Social Change in Economic Development Theory*

L'auteur entrepend une évaluation critique des postulats sociologiques de certaines études importantes du développment économique. Des intérèts politiques et des intentions réformistes influencent ces études et limitent leur portée quant à la formulation d'une théorie du ehangement social. La mode veut que Ton explique le ehangement social dans diverses societes par le truchement d'un seul schème conceptuel ou d'un seul facteur principal. L'auteur examine quatre modeles: homéostatique, évolutionniste, libéral et psychologique. En conclusion, il indique l'approche marxiste et l'importance qu'elle accorde au pouvoir politique, aux interets acquis et au conflict social.     

Support for Climate Change Policy: Social Psychological and Social Structural Influences*

Abstract We investigated preferences for climate change mitigation policies and factors contributing to higher levels of policy support. The sample was comprised of 316 Michigan and Virginia residents, all of whom completed mail surveys. Of the eight policies proposed to reduce the burning of fossil fuels, respondents overwhelmingly indicated they would not support a gas tax, while support was highest for shifting subsidies away from fossil fuels and towards sustainable energy strategies. With the exception of taxes on gasoline and “gas guzzlers,” a majority of respondents supported all other mitigation policies. Multivariate analyses revealed that greater trust in environmentalists and less trust in industry, greater recognition of the consequences of climate change, higher income, being black, and older age were predictive of greater policy support. Personal values (e.g., altruism), future orientation, and political affiliation were strong predictors of policy support but only indirectly via worldviews and environmental beliefs.     

Economic Uncertainty and Fertility

Sociologists and demographers have long been interested in the role of economic uncertainty in family behavior. Despite the prevailing “bourgeois conviction” that economic uncertainty discourages people from having children, the empirical evidence on this issue is mixed. In this paper, I summarize the recent empirical evidence, and discuss the potential limitations of previous investigations. Among the possible shortcomings of these studies is that many relied exclusively on unemployment as an operational definition of labor market uncertainty. Subjective indicators of economic uncertainty, which measure the individual’s perception of his or her economic situation more directly, often were not available to researchers. Moreover, few of these studies explored group-specific differences in behavior. In this paper, we seek to overcome some of the limitations of these earlier analyses. Based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), we study the role of perceived economic uncertainty in transitions to first and higher order births for the period 1990–2013. In addition, we examine how different population subgroups (stratified by education, parity, and age) respond to economic uncertainty.     

Modernity and Fertility Preference in Taiwan*

Data from interviews with 973 Taiwan women between the ages of 15 and 44 having at least one child and living with husbands are used to study the effects of modernity and social status on fertility preferences. The modernity attitude contributes significantly to the explanation of fertility preferences independent of social status variables. Social status variables also contribute directly to the explanation of fertility preferences. But there is little evidence to support theories that modernity acts as an intervening variable between social status and fertility preference.     

Recent Trends in Canadian Fertility*

Depuis 1941, on a observe au Canada des variations importantes du niveau de la fecondite et la tendance est souvent illustree par les fluctuations du taux de natalite. Afin de mieux interpreter ces fluctuations, une analyse des principales composantes du taux de natalite s'avere necessaire: la distribution par age de la population feminine (mariee ou de tout etat matrimonial) et les taux de fecondite par age tant pour les femmes mariees que pour l'ensemble des femmes. C'est la baisse de la fecondite legitime qui est en majeure partie la cause de la chute du taux de natalite observee depuis 1959. Pour approfondir l'analyse, on etablit une comparaison entre des indices de fecondite legitime de cohorte et du moment. De 1946 a 1960, les indices du moment sont nettement plus eleves que ceux de cohorte; cependant contrairement a ce qui s'est passe au cours de cette periode, on observe maintenant un etalement des intervalles entre naissances, de telle sorte que depuis 1960, les indices du moment sont nettement plus faibles que les indices de fecondite legitime de cohorte.
Observers have witnessed important changes in the level of fertility in Canada since 1941. The trend is often illustrated by variations in the birth rate. To understand these variations better, the main components of the birth rate will be analysed: age distribution of total and married female population, and age-specific fertility rates for all women and married women. The decline of marital fertility is mostly responsible for the fall of the birth rate observed since 1959. In a further analysis, period and cohort marital fertility are compared: from 1946 to 1960, period measures were much higher than cohort measures; in contrast to what happened during those years we now observe a spread in birth intervals, so that, since 1960, period measures are much lower than cohort marital fertility measures.     

Type Methodology and Type Myth: Some Antecedents of Max Weber's Approach*

The methodological proposals of Windelband, Knies, Schmoller, Menger, Simmel, Dilthey and Rickert are surveyed and compared. Two difficulties in the writings are identified: the strict division which is urged (or accepted) between science and history, and the tendency to treat societies as “social wholes,” which have an autonomous existence and are self-developing.     

The Impact of Economic Shocks on Quality of Life and Social Capital in Small Towns*

Abstract Economic shocks are sudden events causing a significant impact on the local economy. Disaster community literature predicts that community outcomes from shocks will depend on the kind of shock. Consensus crisis shocks will be followed by increases in social capital and quality of life. Corrosive community shocks will result in declines in these factors. Using longitudinal data from small towns, we find that shocks are not associated with declines in quality of life or social capital, however, certain kinds of shocks are followed by increases. The strength of shocks and the net cumulative effects of multiple shocks are related to social capital and quality of life. This analysis advances conceptualizations by unpacking shock events and suggesting that strength and effect of multiple shocks are as important as shock type.     

Industrialization and Social Stratification*

This paper reviews the current state of knowledge about the effects of industrialization upon systems of social stratification. Taking societies as the unit of observation, we consider the relationships between level of industrialization and (1) the distribution of status characteristics in the population (the structure of stratification); (2) the pattern of interrelations among status characteristics (the process of stratification); and (3) the form of linkages between status characteristics and other aspects of social behavior (the consequences of stratification). A set of propositions is specified, a few of which are empirically well established but most of which yet require empirical testing.     

Preserving Domesticity: Reading Tupperware in Women's Changing Domestic,Social and Economic Roles*

L'image représentée par Tupperware est essentiellement féminine. Cet article analyse la littérature entourant Tupperware pour y retrouver cette image de la fémininité de classe moyenne, euronord‐américaine et domestique. L'analyse de cette littérature se fait en tenant compte des changements et continuités, au cours des 50 dernières années, des rôles domestiques, économiques et sociaux des femmes nord‐américaines. Ces rôles domestiques et économiques se sont entrelacés, ce qui a permis à L'entreprise de mieux les exploiter. La réussite de Tupperware en s'associant à cette image très précise peut servir comme baromètre pour révéler comment les femmes négocient les pressions combinées de la maison et du travail. Tupperware projects a quintessentially gendered image. This article explores writings by and about Tupperware to discover its representation of middle‐class white domestic femininity. This image is read against changes and continuities in North American women's domestic, economic and social roles over the past fifty years. There has been an ongoing intertwining of women's domestic and paid work roles that Tupperware has been able to exploit. The enduring success of Tupperware as a company associated with a specific image is thus a useful barometer indicating how women are contending with the combined pressures of home and work.     

Toward a Theory of Fertility and Ethnic Social Capital

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model of ethnic fertility differentials that incorporates the intersection of both the macro societal influences as well as the micro actor level influences. It first contextualizes ethnic fertility differentials within the global fertility decline literature. Then it reviews the extant theories of fertility decline. It then turns to an examination of fertility choices in the developed world. A summary of three major approaches to ethnic fertility differentials is examined and then incorporated into a more eclectic perspective provided by Goldscheider. Finally, this paper merges the Goldscheider perspective with the social capital perspective, as applied to fertility decisions, into a conceptual model of ethnic fertility differentials. Lastly, the new conceptual model is used to reflect upon the current state of global fertility decline.     

Ethnic Variations in Marriage and Fertility: Canada 1871*

Le rencensement canadien de 1871 comprenait des données permettant de mesurer les variations qui existaient entre les groupes ethniques quant au marage et à la fécondité. Ces variations expliquent en grande partie les différences observées entre les provinces en ce qui a trait à la moyenne d'âge au mariage, à la féconditè maritale, et au taux de natalité en 1871. L'appartenance à un groupe ethnique exerçait une influence extrêmement forte sur la nuptialité et la fécondité. Cette influence s'exercait à la fois directement, et indirectement selon le droit coutumier propre à chaque groupe ethnique concernant la distribution des terres. Les coutumes relatives au droit de succession et au partage des terres engendraient des inégalités dans la répartition des terres, ce qui augmentait ou diminuait la possibilité de taux élevés de nuptialité et de fécondité. Cependant la nuptialitéétait moins influencée par la répartition des terres que ne l'était la fécondité Ceci implique que les coutumes propres aux groupes ethniques concernant la nuptialité ont continuéà exercer directement une influence prédominante sur le taux des mariages. On conclut qu'on peut expliquer de façon satisfaisante les variations régionales et provinciales dans la nuptialité et la fécondité par les variations dans la composition ethnique de la population, et en second lieu peut-être par les modèles historiques de peuplement, Les pratiques relatives à la procreation propres à chaque groupe ethnique faisaient partie de l'héritage culturel que les immigrants ont apporté au Canada. Celles-ci ne furent pas tellement modifiés dans le contexte canadien. Le maintien de ces pratiques reflétait et perpétuait le caractère distinctif de chaque groupe ethnique au sein de la société canadienne, et peut avoir affecté le développement de la mosaïque verticale du Canada. The Canadian census of 1871 provided data for the estimation of ethnic variations in marriage and fertility. These variations largely account for the observed provincial variations in mean age at marriage, marital fertility, and birth rate, in 1871. Ethnic identity exercised an extremely strong influence on nuptiality and fertility, both directly and indirectly through the impact of ethnic custom on land distribution. Customs of inheritance and land partibility affected land inequality and mean size of landholdings, which in turn increased or decreased the feasibility of high levels of nuptiality and fertility. However, nuptiality was less influenced by land distribution than was fertility, implying that ethnic customs of nuptiality continued to predominate in the direct determination of marriage levels. It is concluded that regional and provincial variations in nuptiality and fertility can be satisfactorily accounted for by variations in ethnic composition and, perhaps secondarily, by historical patterns of land settlement. Ethnic reproductive practices were part of the cultural heritage brought to Canada by its immigrants, and they continued largely unaffected by the changed environment. Their continuity signified and maintained ethnic distinctiveness in Canadian society, but may also have had implications for the development of the Canadian “vertical mosaic.”     

Community Economic Development Strategies in Rural Washington: Toward a Synthesis of Natural and Social Capital*

Abstract Routes to economic development attract considerable attention in community and rural sociology. Social scientists draw increasingly on studies of social capital and environmental surroundings as they examine the factors that facilitate and inhibit economic development. However, few empirical analyses exist that analyze the impact of the combination of social infrastructure and natural capital on different forms of economic development such as on industrial recruitment and self‐development. Using data collected from six communities in Washington State, the interaction of a community's social infrastructure and natural capital on industrial recruitment and self‐development efforts is examined. Results suggest that while natural capital positively impacts a community's successful recruitment of outside industries, it is not significant for a community's level of self‐development. However, a community's social infrastructure, measured by the existence of active civic organizations, local businesses that support local community projects, community‐wide fund‐raising capacity, and extra‐local linkages to nearby communities, state, and national agencies, positively affects both industrial recruitment and self‐development. These findings illustrate the need for communities and local activists to carefully weigh their advantages and potential shortcomings when deciding on an economic development strategy.     

Social Strain of Probate*

Probate coincides with changes in the relational system of a family, and often affects the distribution of status and power among kin.¹All too often, however, existing approaches to inheritance tend either to interpret the experience in strictly psychological terms, or to equate patterns of estate partition with demographic or structural change. A systems approach can help modify such interpretations by focusing on the interrelations among beneficiaries and, in some cases, disinherited members of the family. The settlement of estates can provide new applications of the systems approach both for family researchers and family therapists.     

Determinants and Consequences of Social Trust*

This article provides an overview of social trust, examining its various aspects and components. Trust is best understood in a sociological sense by focusing on its important relational characteristic. Following this lead, the article discusses briefly how social trust relates to social capital and examines factors that shape the development of social trust, along with outcomes related to variations in trust, classifying them by analytical level (i.e., individual, community, group, organizational, and societal). The article concludes by assessing the strengths and weaknesses of existing research and by identifying some important questions that have not yet been adequately addressed.     

Couples' Views about Planning Fertility in the Philippines*

Abstract This research examines Filipino couples' attitudes toward the occurrence and timing of their most recent pregnancies. Differences between processes operating in rural and urban areas are highlighted. Specific topics include the role of couples' fertility preferences in predicting the intention status of pregnancies, the effect of personal agency in decision making about contraception and childbearing, and whether women who are better able to communicate with their husbands about sex and related matters are more able than other women to avoid unintended births. These topics are explored through survey data and in‐depth interviews.     

Sex Role Orientation and Structural Correlates*

This paper examines female and male sex role orientation, with emphasis on the structural correlates of sex role attitudes. Based on a random sample of college students, the data on roles of both sexes along four dimensions of sex role orientation reveal that women more than men are nontraditional in sex role ideologies. Structural characteristics such as socio-economic status of parents, demographic and family composition predict more of the variation in the sex role orientation of men than of women. For women, the processes through which attitudes emerge may be related to exposure to nontraditional standards and values rather than related to the effect of their structural characteristics while men are influenced by structural characteristics. These data suggest a role sharing model for women, where opportunities and responsibilities between the sexes are shared, but for men, the data support a degree of sex role differentiation.     

Social Participation,Social Status and Extremist Political Attitudes*

Two measures of extremist political attitudes are used to test the relationship between social participation, social status, and extremist attitudes. The expected relationships are found only for a measure called “support for democratic institutions.” Another measure of political attitudes, vigilantism, was found not to relate to the independent variables. We conclude that people who may adhere to abstract democratic ideals, at the same time may not reject the use of extralegal force to further their political goals. The findings also suggest that the “mobilization function” of social participation will need to be further specified.     

The Fertility Transition and Family Urban Income Distribution in Colombia*

This paper examines the effect of social and demographic changes on family income distribution in the largest Colombian cities between 1967 and 1968 and 1984 and 1985, two periods representing the conditions before and after Colombia's sharp fertility decline. The results indicate that urban family income distribution worsened between the two periods, when income shares from the middle-income groups declined while those received by the richest 10 percent increased and the shares received by the poorest 50 percent were unchanged. A decomposition of the Theil index revealed that the deterioration in urban family income inequality could be traced to groups whose representation in the population increased, namely: households with more educated heads, with working wives, with smaller families, and with fewer children.