Developmental Idealism: The Cultural Foundations of World Development Programs

This paper extends theory and research concerning cultural models of development beyond family and demographic matters to a broad range of additional factors, including government, education, human rights, daily social conventions, and religion. Developmental idealism is a cultural model—a set of beliefs and values—that identifies the appropriate goals of development and the ends for achieving these goals. It includes beliefs about positive cause-and-effect relationships among such factors as economic growth, educational achievement, health, and political governance, as well as strong values regarding many attributes, including economic growth, education, small families, gender equality, and democratic governance. This cultural model has spread from its origins among the elites of northwest Europe to elites and ordinary people throughout the world. Developmental idealism has become so entrenched in local, national, and global social institutions that it has now achieved a taken-for-granted status among many national elites, academics, development practitioners, and ordinary people around the world. We argue that developmental idealism culture has been a fundamental force behind many cultural clashes within and between societies and continues to be an important cause of much global social change. We suggest that developmental idealism should be included as a causal factor in theories of human behavior and social change

Maintaining Response Rates In Longitudinal Studies

A recognized problem in mounting longitudinal surveys concerns the costs and difficulties in maintaining response rates over time. This article details the techniques used to minimize response loss in a longitudinal study which maintained an 89% response rate over five interviews covering a fifteen-year period. These techniques centered on two problems common to all longitudinal studies: the difficulties involved in relocating respondents for subsequent interviews, and the necessity of maintaining respondent cooperation over repeated interviews.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69083/2/10.1177_004912418000900104.pd

Early Women, Late Men: Timing Attitudes and Gender Differences in Marriage

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138327/1/jomf12426_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138327/2/jomf12426.pd

Book reviews

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43519/1/11113_2005_Article_BF01074391.pd

Middle Eastern Beliefs about the Causal Linkages of Development to Freedom, Democracy, and Human Rights

This paper investigates the extent to which people in five Middle Eastern countries endorse key beliefs of developmental idealism that associate development with freedom, democracy, and human rights. Developmental idealismis a set of beliefs concerning the desirability of development, the methods for achieving it, and its consequences. The literature suggests that these beliefs have diffused worldwide among elites and lay citizens and posits that when such beliefs are disseminated they become forces for social and economic changes. Although developmental idealism research has primarily examined family and demographic issues, developmental idealism has tremendous potential to influence other aspects of society. This paper extends knowledge by considering societal aspects not addressed previously in the developmental idealism literature: personal freedom, democracy, and human rights. Using survey data from Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, we investigate how publics of these countries associate development with these elements. We find that majorities believe development brings greater personal freedom, democracy, and human rights. Conversely, the data show that in four of the countries majorities believe more personal freedom contributes to development. These findings provide support for the idea that developmental idealism beliefs concerning freedom, democracy, and human rights have diffused to lay publics in these five Middle Eastern countries. We also find evidence of uniquely Islamic developmental models; a significant proportion of people in these countries believe that more religion will bring more development

Family organization and the wage labor transition in a Tamang community of Nepal

This paper explores familial contexts of transition to a wage labor economy using ethnographic and survey data from Tamang communities at the northern edge of Nepal's Kathmandu Valley. Historically agro-pastoralist, the Tamang of this area have experienced social watersheds drawing them into ever closer relationships with Kathmandu. The earliest was their nineteenth century induction into corvée labor for national elites; more recent has been the accelerating monetization of the twentieth century. This analysis demonstrates trends and frames hypotheses about the social structuring of this latest process, testing them at the individual level with combined ethnographic and survey data from 1028 respondents. Multivariate analyses explore the effects of birth cohort, education, domestic group status, and settlement location on participation in non-family organized wage work. Substantive findings are related to the broader historical literature on household and family with special attention to varieties of subsistence to monetized transition .Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44484/1/10745_2004_Article_BF00889157.pd

Decomposition of Differences

This paper examines methods of decomposing a difference in levels between groups for a dependent variable such as income. Applied to regression equations, this technique estimates the contribution to the difference from divergent characteristics and divergent rates of converting characteristics into the dependent variable. The consequences of an "interaction" component being present in the decomposition is examined. The paper, using data from the 1960 Census, shows how ignoring the interaction term can influence results.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68707/2/10.1177_004912417500300306.pd

The influence of parental resources on the timing of the transition to marriage

This paper studies the relationship of parental resources to the marital transitions of children. It extends past research by explicitly distinguishing various dimensions of parental resources and by taking parental preferences directly into account. We test models in which parental resources have additive effects on the timing of marriage and models in which parental resources interact with parents' preferences for the timing of their children's marriages. The analysis shows that both parental financial resources and parental education influence children's marital behavior. Our analysis also demonstrates that parental preferences for their children's age at marriage do matter, but that this influence weakens as the children grow older. Finally, the analysis indicates that the effects of parent's financial resources interact with parent's preferences to affect the timing of their children's transitions to marriage.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/29868/1/0000216.pd

The value of children to parents in the United States

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43479/1/11111_2004_Article_BF01277597.pd