Cultural Dynamics and Economic Theories of Fertility Change

Abstract

The Maslowian theory of the articulation of higher order needs was correlated to the classic economic utility theory and additional ecological theories concerning cultural mobility were considered. The notions of individuation embourgeoisement and civil religion form the foundation of interpretation of changes in Western family formation. The operationalization of these concepts was described and a model of ideational change was proposed. The model of ideational change is cohort-and education-driven; a period-cohort interaction is recognized that may capture the dialectics of idealization and subsequent disenchantment with institutional regulation. The two most salient features of Western ideational change have been the precesses of secularization and individuation. A value scale used exerted a marked impact on the proportion of young women currently cohabiting (or sharing). In Belgium Denmark France and Germany with sharing a minor confounding factor large deviations from the grand mean persisted after control for age and the two variables capturing material circumstance. Agnostics postmaterialists world citizens and nonconformists in familial matters exhibited 7-14% more nonmarital cohabitation at ages 18-29 than the average (23% among women not living with parents). Conversely young women with regular church attendance materialists nationalists and conformists fell 7-17% short of the grand mean. When Ireland United Kingdom the Netherlands which have more sharing or Italy and Spain with unknown proportions of sharing were included the deviations from the overall mean were only slightly attenuated for the religiosity and nonconformism scales. It was documented that cultural changes are not unstructured or simply endogenous. The individuation process has continued to progress despite the degradation of economic opportunities for young adults in Western Europe. The Durkheimian dimension of social integration via the acceptance or refutation of institutional regulation had a direct relationship to changes in family formation family distribution and procreation during the postwar period.