About the research
The accelerating climate crisis is making younger people increasingly anxious about their futures. According to a global survey from 2021, nearly six in ten young people (ages 16-25) were ‘very or extremely’ worried about climate change, while four in ten said they were hesitant to have children as a result of the climate crisis. As can be seen from these figures, this anxiety is leading some younger people to adjust their expectations for lives that will be lived under increasingly unstable climate conditions. These changes in expectations include deeply personal questions about what kind of family life is possible, or desirable.
Currently, in much of the political and media conversation about the climate crisis, the focus is on how to re-organise and transform our societies in areas such as energy, transport, food and housing, rather than on the “everyday spaces” (Katz 2018: 725) of the home and family in which these changes will take place.
I will look at this more closely using qualitative research methods. I will conduct in-depth, biographical interviews with people who have decided not to have (more) children for reasons related to the climate crisis. To make sure I have a multi-generational sample of participants, I will also interview people who had their children some decades ago, but who wish to reflect back on this from within the context of an unfolding climate crisis. This will help me achieve two aims. First, it will help me understand how participants have made up their minds about (in)voluntary childlessness, family size and the climate crisis over a long period of time. Second, it will shed light on whether and how participants are cultivating any kind of alternative family structures or relationships.
About me
I am Dr Matilda Fitzmaurice, the Principal Investigator (lead researcher) on the Future Families Project. I am an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow at Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University. I previously held a research position at Newcastle University, and I have a PhD in Human Geography from Durham University, awarded in 2022. You can also visit my personal website here.