This well-written, clearly articulated, and documented book of Mencarini and Vignolideals with one of the central questions of many contemporary populations: the “birthdearth,” fruit of a downward spiral of low fertility, declining number of potential parents,and declining number of births. The mechanisms of this negative spiral, or demographictrap, in the authors’ definition—1.035 million babies were born in Italy in1964, more than double of the 0.458 million of 2017—are well known to the specialists,but remain obscure to the general public. This widespread ignorance is also theconsequence of the failure of specialists to disseminate and communicate to the generalpublic the results of their research, leaving this vital function in the hands of themedia.
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