Book Review: The Happiness Fantasy

Abstract

between them are discussed in more detail. In each subsection, key points and hypotheses of leading theories are nicely condensed into an easily understandable table. In the concluding Chapter 9, the two ‘umbrella approaches’ are drawn underneath a larger ‘parasol’ where the authors synthesize them more explicitly and outline an evolutionary social science approach and research programme on intergenerational relations. As the authors argue, the outlined evolutionary social science approach goes beyond the traditional nurture-versus-nature distinction and provides a genuinely interdisciplinary framework to investigate and gain a more comprehensive understanding of intergenerational relations. It is difficult to synthesize theories from different fields of research and find a balance – especially when you are in the vanguard of such work. It is possible that some readers, depending on their background, may feel that the level of examination falls short, whereas others may argue the opposite. For example, while sociologists might insist on more in-depth discussion of the cultural or individual-level factors related to intergenerational relations, evolutionary biologists may find that such factors receive too much attention. On the other hand, this is hardly a limitation. Quite the contrary – the remarkable upside of the book is that it provides compact insight into the topic and its theoretical approaches, which makes it easily approachable, even if one has no prior knowledge of the given field of study (e.g., evolutionary or social science studies). The book is well-written for the most part; however, the text sometimes suffers from an extensive use of brackets in the middle of sentences (providing additional information or side notes), which makes the sentences unnecessarily heavy and hence disturbs an otherwise pleasant reading experience. The book clearly reaches its goals; it provides an extensive account of current issues relating to intergenerational family relations, and in doing that, the authors successfully bring together studies from different fields of research and mould them into a broader framework. The importance and novelty of applying evolutionary and social science approaches side-by-side cannot be overemphasized because, until recently, that same fault line has divided the field of family studies. Interdisciplinary discussion between evolutionary and social science studies has been rare, meaning that scholars from different fields have basically ignored one another (see Coall and Hertwig, 2011). Hopefully, this book will help tear down the artificial wall between different disciplines and promote further research utilizing both evolutionary and social science approaches to investigate family relations. Having said that, this book is a must-read for every researcher, teacher and student in the wide fields of intergenerational family studies – regardless of their discipline or theoretical attachments. As David Coall ends his foreword for the book: ‘Intergenerational family relations: An evolutionary social science approach provides a critical, contemporary update and extension of this research programme, culminating in a research guide for those brave souls who want to pursue interdisciplinary family research’.