Labor strategies of families: An introduction

The collection presents an approach to history in which the dominance of structure is replaced by the effects of human agency. Individual motives and actions are the subject of these studies. In particular, the articles focus on the economic approach of family strategies, starting with a methodological discussion of the problematic concept of strategies: how to disentangle the influence of social structure, family circumstances, and individual behavior. The conflicting interests of individuals resulted in replacing the so-called “joint utility function” with that of “bargained family decisions.” The focus of the contributions is on the labor deployment of family members. All articles deal with three factors influencing labor deployment: adaptation to the structural environment, regulation of labor within the family, and reconciliation of choices at transition points during the individual life course of family members.