Explaining fertility transitions |
| |
Authors: | Karen Oppenheim Mason |
| |
Institution: | 1. Program on Population, 1601 East-West Road, 96848-1601, Honolulu, East-West Center, HI
|
| |
Abstract: | In this essay. I suggest that the crisis in our understanding of fertility transitions is more apparent than real. Although most existing theories of fertility transition have been partially or wholly discredited, this reflects a tendency to assume that all fertility transitions share one or two causes, to ignore mortality decline as a precondition for fertility decline, to assume that pretransitional fertility is wholly governed by social constraints rather than by individual decision-making. and to test ideas on a decadal time scale. I end the essay by suggesting a perceptual. interactive approach to explaining fertility transitions that is closely allied to existing theories but focuses on conditions that lead couples to switch from postnatal to prenatal controls on family size. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|