.
2.2 Vital Conjunctures
Johnson-Hanks’ theory of vital conjunctures is built upon practice theory (2002). Practice theory ‘seeks to explain the relationship(s) that obtain between human action […] and some global entity which we may call “the system”’ (Ortner 1984, 148). Practice theory sees that ‘the system’, or social structures, inform practice, whilst practice also informs ‘the system’: people’s actions and choices are influenced by their environment, whilst their actions contribute to shaping said environment (ibid.). Johnson-Hanks states that the theory of vital conjunctures integrates practice theory’s conception of the ‘conjuncture of structure and action’ with demographic life events, as a method of social analysis of life history experiences (Johnson-Hanks 2002, 866).
The anthropological ‘life cycle model’ that employs social evolutionism theories to explain social development as a universal, unidirectional trajectory has been critiqued for supposing life stages to be discrete, with transition from one phase to another governed by social initiations or “rites of passage” (Johnson-Hanks 2002, 866, 867). Such theories often equate childbirth with the social transition into adulthood, however it is reductionist to presume that once a woman has a child she automatically transforms into this life stage, and that a woman must reproduce in order to be considered to have achieved socially-recognized adulthood (ibid.). Johnson-Hanks proposes the theory of vital conjunctures as a framework to analyse reproductive practices (2006, 2002). This theory positions social life histories as formed by a number of decisions made by individuals at certain vital points in the trajectories of their life, motivated by aspirations to reach a specific social horizon, rather than determining life histories to consist of a set of predisposed life stages (ibid). Johnson-Hanks defines vital conjunctures as ‘socially structured zones of possibility’ that materialize around major life events that could constitute major transformation in an individual’s life such as childbirth, death, migration and career change (2002, 871). The actions taken at these conjunctures are motivated by social horizons which the individual aspires to achieve; these horizons are
temporal, contextual, and specific to the agent and swayed by the range of future identities that could be claimed based on the path of action taken (ibid., 872).
By understanding adulthood as an aspiration or imagined future rather than a bounded state of being, life histories can be analysed as a continual process of action at the conjuncture of structure and agency, motivated by imagined futures, rather than as a set of socially and biologically predetermined, universal states of being (Johnson-Hanks 2002, 866). For example, the choice to bear children could be seen as a desirable action that would bring the individual closer to the horizon of adulthood in an environment where there is a lack of available alternative routes towards adulthood, such as low job opportunities. Alternatively, where there is opportunity to achieve improved socio-economic status through advanced participation in a professional sphere, childbearing may be delayed or decided against (cf. Ginsburg and Rapp 1991, 320). This thesis will show that within rural and urban contexts, women’s contraceptive and reproductive practices can vary, with alternative decisions being made due to the structurally-driven natures of the conjunctures they face. Additionally, it will be illustrated how women exercise their agency to manipulate their contexts in order to achieve their horizons: moving back and forth between the rural and urban or choosing to stay put, depending on which environment best enables them to achieve their immediate social horizons. When using the theory of vital conjunctures to analyse women’s reproductive behaviours in Cameroon, van der Sijpt built on the theory to acknowledge the role of the physicality of the body in contributing to determining women’s reproductive behaviours: a conjuncture of the social, the agent, and the physical body. Reproductive desires are contested, multiple and constantly changing throughout a woman’s life depending on the current biosocial context (Van der Slijpt 2014b, 278). Life courses are layered, and physical and social trajectories are dynamically related to one another (Van der Slijpt 2014a, 195). As the trajectories of women’s social lives progress, their aspirations and priorities will change and so will their reproductive desires. Women will manipulate the ‘physicalities’ of their bodies to successfully navigate their ‘socialities’; in other words, they will alter their contraceptive practices to align their physical bodies with their social priorities (ibid. 288). This thesis will further build on Johnson-Hanks’ concept of vital conjunctures, incorporating van der Sijpt’s work on the role of the body, to
acknowledge that as well as manipulating their physical bodies to achieve their aspirations, women can also manipulate their context (change location) to achieve their social horizons. 2.3 Normative discourse versus autonomy A multitude of power relations at different structural levels contribute to shaping women’s reproductive experiences (Ginsburg and Rapp 1991, 313). Throughout history, state powers have depended on enforcing a normative definition of family and family size as a method of controlling populations and their exponential expansion (ibid. 314). Through enforcing a normative discourse of reproductive practices, governing groups are able to control populations’ reproductive behaviours through the social stigmatisation of those whose behaviours are deemed transgressive or deviant (Lock and Kaufert 1998, 7). Technological advances of the twentieth century have led to significant transformation in the contraceptive apparatus through which reproduction can be governed, influenced by the power held by global pharmaceutical industries and funding of new contraceptive technologies (Ginsburg and Rapp 1991, 314). The hegemonic medicalization of reproduction and fertility in Western societies has led to the social construction of reproduction as something that must be medically controlled through the use of contraception (Ginsburg and Rapp 1991, 331). Whilst contraception can be seen as a means of social control encouraging women to adhere to state-enforced reproductive norms, use of contraceptive technologies can also empower women by enabling them to be in control of their own reproductive trajectories, choosing if and when they reproduce (Russell and Thompson 2000, 4; Ginsburg and Rapp 1991, 315). Through the use of contraceptive technologies women are able to manipulate their fertility and delay childbearing until pregnancy becomes a part of their immediate social horizons (if it ever becomes part of their social horizons) (cf. Johnson-Hanks 2002b, 242). The relationship between hormonal contraception and power is contested and conflicting: whilst contraceptive technologies allow women to take control of their reproductive destinies, they also cause them to submit bodily control to the effects of the artificial hormones they are exposed to (e.g. depression, acne, migraines) (cf. Lock and Kaufert 1998).
2.4 Contextual experiences of contraceptive side effects Experiences of side effects are one of the leading factors in shaping women’s contraceptive decision-making: attitudes towards different side effects are in turn informed by the personal and social context in which they are experienced (Downey 2017, 540). This study explores how socially constructed perceptions of the body and bodily functions (such as negative attitudes towards acne (facial spots) in British public discourse) influence how contraceptive side effects are interpreted, and how this in turn informs contraceptive decision making (cf. Hodgson 2018). Finally, the social discourse surrounding contraceptives mean that they function not only as a method of fertility regulation but also as symbols and metaphors of culturally salient issues, particularly in regard to gender equality and female autonomy (Russell and Thompson 2000, 19). This thesis explores how increasing levels of consciousness surrounding the detrimental effects hormonal contraceptives can have on women’s physical and mental health is changing young, British women’s contraceptive practices, rejecting hormonal contraceptive technologies in favour of more “natural” methods (cf. Winter 2017). 2.5 Place The final concept employed in this study to conceptualise individual’s reproductive trajectories is place. ‘Place’ can be defined as spaces in the world invested with meaning in the context of power, imbued with history and identity, and as much a way of knowing as a thing in the world (Cresswell 2004, 12, 5). Place can inform practice through defining normative behaviours, or whether an action is “out-of-place”, therefore one can presume the presence of a relationship between practices of informants and the rural or urban ‘place’ in which they are residing (Cresswell 2004, 103). This thesis argues that, as well as ‘place’ informing individuals’ actions, some informants utilised their agency to manipulate their ‘place’ in order to facilitate achieving their social horizons. By manipulating their contexts or staying in the same place, women were able to appropriate the context that best enabled them to achieve their immediate, temporal horizons. So, at the same time that place informed horizons, which informed actions: horizons informed actions which informed place.
Rurality and urbanity are often described as a juxtaposition (Pedersen 2018, 4). However, the analytical method of comparing the urban and the rural has been criticised for enforcing the outdated “urban-rural dichotomy” that sees urban-rural interaction as conceptualized by opposing pro-urban and anti-urban views (Davoudi and Stead 2002, 269). New approaches to urban-rural relationships are said instead to focus on an urban-rural continuum that sees the ‘physical and functional’ boundaries between the two spatial-types as more blurred and obscure (ibid. 273, 274). Despite comparing rural and urban environments, the aim of this study is not to enforce the notion of a dichotomous urban-rural relationship. This thesis argues the case for the presence of an urban-rural continuum, illustrated by the flow of both social characteristics and the informants themselves between the urban and rural environments. 2.6 Research sub-questions • How can young women’s (reproductive) social life trajectories be interpreted as formed by a number of decisions made at ‘vital conjunctures’ within their individual social, economic and political context, oriented towards achieving their own personal social horizons?
• How are women’s reproductive practices related to their social status and the dominant values of rural and urban society? • How do women’s social horizons motivate them to manipulate their contexts in order to enable actualisation of their social aspirations? • What roles do autonomy and normative discourse play in the onset of contraceptive use among young women from Devon, and how does this change throughout a woman’s contraceptive life history?
• How do women’s experiences of the side effects of hormonal contraceptive technologies influence contraceptive decision making, and how do the social and personal contexts in which side effects are experienced influence how they are interpreted?
3. Methodology
3.1 Entry into the Field
The research for this study was conducted over a twelve-week period from 8th January to 30th April 2018. Fieldwork took place in two settings: Devon and London. In total seven weeks were spent collecting data in Devon and three weeks of fieldwork were conducted in London, a scheduled ‘fieldwork break’ was taken for the sixth of the twelve weeks.1 Devon – rural research cohort Having lived in the county of Devon from my birth to the age of 19 years old, my personal proximity to and familiarity with both my field of research and demographic of informant meant that my initial transition into the field was a relatively smooth, straightforward process. The first informants were established by reaching out to women I knew prior to fieldwork through attending the local secondary school in my town (Ivybridge, in Devon). The close-ness of the community meant I was able to access more interlocutors through snowball sampling. Facebook was also used as a social media platform to advertise for participants which worked to my advantage due to the prolific use of social media among the target generation (Appendix 4). To meet the criteria of the rural research cohort, informants had to be female, 19-29 years old, have spent a significant proportion of their life living in Devon, and be living there at the time of fieldwork. In total, there were 13 rural interlocutors. London – urban research cohort The criteria of the urban cohort were the same as rural, however participants had to be living in London at the time of research. Similarly, first contact was made with urban informants by contacting people I knew from attending school in Devon who had moved to and were now living in London. Accessing interlocutors in London was initially more challenging than in Devon 1 Initially more time was scheduled in London, however extreme, unforeseen snow storms prevented any travel to or from Devon on two separate occasions: all roads in Devon were rendered impassable and railway lines were closed. Fieldwork had to be put on hold for the entire 8th week of research as weather conditions were so hazardous it was impossible to access informants. These extreme conditions are extremely uncharacteristic of the UK and the possibility that fieldwork could be interrupted by adverse weather was unforeseen.due to the limited number of Devonian women I knew that were living in London and the more disparate nature of informants in the city making snowball sampling still possible, but less effective than in Devon. However, advertising for London-based informants on Facebook was really effective and a number of women reached out and expressed an interest in participating in the study (Appendix 3). In total, there were 11 interlocutors in the London cohort. 2
In total, this study involved the participation of 24 informants, all of whom identified as heterosexual. All of the women involved in this study would be classified as “middle class”: they went to good schools, their parents had professional jobs, and they were neither very rich nor very poor.3 It must be stressed that due to the small sample size and shared social background of informants, this study is not representative of “young-women-from-Devon”, rather a specific, middleclass subgroup of them.
3.2 Conducting fieldwork
InterviewsThe bulk of research for this study involved conduction of unstructured interviews; all informants were interviewed once and two were interviewed twice. Interviews ranged in length from 25 minutes to several hours and were recorded using the ‘voice notes’ application on an iPhone then subsequently transcribed in full and stored in a password-encrypted file (Bernard 2006, 227). All rural interviews took part at informants’ houses. Whilst some urbans interviews took place in informants’ homes a number were also conducted in public spaces such as cafes and bars. When interviews took place in a public space it was the decision of the interviewee and often occurred as such because meetings were scheduled during informants’ lunch-breaks or straight after they had finished work. Conducting interviews during lunchbreaks posed some limitations due to the time constraints. However, as all urban-informants had extremely busy schedules and after a number of appointments were disrupted
2 A focus group with 4 additional urban informants was arranged but did not go ahead due to
weather-related travel disruptions.
due to the afore mentioned snow storms, lunch-time meetings were the only available times to meet a number of the women. An unstructured interviewing approach was adopted and whilst I had a plan of conversational topics to cover, informants were in control of the direction of conversation and were able to express whatever they felt relevant and important to the topic (Bernard 2006, 211). Topics of conversation covered in interviews included: contraceptive trajectories so far (reasoning behind method choices/changes); onset of contraceptive use; motivations behind contraceptive use; reproductive desires; social horizons; current circumstances (job, salary, relationship status, living status etc); and motivations for living in Devon/London. Due to the sensitive, intimate nature of some of the interview topics, interviews were kept as informal as possible so the women were able to relax and feel comfortable sharing recounts of their own personal experiences. In an attempt to distance myself from being viewed as a “researcher” the interactions were kept conversational and I shared some accounts of my own personal experiences with informants. As I already had a relationship with many informants before conducting interviews I did not have to spend a long time building up a rapport before starting the interviewing process which was advantageous due to the limited time scale of the fieldwork period. Additionally, whilst still being sensitive to the interviewee, I was able to push for more answers if I thought informants were withholding information or not telling the whole story. Participant observation Interviews are ‘actions’, co-constructed between the interviewer and the interviewee, who both generate meanings from the encounters, meaning interview ‘findings’ are subjective constructs (Ellingson 2012, 529). To strengthen the legitimacy of inferences made based on the conduction of interviews, alternative research methods should also be used to gather data and triangulate the results. Due to the intimate nature of reproductive and contraceptive practices and the hypothetical nature of ‘desires’ triangulating interview responses through observing behaviours was not a viable option.
One way to triangulate informants’ self-reports was through conducting participant observation and observing what individuals said about interview topics in a casual conversation where they did not feel scrutinised or judged. Observation of casual conversations produced some vital information in terms of regulating the self-report bias of interviews, however it also created some ethical implications. As I was a part of the ‘social circle’ of some informants, I felt like I could be deceiving individuals by taking advantage of what they were telling me in a situation in which it may not have been totally transparent that I was fulfilling the role of a researcher rather than a friend (cf. Pini 2004, 173). The blurred line between a personal and professional relationship is one of the ethical dilemmas of anthropology that involves ‘friendship as method’ and something that I had to address throughout my fieldwork by reminding interlocutors of the duality of my role in the field (Tilmann-Healy 2003, 745). Gossip As already mentioned, many informants in both research cohorts knew (or knew of) each other and gossip was rife among the women. Gossip can be seen as a form of social control and seeks to enforce and maintain community values, norms and ideologies (Andreassen 1998 41). Therefore, by observing gossip among informants, I was able to make inferences about normative discourses surrounding reproductive behaviours and contraceptive practices in both the rural and urban setting, by observing which behaviours were deemed transgressive or gossip-worthy.
The use of gossip in ethnography also poses a number of ethical dilemmas. Again, informants were sharing gossip with me in a situation where the boundary between my role as a researcher and a friend was blurred. Therefore, it could be seen as betraying the trust of my interlocutors to use gossip they may have told me in confidence, as a friend, as part of my research. Additionally, if I am told information by Informant A about Informant B that Informant B has not told me themselves, then I do not have the permission of Informant B to commodify their own personal experience by turning it into ‘research’. Stories learned through gossip have been used in this study as abstract narratives that provide indications of social norms and discourses rather than as information about individuals themselves, making use of the act of gossiping rather than the gossip itself. In an attempt to prevent compromising the
ethical integrity of the study any accounts of gossip that have been included are edited to omit any recognisable details of both the protagonist and the narrator of the account.
3.3 Analysis
After the fieldwork period ATLAS.ti qualitative data analysis software was used to code and analyse data (Appendix 2). By coding the qualitative data, free flowing text was organised into analytical themes, influenced by related literature and grounded in the theoretical framework of the study (Bernard 2006, 492). Coding themes were particularly informed by Johnson-Hank’s theory of vital conjunctures and included subjects related to social horizons, agency and context. Reflexivity: ‘Being rural in rural research’ Having grown up in Devon and known virtually all the individuals who took part in this study on a personal level before they became “informants”, I had a close relationship to both the people and the topic I was studying. In regard to positioning myself personally to this study I have tried to be as impartial as possible and not let my own opinions as a woman from Devon who has made the decision to leave rurality influence my interpretations of other women’s decisions. In national public discourses, rural communities are often stigmatised, portrayed as uncultured, unproductive and backwards (Pedersen 2018, 5). Throughout this study I have been conscious of not reifying the stereotype that rural people are homogenously backwards, stubborn and unaccepting of diversity. Whilst this may be the case in regard to some people, there are many bright, forward thinking young people living in rural Devon. The intention of this study is not to portray certain lifestyle choices or reproductive decisions as favourable over others, and I have been constantly conscious of reiterating the fact that just because a certain way of life is not what I would choose for myself, it does not make it an inferior choice. I also had friendships with a number of the urban women before the fieldwork period and shared a number of characteristics with them as a whole: being a young woman from Devonwho had made the decision to migrate out of rurality. I was partially able to separate my personal identity from the shared-identity of the urban research cohort as I myself had never lived in London. Throughout the research period (in both settings) my subject-positioning switched between the role of peer and academic researcher, allowing me to collect rich empirical data as an “insider” whilst also scrutinising and analysing my observations (cf. Pini 2004). As already addressed, this duality of roles can be ethically problematic as individuals divulge information to you, but to you as a peer rather than a researcher (ibid. 174). To try and counteract this dilemma I made an effort to remind informants that I was there as a researcher as well as a friend, and any information that could be seen as compromising or harmful has been anonymised or used as an abstract example. Ethics The aim of this research was transparently outlined to all informants so they were able to make an informed decision whether or not to participate in the study. The intimate nature of reproductive desires and practices meant that some interview topics could have been sensitive to some of the women. Interview participants were explicitly told that if conversation turned to something they did not want to talk about to alert the researcher we would move on to a different topic. Caution was taken when conducting interviews to look out for cues that indicated the women were getting distressed or feeling uncomfortable.
Informants were assured of their anonymity before taking part in the study and in accordance with this all of the women were assigned random pseudonyms (Bernard 2006, 215). To protect the anonymity of informants and ensure confidentiality any identifying details have been redacted (Neuman 2007 57, 58).
4. Context: The Seaside and the Cityscape
4.1 An introduction to Devon
Devon is a rural, costal county that makes up part of the South West peninsula of Great Britain (Figure 2) (Hill 2017, 5). The scenery is beautiful, from the dramatic moorland of Dartmoor to the peaceful Devon coast (Figure 1). The pace of life is slow, the locals are friendly (if you fit a certain demographic), and generally, the people are happy. For the most part the majority of informants, whether “rural” or “urban” viewed their home county in high regard and considered themselves privileged to live (or have lived) in such a beautiful, peaceful, desirable part of the country. The county is divided into six local authorities and this study focuses on the southernmost district of the South Hams.4 In 2016 the total population of the South Hams was recorded as 84,300.5 The South Hams is a predominantly rural area: only 3% of land in the region has been built on and the rest is classified as ‘farmland’ or ‘natural’. 6 4 https://www.britannica.com/place/Devon [Accessed 10/11/2017]. 5 https://new.devon.gov.uk/factsandfigures/data-table/?postId=mid-year-population- estimates-by-age-and-gender&geography=district&showTable=1&geographyId=1946157362 [Accessed 10/11/2017]. 6 http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41901294?ocid=socialflow_facebook&ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbcnews&ns_sou rce=facebook [Accessed 10/11/2017]. Figure 1: Blackpool Sands, a popular beach in Devon. (Perdy 2016)As has long-since been characteristic of rural life in the United Kingdom, kinship ties between Devon-based informants and their families were tight (Strathern 1981). Despite an average age of 23 years-old, 7 of the 13 rural-informants still lived at their familial homes, with the remaining six all living less than five minutes’ drive away from their parents (Appendix 6).7 The low population density of the South Hams means that there are just four secondary schools in the district, however these schools have large geographical catchment areas to account for the dispersed nature of housing.8 Despite living in a number of diffuse hamlets and villages across the district, all but one of the women had attended the same Secondary School and were either in the same social circle or knew of each other.9 Devon-London out migration Devon has an older population profile then the national average with significantly low numbers of individuals between the ages of 25 to 39 years old due to high rates of out-migration from the county (Hills 2017, 25). There are visible trends in net migration based on age groups, with significantly more individuals between 20 and 24 migrating out than in (ibid. 32). Regionally and in terms of age, the highest outflow of individuals from Devon is seen among 16 to 39 year olds migrating to London (Hills 2017, 33). This is likely related to the lack of specialised job opportunities in Devon (section 4.3) leading to career migration among young people who are looking to specialise in industries that are not catered for in their county of origin. 7 Proportionately this is above the national percentage (42%) of 23 year-old women who live at home with their parents, however no statistics have been run to see if the difference is significant. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/familie s/datalist?filter=datasets [Accessed: 23/04/2018]. 8 https://new.devon.gov.uk/schools/school/district/south-hams/ [Accessed 23/04/2018] 9 I also attended this secondary school between the ages of 12 and 18 years old. Figure 2: Map of UK counties with Devon marked in red.
4.2 London: The urban capital
The latest data from the UK Office for National Statistics estimates the population of London to be nearly nine million people.10 London is the capital city of England and is by far the biggest
city in the United Kingdom, dubbed the country’s ‘economic, transportation, and cultural centre’.11 London by nature is ‘physically a polycentric city, with many core districts and no
clear hierarchy among them’, so to describe ‘London’ as a homogenous entity is both impossible and inaccurate (ibid.). ‘London’ as experienced by the professional, middleclass informants of this study is worlds away from the ‘London’ that a young woman living in a council-owned tower block in one of the city’s more deprived areas would call home. When ‘London’ is referred to in this study, it is alluding to the specific social-space in the city that the urban informants occupied, rather than the entire complex social network of the capital. Therefore, rather than outlining ‘London’ as a research setting, the following section outlines the context of London as experienced by the urban-based informants.
The social context of a young professional in London
As middle-class career-migrants, the urban informants existed in a specific, “young professional” social context within the multi-contextual bubble of London as a city. London is known for its high cost of living, and in 2018 the capital was named the most expensive city in Europe to rent property for the third year running (Christie 2018). Nine out of eleven informants in the London cohort were renting properties in the city and most were paying approximately one thousand British Pounds a month, including bills and taxes, for a room in a shared house or flat.12 One of the non-renting informants was staying with family members free of charge, whilst another had just bought a flat with her boyfriend in a North London borough. 10https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populat ionestimates/datasets/populationestimatesforukenglandandwalesscotlandandnorthernirelan d [Accessed 06/06/2018]. 11 https://www.britannica.com/place/London [Accessed: 17/06/2018]. 12 At 15:12 on 25/04/2018 this was equivalent to €1,144.17 [https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=1000&From=GBP&To=EUR].
Despite living in a city with such a huge population, informants reported finding life in London lonely and isolating at times. Whilst some women had been living in London for up to five years and had established social networks, others had moved there just three months before the start of the research period and were momentarily relying on the few people living in the city that they already knew for social support13. The physical vastness of London meant that informants’ (sometimes sparse) social networks were widely dispersed across the city and travelling from their home to see a friend could take well over an hour. Additionally, the constant, hectic, work and social schedules that seemed to be characteristic of the life of a young professional in London meant that informants found it hard to arrange to social meetings. As one informant, Danielle, put it: “if you ask to meet up with a friend in London, they’ll tell you they’re free in a month’s time”.
4.3 Employment
Employment rates in the South Hams, though among the highest in Devon, are below the national average, with the number of labourers occupying ‘highly skilled’ and ‘professional occupations’ underrepresented in the regions employment statistics (Devon County Council 2014, 6, 7). Agriculture is the most valuable industry in Devon with around 30% of the working population being dependent on agriculture and its associated industries (Devon County Council 2014, 9).14 In terms of London’s economic environment, 55% of London’s workforce are between the ages of 25 and 39 and 66% are educated to Bachelor’s Degree level (City of London 2016, 1). Financial services and professional services are the most prominent sectors of the city of London’s economy and account for 39% and 26% of jobs respectively (ibid. 2).
4.4 Politics and diversity
Like the majority of rural areas, politically Devon is a Conservative Party stronghold with 8 of the county’s 9 parliamentary constituencies being held by Conservative members of Parliament (the 9th is held by the Labour Party). 15 The county is virtually ethnically
homogenous with around 95% of the population identifying as White British (compared to 13 Individuals they knew from Devon who had already migrated to London, or people they knew from university who lived there. 14 https://www.britannica.com/place/Devon [Accessed 17/11/2017]. 15 http://democracy.devon.gov.uk/mgMemberIndexMP.aspx?bcr=1 [Accessed 17/11/2017].
around 80% of the English population as a whole) (Hill 2017, 36). This lack of cultural diversity is reflected in the data surrounding religious beliefs collected in the 2011 census: 61% of citizens identified as Christian, 29% as non-religious, 8% choosing not to disclose their religious beliefs, and just 2% reporting belonging to a non-Christian faith (Hill 2017, 43). In sharp contrast to Devon, just 45% of London’s population is identified as ‘White British’ and the city is a vast melting pot of ethnic, religious and cultural diversity (Census Information Scheme 2014,1). There are countless different cultures, ways of life, socioeconomic and socio-political environments within just one small borough of the city. London is made up of 73 political constituencies, the majority of which - 45 - are held by the Labour Party, 26 by the Conservative party, and 2 by the Liberal Democrats.16 All of the women who participated in this study identified as White British and none of them actively practiced any religion.
16 https://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/who-runs-london/general-election [17/06/2018]
5. Alternative contexts and social horizons: Context informs horizons - horizons
inform context
Johnson-Hanks’s previously outlined theory of vital conjunctures states that human social trajectories are formed by a number of decisions made by individuals at vital conjunctures that exist at major life events throughout the duration of their lives (2002, 2006). The actions taken at these conjunctures are motivated by social horizons which the individual aspires to achieve; these horizons are temporal, contextual, and specific to the agent (Johnson-Hanks 2002, 872). Socioeconomic contexts inform women’s reproductive decision-making (refer to section 2.1), however the following chapter shows how women’s reproductive social horizons can also inform their choice of socioeconomic context. The following chapter outlines how the norms, ideologies and socioeconomic environments of Devon and London informed the formation of social horizons among the women who lived there, and how the differences between the two research settings, though existing, were far from dichotomous (cf. Davoudi and Stead 2002). The subsequent analysis demonstrates how, whilst the alternative social structures of the research settings influenced informants to prioritise achieving particular horizons, there was no one, homogenous pattern of desired horizons in either group. Ultimately the women’s own personal, temporal positioning within the context of the rural or urban setting motivated their aspirations, towards which they were orienting their social and reproductive trajectories.
The social structures and dominant values of the alternative settings meant that they principally enabled progression in different spheres of the women’s social lives: London primarily professional, Devon primarily familial. The following chapter shows how informants were seen to manipulate, or maintain the same, social contexts depending on what their immediate, temporal horizons prioritised achieving. Informants social horizons were seen to inform their decisions of what context to live in, choosing whichever social environment best facilitated the actualisation of their horizons. Whilst contexts influenced the formation of social horizons, social horizons were also seen to influence the manipulation of contexts.
5.1 Social horizons of rural informants
In terms of starting a family, with the exception of two informants, the Devon-based informants either already had children or desired to have them between the ages of 25-28 years old (Appendix 6). (The average age of a first-time-mother in the UK is 28.8 years old, so generally rural-informants aspired to have children at a lower-than-average age, which could have been reflective of the prevailing familial-values and lack of career opportunities in rural, Devon society (cf. Pedersen 2018; Bryant and Pini 2011; Strathern 1981).)17 Despite the broad characteristics of the rural-women’s social horizons seeming to prioritise reproductive desires, a number of women also aspired towards attaining educational or career-oriented ambitions that they set as a prerequisite to starting a family. Here, the two main patterns of rural- horizons that arose from analysis are outlined: the traditional, family-first horizon; and the modern, career-first horizon. Traditional values: “I’m not the career type person, I want to have a family.” Twenty-five-year-old Diane also lived in Ivybridge and shared a house with her mother. After completing Secondary School, Diane attended sixth form to complete her A levels (Appendix 6), she finished these in 2011 and proceeded to get a job in a local supermarket where her father also worked. In 2015, after working on the checkouts at the superstore for four years, Diane switched career paths and became an administrative assistant for a local metal processing factory. In September of 2017, her and her boyfriend of 5 years became engaged. Diane enjoyed her job, especially for its convenient working hours and the time off it allowed her, which she saw as well suited to raising a family, an aspiration that she prioritised over her career. 17https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/live births/bulletins/birthsbyparentscharacteristicsinenglandandwales/2016 [Accessed 17/05/2018].
Diane: “I love it, its Monday to Friday, nine to five, Christmas off, bank holidays off, perfect for a family. I’m not the career type person, I want to have a family.”
Diane saw her job’s most redeeming quality as how well-suited it was to family life. Her personal ethos was primarily family-orientated and both having her own children and maintaining a close relationship with her existing kin seemed to be her most prioritised social horizon. Diane held familial relationships in such prestige that they were the motivating factor behind her and her fiancé’s decision to purchase their first house in the same town that both of their families lived. Strong, tightly-knit kinship networks and close familial relations have long since been recognized as some of the more redeeming, defining qualities of rural, British communities (Strathern 1981). Diane’s personal social horizons seemed to be reflective of these more traditional, rural values, prioritising kinship over everything else. Diane and her fiancé’s choice to live in the same town as their family had practical motivations as well as emotional sentiment as the driving force behind the decision. By living in a community where they had a large kinship network, they also had access to a social support system that could be relied upon for assistance with childcare (cf. Pedersen 2018, 15). Diane reported a strong aversion to sending her future children to child-care facilities, and already planned upon both her mum and her fiancé’s parents contributing to caring for her children when she eventually returned to work. The ‘nurturing’ environment and ‘close proximity to kinship networks’ that are present in many rural social settings have been said to make countryside environments well adapted spaces to raise children (Pedersen 2018, 15). Not only do the values and beliefs of rural communities promote close kinship networks and cohesion, but the neighbouring presence of family members can provide practical and emotional child-rearing support that make rural social structures well adapted to raising a family. 23-year-old Alana was a primary school teacher (Appendix 5) who lived with her parents in Ivybridge (Appendix 6). In 2016 Alana graduated from a Devon-based university with a Bachelor’s degree, and had been working at a local school for just over a year at the time of fieldwork. Alana was in a two-year long relationship and aspired to have four children, the first
at 25 years old, however there were number of social horizons she wished to obtain before pregnancy. Alana: I want to be married before I have children, or at least engaged Me: Do you want to have your own house before you get married? Me: Yeah. Sounds really old school doesn’t it like, I want a house and then to get engaged and then married, and then have a baby! Me: Well I get what you mean but at the same time it’s also just… Alana: Traditional Alana was one of a number of rural informants who wished to stick to the “traditional”, “old-school”, British life-course that saw cohabitation, marriage, and owning a house come before parenthood (cf. Elder 1977). Whilst these aspired prerequisites to having children may have been partially reflective of rural traditionality, it was not a homogenous horizon among all rural informants to desire to follow this long-established custom. Whilst nine rural informants reported that it was important to them to marry before having children, two informants reportedly were ‘not bothered’ about following the traditional pathway and another two already had children out of wedlock. The heterogeneity of rural informants’ attitudes towards marriage-before-children reinforces that whilst horizons are influenced by social context, they are ultimately personal and specific to the beliefs and values of the individual (cf. Johnson-Hanks 2002, 872).
The modern, rural, career-woman: “I’ve got more to do before [having children]” Analysis of the following informants’ horizons illustrate the dangers in reducing rural women to the stereotype of a domesticated woman, whose aspirations are consumed by attainting ‘motherhood’ and ‘wifehood’ (cf. Bryant and Pini 2011, 8). They also reinforce the idea that there is no one, homogenous set of horizons ‘produced’ by any one context, and that horizons are ultimately informed by the will of the individual and their unique, personal context within said social place. Pedersen has suggested that the association of career opportunities with city environments has become so engrained in the discourse of some European countries that rural-urban migration is almost considered a ‘precondition for success’ (2018, 5). The stereotype that professional success cannot be achieved in rurality reinforces the outdated urban-rural dichotomy, and whilst the lack of job opportunities makes rural-career advancement more of a challenge, it is not an impossibility (cf. Davoudi and Stead 2002, 274). Lucy and Sophia were two rural-women who aspired to achieve successful career-horizons whilst remaining in the rural, Devonian, socioeconomic context. Lucy was 23 years old and lived in Ivybridge, a large town in the South Hams with a population of nearly 12, 000 inhabitants.18. From 2013 to 2016, Lucy lived in a city in the middle of Devon, where she attended university and studied for a Bachelor’s degree. In 2016, she graduated with a First-Class degree and moved back in with her parents in Ivybridge, where she had been working as a care worker at a school for children with disabilities ever since (Appendix 6). In terms of reproductive desires Lucy aspired to have four children (a high number when compared to the British Total Fertility Rate of 1.82 (Office for National Statistics 2016)). It has been suggested that dominant ideologies in many rural towns emphasise the importance of family values and cohesion (Bryant and Pini 2011, 6; Strathern 1981; Pedersen 2018). Lucy reported internalising this family-orientated ethos, as was reflected in her desire to have a large, close family. 18 https://www.citypopulation.de/php/uk-england-southwestengland.php?cityid=E34000867 [Accessed 24/04/2018].
As well as prioritising family and desiring to have a large number of children, Lucy was also a driven, ambitious, woman who aspired to achieve higher education and career-related social horizons before pregnancy. Lucy: “I’m applying to go back to university at the moment, I want to go back in September to Plymouth19 and do a PhD in occupational therapy. Originally you know, I didn’t want to go back to university I just wanted to get a job, and now I realise, like the stuff down here I just can’t get a job unless I’m qualified as something. All the jobs you can get [in Devon] with just a degree, I didn’t want any of them. So, I realised to get a job down here I have to be qualified.” Despite having a 1st class Bachelor’s Degree from a University ranked in the top 15 higher education institutes in the UK, Lucy had struggled to start a professional career in Devon’s less-than-thriving job market.20 The lack of local, professional job opportunities influenced Lucy to reform her social horizons, putting her quest to start a career on hold and deciding that she must return to university and acquire a PhD, increasing her chances of high-level, professional employment in a scarce job market. Lucy’s evolving social horizons exemplified their temporal, fluid nature and how horizons can change in relation to the individual’s personal and social context. Lucy realised that to achieve her career-related goals she must alter the course of her social trajectory and further her educational status (cf. Johnson-Hanks 2002, 867). Only once she has achieved her desired level of educational attainment and thus been able to (theoretically) achieve her desired career horizons, will she redirect her actions towards her reproductive horizons. In other words, the theme of Lucy’s social horizons changes when the temporality and context of her social life trajectory changes.
Sophia was another rural-woman who, though she desired to have children in the future, prioritised reaching her career-related horizons before directing her actions towards having children. Sophia graduated in 2016 with a 1st class Bachelor’s degree from a Russell Group 19 Plymouth is a city in Devon approximately 20 minutes’ drive from Ivybridge. 20 https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings? [Accessed 24/04/2018].
university, after which she returned to Devon, moved back in with her parents, and started a career in digital marketing at a local Devon-based business.2122 Sophia reportedly desired to delay having children longer than the other rural women in the study (Appendix 6), prioritising achieving a high professional-status and quoting this as her reasoning for delaying childbearing. Sophia: “I know that I’m quite clever and know that I’ve always put a lot of pressure on myself. And I know that I could be quite, not really successful, but I know I could be more than what…other people are – that sounds so mean! And I don’t know what it is that I want to have achieved but I just want to know that I think I’ve done myself justice.” Though Sophia was not aspiring to attain specific, predetermined career-horizon, she desired to progress her career until she had achieved a professional status that she felt was reflective of her ability. She acknowledged that once she had children she would have to split her time and energy between them and her career, and her professional trajectory would likely slow down (cf. Williams 2000, 65). Sophia decided that by initially focussing on her career she could achieve her professional goals before redirecting her actions towards actualising her reproductive horizons. So why did these women not move to the city where they would have encountered many opportunities to establish a flourishing, successful, professional career? As Sophia put it: “I think that whilst I said that I think I need to achieve something in a job and have a sense of accomplishment, I’m not overly career driven […] I don’t feel like I need to move away to progress my career because I feel like I could do something that I wanted to here and be ultimately more happy, because my job is just my job.” Lucy and Sophia were both born in Devon: their families lived there; their boyfriends were there; and they held strong emotional attachments to the place (cf. Pedersen 2018).
21 “The Russell Group is a catch-all term for a group of universities with a shared focus on research and a reputation for academic achievement” https://university.which.co.uk/advice/choosing-a-course/what-is-the-russell-group [Accessed: 11/06/2018] 22 https://russellgroup.ac.uk/about/our-universities/ [Accessed 11/06/2018].
Ultimately, both women’s favourable opinions of the social qualities of rurality motivated their decisions to stay in Devon and work harder to achieve their career-related horizons, rather than move to the city where the economic environment would facilitate their professional progression. Outlining Sophia and Lucy’s social horizons exemplifies the danger in reducing rural women to a stereotype of a domesticated woman whose primary social roles lie within the boundaries of motherhood and wifehood (cf. Bryant and Pini 2011, 8). Both women were intelligent, well educated, and strived to achieve highly in the educational and career related spheres of their lives before having children. Whilst their immediate social horizons involved professional progression which would have been more readily enabled a city context, their dominant personal values prioritised staying in Devon, which ultimately drove the decision to remain in rurality rather than manipulate their context to align with their career-related horizons. 4.7 Social horizons of the rural-urban migrant women
With one exception, all of the women in the urban research cohort who wanted to have children aspired to have them age 30 or older (Appendix 6). Women in both research cohorts that desired children saw “30” as a reproductive benchmark, however whilst rural women wanted their first child before 30, urban women saw their “thirties” as a period of their lives where they would start redirecting their actions towards pregnancy (Appendix 6).23 The London-based informants initially migrated to London to achieve career-related horizons that they would not have been able to actualise in Devon: this is an example of informants’ social horizons motivating their change of context. A number of urban-informants aspired to return to Devon to have children once they had achieved their career-related horizons in London. When their horizons changed, they intended to manipulate their context to align with their horizons, and migrate to a social setting that enabled them to actualise their reproductive 23 Even Sophia, the rural informant who reported wanting to delay child birth for the longest said “I don’t want to have my first child later than 30”.
desires. Three themes that arose from analysis of the urban women’s social horizons were: returning to Devon to have children; delaying pregnancy in favour of hedonistic enjoyment; and desiring to remain childfree. Exploring the urban research cohort’s horizons showed that whilst there were some distinct contrasts between their aspirations and the rural-women’s (such as desired age at first child), the reality of the comparison was far from dichotomous and there were overlapping, shared horizon-characteristics among the informants in both settings. Returning to rurality to reproduce (“everything says to me that its more sensible to move back to Devon”) 26-year-old Danielle lived in a rented flat in the south of London with her boyfriend of 6 years. Five years ago, after graduating from university with a Bachelors’ degree in law, Danielle secured a job at a company in London where she was able to complete the required training to become a qualified solicitor. At the time of fieldwork, she was a practicing solicitor specialising in family law. Despite both her and her boyfriend having flourishing careers and an established, fulfilling social life in London, Danielle and her partner aspired to move back to Devon in the not so distant future to start a family. Danielle: “I think both of us just think we wouldn’t want to have a family in London. I can’t really imagine children on a tube and stuff….I want to be near my family…for that support and [Devon is} where they are. Secondly, I just think that it’s a nicer environment to grow up in as a child rather than in London. Also because of house prices here, I probably wouldn’t be able to afford more than a flat, so if I were to have children I would have to fit them into a flat which could be horrendous….So it just kind of, everything says to me that its more sensible to move back to Devon.”
By initially moving to London after graduating, Danielle was able to establish herself as a practicing solicitor without having to endure the struggle of securing a training contract in Devon’s less-than-thriving job market. Whilst London’s socioeconomic environment was well suited in enabling Danielle to achieve her professional horizons, she saw it as poorly adapted to raising a family. Danielle aspired to return to Devon (once she decides to redirect her actions towards her reproductive aspirations) where the environment would be more conducive to
