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Thornton 2001, The Developmental Paradigm 

The Paradigm, Data, Methods, And Scholars

The Developmental Paradigm

  • Has a very long history: it was influential in ancient Greece and Rome

  • A model of change that has been applied at the individual, organizational, and societal levels

  • Change = natural, uniform, necessary, directional

  • Human beings = stages of growth + decline

  • Societies = life cycle stages

  • Different speeds of progressing

  • Many stages exist in a single cross-section

Cross-Cultural Data

  • Accounts of explorers/travelers → described customs of groups

  • Scholars collected their data through community studies + ethnography

  • Led to new profound questions

    • About family change

Reading History Sideways

  • Problem: limited historical data

  • Reading history sideways: historical geography that substituted variations across space for variations across time, thereby converting spatial heterogeneity into homogenous development

    • Ordering contemporary societies along the trajectory of development

      • Ethnocentrism: northwest Europe viewed itself as the pinnacle of development

      • Societies different from Europe = least developed

    • Reading the history of the European past in the non-European present

The Scholars

  • 1500s-1600s: Acosta, Hobbes, Locke

  • 1700s: Smith, Rousseau, Voltaire, Millar, Trugot, Condorcet, Hume, Ferguson, Maltus

  • 1800s: Comte, Tyler, Maine, Morgan, Spencer, Marx, Durkheim, Westermarck, Le Play

    → interest in family relationships and processes

Describing And Explaining Family Change

Cross-Sectional Differences in Family Patterns

  • Many differences between the family systems existing in northwest Europe and elsewhere

    • Saw other societies as having a low status for women

    • Northwest Europe societies were less family-organized and more individualistic

      • Less female involvement in hard labor

      • Saw women’s status as higher there

Interpretations Based on a Developmental Trajectory

  • The great family transition: development was seen as the process that transformed traditional families into modern ones

    • Less developed became non-northwest European

    • Developed became northwest European

  • Development would transform family systems outside northwest Europe from traditional to modern

Theoretical Explanations

  • Explanations for the shift from traditional to modern family:

    • Industrialization

    • Urbanization

    • Increases in education and knowledge

    • Increased consumption and mobility

    • Democratization

    • Christianity

    • Religious pluralism

    • Secularism

      *Transition from a traditional society to a modern one

The Northwestern European Decline in Marital Fertility

  • Substantial decline in marital fertility → modern fertility

    • Due to the use of contraception and abortion

    • Product of socioeconomic and family development

    • Mortality decline = predictor of the decline in fertility

    • Demographic transition

New Historical Studies

  • Northwest Europe did become more organized around non-family institutions over time but the change was not as large as assumed before

  • Most other family dimensions of northwest Europe in the 1700s and 1800s had existed for a very long time

  • The “great family transition” could not be documented in the European archives. It was a myth!

  • Almost all the substantial changes occurred after, not before, the early 1800s

  • Ideas of developmental idealism have contributed to substantial and important family change in the past 200 years

Developmental Idealism And Family Change

Developmental Idealism as a Causal Force

  • Changed human institutions

  • The developmental histories provided criteria for evaluating the legitimacy and value of the many existing ways of organizing human society

    • Northwest Europe became the standard for judging

    • Provided a model for the future

The Propositions of Developmental Idealism

  • Four basic propositions

  1. Modern society is good and attainable

  2. Modern family is good and attainable

  3. Modern family is a cause and an effect of a modern society

    1. Important force for social progress

    2. Enhance economic well-being

  4. Individuals are free and equal, and social relationship are based on consent

  • Inalienable rights of freedom, equality, and consent = attached to all human relationships

The Power of Developmental Idealism

  • If only some of the 4 propositions were embraced, it would have considerable power to change family ideas and behavior

  • 1st proposition = influence on family behavior

  • 2nd proposition = inspire the family aspirations of those who endorse it

  • 3rd proposition = influence for family change

  • 4th proposition = powerful force for family change

  • Ideas of developmental idealism: informed government policies/programs and citizens’ thinking

Effects of Developmental Idealism in Northwest Europe

  • Developmental idealism: ideational framework

  • Effects:

    • Rights of individuals/government

    • Delegitimizing hierarchies based on both gender and generation

    • Change in the direction of modern family

    • Future expectations

Effects of Developmental Idealism Outside Northwest Europe

  • Undermines indigenous family forms

  • Governmental influence

    • Era of European colonization

      • Family reform movements happened in colonies

  • South and Central America: program for the Christianization

  • China and Soviet Union: based on Marx’s ideology

  • Family planning movement

    • Helped to reduce fertility

    • Try to increase the desire for smaller families and to encourage the use of contraception

  • Incentives + coercion (in China, India, and Indonesia)

  • Expansion of mass education

    • Educational change alone accounts for most of the family changes explained by all socioeconomic factors

  • Mass media: mechanism for diffusion

    • Exposure to mass media → strong predictor of family patterns

The Paradigm, Data, Methods, And Scholars

The Developmental Paradigm

  • Has a very long history: it was influential in ancient Greece and Rome

  • A model of change that has been applied at the individual, organizational, and societal levels

  • Change = natural, uniform, necessary, directional

  • Human beings = stages of growth + decline

  • Societies = life cycle stages

  • Different speeds of progressing

  • Many stages exist in a single cross-section

Cross-Cultural Data

  • Accounts of explorers/travelers → described customs of groups

  • Scholars collected their data through community studies + ethnography

  • Led to new profound questions

    • About family change

Reading History Sideways

  • Problem: limited historical data

  • Reading history sideways: historical geography that substituted variations across space for variations across time, thereby converting spatial heterogeneity into homogenous development

    • Ordering contemporary societies along the trajectory of development

      • Ethnocentrism: northwest Europe viewed itself as the pinnacle of development

      • Societies different from Europe = least developed

    • Reading the history of the European past in the non-European present

The Scholars

  • 1500s-1600s: Acosta, Hobbes, Locke

  • 1700s: Smith, Rousseau, Voltaire, Millar, Trugot, Condorcet, Hume, Ferguson, Maltus

  • 1800s: Comte, Tyler, Maine, Morgan, Spencer, Marx, Durkheim, Westermarck, Le Play

    → interest in family relationships and processes

Describing And Explaining Family Change

Cross-Sectional Differences in Family Patterns

  • Many differences between the family systems existing in northwest Europe and elsewhere

    • Saw other societies as having a low status for women

    • Northwest Europe societies were less family-organized and more individualistic

      • Less female involvement in hard labor

      • Saw women’s status as higher there

Interpretations Based on a Developmental Trajectory

  • The great family transition: development was seen as the process that transformed traditional families into modern ones

    • Less developed became non-northwest European

    • Developed became northwest European

  • Development would transform family systems outside northwest Europe from traditional to modern

Theoretical Explanations

  • Explanations for the shift from traditional to modern family:

    • Industrialization

    • Urbanization

    • Increases in education and knowledge

    • Increased consumption and mobility

    • Democratization

    • Christianity

    • Religious pluralism

    • Secularism

      *Transition from a traditional society to a modern one

The Northwestern European Decline in Marital Fertility

  • Substantial decline in marital fertility → modern fertility

    • Due to the use of contraception and abortion

    • Product of socioeconomic and family development

    • Mortality decline = predictor of the decline in fertility

    • Demographic transition

New Historical Studies

  • Northwest Europe did become more organized around non-family institutions over time but the change was not as large as assumed before

  • Most other family dimensions of northwest Europe in the 1700s and 1800s had existed for a very long time

  • The “great family transition” could not be documented in the European archives. It was a myth!

  • Almost all the substantial changes occurred after, not before, the early 1800s

  • Ideas of developmental idealism have contributed to substantial and important family change in the past 200 years

Developmental Idealism And Family Change

Developmental Idealism as a Causal Force

  • Changed human institutions

  • The developmental histories provided criteria for evaluating the legitimacy and value of the many existing ways of organizing human society

    • Northwest Europe became the standard for judging

    • Provided a model for the future

The Propositions of Developmental Idealism

  • Four basic propositions

  1. Modern society is good and attainable

  2. Modern family is good and attainable

  3. Modern family is a cause and an effect of a modern society

    1. Important force for social progress

    2. Enhance economic well-being

  4. Individuals are free and equal, and social relationship are based on consent

  • Inalienable rights of freedom, equality, and consent = attached to all human relationships

The Power of Developmental Idealism

  • If only some of the 4 propositions were embraced, it would have considerable power to change family ideas and behavior

  • 1st proposition = influence on family behavior

  • 2nd proposition = inspire the family aspirations of those who endorse it

  • 3rd proposition = influence for family change

  • 4th proposition = powerful force for family change

  • Ideas of developmental idealism: informed government policies/programs and citizens’ thinking

Effects of Developmental Idealism in Northwest Europe

  • Developmental idealism: ideational framework

  • Effects:

    • Rights of individuals/government

    • Delegitimizing hierarchies based on both gender and generation

    • Change in the direction of modern family

    • Future expectations

Effects of Developmental Idealism Outside Northwest Europe

  • Undermines indigenous family forms

  • Governmental influence

    • Era of European colonization

      • Family reform movements happened in colonies

  • South and Central America: program for the Christianization

  • China and Soviet Union: based on Marx’s ideology

  • Family planning movement

    • Helped to reduce fertility

    • Try to increase the desire for smaller families and to encourage the use of contraception

  • Incentives + coercion (in China, India, and Indonesia)

  • Expansion of mass education

    • Educational change alone accounts for most of the family changes explained by all socioeconomic factors

  • Mass media: mechanism for diffusion

    • Exposure to mass media → strong predictor of family patterns