The Accordion Family: Boomerang Kids, Anxious Parents, and the Private Toll of Global Competition [Hardcover]

Katherine S. Newman (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 17, 2012

Why are adults in their twenties and thirties stuck in their parents’ homes in the world’s wealthiest countries?
 
There’s no question that globalization has drastically changed the cultural landscape across the world. The cost of living is rising, and high unemployment rates have created an untenable economic climate that has severely compromised the path to adulthood for young people in their twenties and thirties. And there’s no end in sight. Families are hunkering down, expanding the reach of their households to envelop economically vulnerable young adults. Acclaimed sociologist Katherine Newman explores the trend toward a rising number of “accordion families” composed of adult children who will be living off their parents’ retirement savings with little means of their own when the older generation is gone.
 
While the trend crosses the developed world, the cultural and political responses to accordion families differ dramatically. In Japan, there is a sense of horror and fear associated with “parasite singles,” whereas in Italy, the “cult of mammismo,” or mamma’s boys, is common and widely accepted, though the government is rallying against it. Meanwhile, in Spain, frustrated parents and millenials angrily blame politicians and big business for the growing number of youth forced to live at home.
 
Newman’s investigation, conducted in six countries, transports the reader into the homes of accordion families and uncovers fascinating links between globalization and the failure-to-launch trend. Drawing from over three hundred interviews, Newman concludes that nations with weak welfare states have the highest frequency of accordion families while the trend is virtually unknown in the Nordic countries. The United States is caught in between. But globalization is reshaping the landscape of adulthood everywhere, and the consequences are far-reaching in our private lives. In this gripping and urgent book, Newman urges Americans not to simply dismiss the boomerang generation but, rather, to strategize how we can help the younger generation make its own place in the world.
 

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Klinenberg and Newman flesh out their subjects with expertise and devotion, but neither forgets that ‘accordion family’ and ‘going solo’ are always less definitive terms than rich and poor.”—New York Times Book Review 

“Brilliant and important.” —Robert B. Reich, author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future

“Newman reveals that while the causes of children moving back home are somewhat universal … different cultures have very disparate ways of redressing the issue.”—starred notice in Library Journal feature 

"Combining personal interviews with careful analysis of economic trends, and paying close attention to differences in cultural values and political structures, Newman sheds new light on the complex trade-offs that recent changes in intergenerational relationships and residence patterns involve for young adults, their parents, and society as a whole."—Stephanie Coontz, author of The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap

"In this wide-ranging book, Katherine Newman shows that the ages at which young adults leave their parents' homes are rising in developed countries around the world. She brilliantly demonstrates that the global forces behind this change are everywhere the same but that each nation interprets it in its own cultural way. Newman's insightful presentation of the stories of accordion families challenges us to re-think what it means to be an adult today."—Andrew Cherlin, author of The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today

About the Author

Katherine S. Newman is the James Knapp Dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University. The author of ten books on middle-class economic instability, urban poverty, and the sociology of inequality, Newman has taught at the University of California-Berkeley, Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press; 1 edition (January 17, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807007439
• ISBN-13: 978-0807007433
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #635,304 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Katherine Newman is the author of "The Accordion Family: Boomerang Kids, Anxious Parents, and the Private Toll of Global Competition" (Beacon Press, 2012). She is a professor of sociology and James Knapp Dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. Author of ten books on middle-class economic instability, urban poverty, and the sociology of inequality, Newman has taught at the University of California-Berkeley, Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton.

Photographer Copyright Credit Name: Will Kirk, 2012.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Look At Why Young Workers Worldwide Are Stranded In Parents' Homes December 22, 2011

By Reader from Washington, DC VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

"The Accordion Family" is an extremely interesting book on why millions of adults under the age of 35 are still living at home with their parents in many first world democracies.

In a readable and well-organized book, author Katherine Newman, a sociologist at Johns Hopkins University, presents interviews with families from the U.S., Italy, Spain, Japan, Denmark and other first world democracies, trying to determine why thousands of young adults are unable to find homes and start families of their own.

The causes aren't difficult to find -- Newman offers easy to understand tables and graphs in addition to the interviews, showing that economic globalization -- the export of jobs from first world countries to developing countries -- has left many economies bereft of starter jobs for people between the ages of 16 to 35 trying to enter the job market.

Faced with a shortage of jobs at all levels, high educational expenses, skyrocketing rents and home prices, and increasingly competitive workplaces where master's degrees and Ph.D. degrees are required instead of bachelor's degrees and high school graduation diplomas, younger workers are often forced to live at home, subsisting on part-time or contract jobs or struggling through yet another college program.

Newman looks at how each culture deals with this phenomenon -- Scandinavian countries have worked against it, by providing young adults with housing, college loans and other assistance in leaving their parents' residences. But both the young adults and parents she interviewed complain of a lack of family closeness.

In the United States, some parents are happy to have closer relationships with adult children, but allow them to stay at home only as long as they are working on a career goal that will eventually provide them with an independent home and life.

Other countries, such as Japan, have panicked, and blame parents for failing to raise independent young people, ignoring the economic factors pushing young people back into their parents' homes.

I am enjoying reading this, and believe that college classrooms of all types and interested general readers will like this book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A disturbing trend with far-reaching social and economic implications. March 3, 2012

By Paul Tognetti TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Did you know that in Italy today a whopping 37% of 30 year old men have never lived away from home? Have you heard that a growing number of other European nations like Spain and Portugal are also confronting a dramatic rise in the number of "just plain idle" young adults between the ages of 25 and 34 that some refer to as NEETS or "not in education, employment or training"? Were you aware that the very same problem is becoming increasingly acute in Japan and have you noticed that this worrisome trend is becoming much more prominent right here in the United States? Why is it that increasing numbers of young adults all over the developed world are choosing to stay at home with mom and dad after graduation rather than striking out on their own? Surely, skyrocketing housing costs are partly to blame. But is there more to it? Katherine S. Newman is an esteemed sociologist and author who has made her life's work the study of middle-class economic instability and urban poverty. Her latest book is bound to unsettle you just a bit. Professor Newman posits the notion that the root cause of the myriad problems confronting the generation she refers to as the "Millennials" is economic globalization. Also known as "Generation Y", these young people are waking up to the painful reality that the economic activity and employment opportunities once available in the advanced economies they grew up in have been inexorably shifting to Second and Third World nations with dramatically lower labor costs. In "The Accordion Family: Boomerang Kids, Anxious Parents, and the Private Toll of Global Competition" Newman synthesizes the findings from the more than 300 candid interviews of parents and adult children in six different nations that were conducted for this book. I must tell you that what I learned about this emerging problem often surprised me, sometimes shocked me, occasionally infuriated me, but never bored me. I must agree with former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich (with whom I virtually never agree) that "The Accordion Family" is at once "brilliant and important".

In the Introduction to "The Accordion Family" Professor Newman succinctly states the crux of the matter as she sees it: "Globalization has insured that the economic conditions that underwrote the earlier, more traditional, road to adulthood no longer hold. International competition is greater than it once was, and many countries, fearful of losing markets for their goods and services, are responding by restructuring the labor market to cut the wage bill. Countries that regulated jobs to insure they were full-time, well-paid, and protected from layoffs, now permit part-time, poorly-paid jobs and let employers fire without restiction." Welcome to the real world folks! It seems that there is a price to pay for all those cheap consumer goods we in the developed world are demanding and our young adults are bearing the brunt of it. Now as a result of prevailing world economic conditions Newman finds that increasing numbers of young adults are unable to secure a well-paid position after college and simply do not have the wherewithal to move into their own place. Thus the trend to stay put. In 2009, some 34 million American parents shared a home with their adult children.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of "The Accordion Family" is the way that different cultures have responded to the very same problem. Not surprisingly, Japanese parents take a rather dim view of an adult child mired in these circumstances. According to Newman "They retain a strong normative sense of what is appropriate and what is deviant in the evolution from youth to adult. They simply do not like what they see." Japanese parents often blame themselves for having been much too lenient with their offspring. Meanwhile, halfway around the globe in nations like Spain and Italy the reaction appears to be exactly the opposite. In this part of the world extended families have long been the norm and the parents of young adults who are trying to find their way in the world will usually cut them considerably more slack and welcome them back home. Here in the United States most of the parents who were interviewed for the book seemed to be open to their adult children returning home to live for a period of time so long as they were making some sort of effort to find meaningful employment. Sounds altogether reasonable to me. Now if you are a young adult out looking for your first job in Denmark or Sweden the approach taken by your government is vastly different than in the other four countries I have just discussed. There is simply a lot more assistance available to you. Katherine Newman discusses the Scandanavian approach in considerable detail in "The Accordion Family".

Aside from the obvious adjustments that everyone in these "accordion" families must make when an adult child decides to remain at home there are also significant long-term economic implications surrounding such behavior. Delayed entry into the labor market, the declining importance of the institution of marriage and falling birth rates are going to continue to wreak havoc with governmental budgets throughout the developed world in the years to come. Furthermore, globalization is an ecomonic reality that everyone is simply going to have to learn how to deal with. Although I am sure that Katherine Newman is onto something I suspect that there might be a number of other factors at work here that the author has not fully explored including the "Millennials" rather unrealistic employment expectations as well as the rapid expansion in recent years of such exotic college majors as "area, ethnic, cultural and gender studies". One wonders how many of these students made ill-advised choices when selecting a major and if our institutions of higher learning are more interested in preparing these students for the real world or indoctrinating them with a radical political philosophy? But the bottom line is that I found "The Accordion Family: Boomerang Kids, Anxious Parents, and the Private Toll of Global Competition" to be an exceptionally well written and thought-provoking book that is certainly well worth your time and consideration. See if you agree. Very highly recommended!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Groundbreaking study on the failure of the next generation to launch January 15, 2012

By Malvin VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

"The Accordion Family" by Katherine Newman is a groundbreaking study on the rise of multigeneration households in the advanced industrial economies. Working with a staff of professional research assistants, Ms. Newman's ambitious project included interviews with hundreds of subjects in Denmark, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden and the United States in order to compare and contrast the accordion family through different cultural practices. Ms. Newman's findings are presented in a well-written, concise and insightful manner that should prove useful to sociologists, economists and general interest readers alike.

Ms. Newman discusses how policy matters a lot. In the Nordic countries, subsidized housing and education enables young people to leave the family home and establish their own households. In the Mediterranean countries, the young are often priced out of the housing market and can rarely find permanent employment, leaving them stuck in the family home well into adulthood. In the U.S., the situation is somewhere in between these two extremes, with middle class families generally allowing their children time to study and establish their careers while the working poor have no choice but to pool their earnings to survive. In Japan however, Ms. Newman finds an extreme case where a wrenching economic and demographic transformation has left little opportunity for the young, some of whom are staying in the family home into their forties.

Ms. Newman does an outstanding job understanding how people feel about all this. She finds that Danes and Swedes value their privacy and independence but recognize how it has cost them a measure of closeness among the generations. The Italians and the Spanish seem to unconditionally treasure their children although often tight living quarters can be awkward and inconvenient at times. Americans tend to be fine with extended families as long as their young people are working towards the goal of independence. Regrettably, many Japanese parents have turned their disapointment inward towards themselves and their children.

Implicit in Ms. Newman's analysis is a condemnation of globalization. As demonstrated through hundreds of pages of testimony, statistics and analysis, the corporate economy has failed to produce opportunity for nearly an entire generation of workers across the industrialized world. Unfortunately, competition between nations to attract investment has led to cut backs in government spending at a time when young people could use all the help they can get. Of course, as a sociologist Ms. Newman should not be expected to propose a solution to the specific problem of corporate power; but nonetheless she does quite sensibly suggest that we must vastly improve our education system if we want the next generation to become productive, empowered citizens.

I highly recommend this outstanding book to everyone.