Men in Crisis? Reflections on Masculinities, Work and Family in North-West Costa Rica SYLVIA CHANT Based on interviews with 80 low-income men conducted in the province of Guanacaste, northwest Costa Rica, this study explores men's relationships with work and family. The discussion highlights the causes of an emergent 'crisis of masculinity' among men in the region, and its interconnections with employment, gender and conjugal relationships. The main argument of the study is that, although to some degree 'the family' in Guanacaste has always been an unstable entity, and a source of stress for women and children, this is presently becoming a problem for men as well, whose traditional bases of power and identity in family units are being undermined by changes in the labour market, and by legislative and policy initiatives in women's interests. Men's current 'crisis' in Guanacaste is strongly tied to their loss of power within families, rather than the break-up of family units per se, and to the fact that decisions within and about households are increasingly being taken out of their own hands. The study concludes with pointers to the need for social policy to assist in creating space for new familial masculinities and more egalitarian and co-operative relations between men and women. INTRODUCTION: OBJECTIVES AND RATIONALE This study presents brief reflections on the findings of a pilot study on men, households and poverty in northwest Costa Rica carried out in 1997. The main source of primary data for the project was a series of individual interviews and Sylvia Chant, Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK. email: S.Chant@lse.ac.uk This study draws on a pilot research project entitled 'Men, Households and Poverty in Costa Rica' co- funded by the Nuffield Foundation (Ref: SOC/100 [1554]), and by the ESRC (Award no: R000222205). Aside from the author's gratitude to these organisations for their support, she would also like to thank Eugenia Rodriguez, Ruth Pearson, Gareth Jones, and two anonymous referees for their comments on earlier drafts. She is also grateful to Cecile Jackson for her encouragement and support throughout, and to Charlotte Martin for having presented the initial version of the paper to the Conference on 'Working Lives, Men and Development' in Norwich, 8-9 September 1999 during her absence on fieldwork in Costa Rica.