Abstract

   Fertility behaviour is increasingly argued to be influenced not just by individual attributes but
   also by social processes. Mounting evidence on social networks of women and family
   planning further supports this hypothesis. However the exact processes through which these
   effects operate are still unclear due to data limitations which are either on kinship networks or
   ties between small groups of people. The data on the complete social structure in relation to
   family planning is nearly non existent or suffers from shortcomings like omission of
   important actors in the network and of male networks. This research tackles these
   shortcomings by collecting new information on the entire family planning network structure
   for both men and women in the context of rural Bangladesh. Family planning decisions are
   studied in relation to the position of individual actors within the social structure shedding
   light on both constraints and opportunities for individual action in these networks.