Explaining fertility transitions | Zendy

Karen Oppenheim Mason | Zendy

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Explaining fertility transitions

Author(s) -

Karen Oppenheim Mason

Publication year - 1997

Publication title -

demography

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 2.099

H-Index - 129

eISSN - 1533-7790

pISSN - 0070-3370

DOI - 10.2307/3038299

Subject(s) - fertility , demographic transition , transition (genetics) , precondition , economics , natural fertility , scale (ratio) , positive economics , population , demographic economics , psychology , demography , sociology , family planning , geography , research methodology , biology , computer science , biochemistry , cartography , gene , programming language

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.

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