Title：Family and Inequality: “Diverging Destinies” in East Asia
Speaker：James Raymo (Professor of Sociology, Princeton University)
Chair：Kuo-Hsien Su（Professor of Sociology, NTU）
Time：May 28, 2026 (Thu.) 12:30–14:00
Venue：Department of Sociology and Social Work R319
Registration：https://forms.gle/Tvf8pZVWacmp3j7f8
About the Speech
How relevant are theoretical frameworks developed in the U.S. and Europe for understanding patterns of family change and socioeconomic inequality in East Asia? I seek to address this question by (a) summarizing a collaborative review of socioeconomic differentials in family behavior in East Asia and (b) synthesizing the results of several recent papers on socioeconomic differences in family demographic behavior and children’s well-being in Japan.
About the Speaker
James Raymo is Professor of Sociology and Henry Wendt III ’55 Professor of East Asian Studies at Princeton University. At Princeton, he is also the director of the Office of Population Research, the founding director of the Global Japan Lab, and the faculty director of the Strategic Partnership between Princeton and the University of Tokyo.
Raymo is a social demographer whose research focuses on documenting and understanding the causes and potential consequences of demographic changes associated with low fertility and population aging, with a particular focus on Japan. His published research includes analyses of marriage timing, divorce, recession and fertility, marriage and women’s health, single mothers’ well-being, living alone, family change and social inequality, employment and health at older ages, and regional differences in health at older ages. He currently serves as a co-director of the international community of scholars called Research on East Asian Demography and Inequality, on the editorial boards of leading journals, and was as the vice-president of the Population Association of America in 2023.
