(Missing) Intersections of Social Inequality and Population Research. A Call for Further Study - mit Andrés F. Castro

In the organizer's words:

Family is a vague collective term for the most diverse forms of togetherness. It stands for origin and belonging, but also for obligation and conflict. As a central building block of social life, the family conveys rules and norms, shapes desires, fears and goals.

At the same time, there is no binding definition of what a family is. In different times and cultures, it can be understood and taken for granted in very different ways.

The interdisciplinary lecture series "Beziehungsweise Familie" is dedicated to the contradictory reality of the nuclear family model that is widespread today, especially in Western industrialized countries, and asks for alternatives from a global perspective.

Renowned academics from various disciplines and subject areas will present current research for discussion that examines the potential of alternative family and kinship concepts in terms of their creative, ethical and innovative aspects.

The lecture series is the prelude to the Humboldt Forum's theme year of the same name, which starts in fall 2025.

Conception of the series: Prof. Dr. Daniel Tyradellis (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Dr. Alia Rayyan (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Dr. Laura Goldenbaum (Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss). The lecture series is taking place as part of a cooperation between the institutions of the Humboldt Forum.

Programmatic director of the cross-institutional cluster: Dr. Laura Goldenbaum.

About the lecture by Dr. Andrés F. Castro (Center for Demographic Studies, Barcelona):

Social inequality and demographic research have emerged as parallel topics with little overlap. In this talk, I will present descriptive findings on the parallel development of these research areas through a basic textual analysis of published research from 1960 to the present. I will argue that the relative neglect of social inequalities in quantitative population research is related to a Eurocentric bias in the social sciences, and I will quantify this bias using a variety of sources. In addition, I will provide examples of how population research, particularly family and fertility research, could benefit from a focus on social inequality. Finally, I will present my views on how the study of social inequality could be better integrated into the social sciences beyond population studies.

Dr. Andrés F. Castro is a computational social scientist, sociologist and demographer at the Computational Social Science and Humanities Program of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (CSSH-BSC). I graduated from the UN University of Pennsylvania in 2019 and have since worked in various research centers in Europe, including the French National Institute for Demographic Research (Ined), the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock and the Center for Demographic Studies in Barcelona. My research areas include global inequalities in knowledge production, bibliometric analysis and research assessment, and population studies with a focus on fertility and family dynamics in the Global South and among immigrants.

- Free admission

- Language: German

- Room 3, ground floor

- Part of: Lecture series Beziehungsweise Familie