Social Structure, Social Classes and Fertility Decline in Latin America between 1950 and 2000

• In Event: 411 - Section on Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 03. Families, Poverty, and Inequality.

Abstract

Bourdieu’s theory has been used fruitfully in the social sciences. Surprisingly, there has been scant work using Bourdieu’s approach to study fertility. By contrast, this field has overwhelmingly been carried out within the framework of the rational action theory (RAT). However, there are limitations. RAT can't fully explain fertility transitions insofar as this perspective assumes a similar behavior for each person (rational actor), by doing so, it neglects that fertility practices evolve according to the social, cultural and historical context. Nor does the RAT take seriously the role of social classes in shaping fertility outcomes. These theoretical shortcomings can be addressed by using a relational approach.

Using data from four successive birth cohorts between 1920 and 1950 in Chile and Brazil I demonstrated the need to operationalize the concepts of social space and social class to better explain fertility differentials. I used multiple correspondence analyses to show associations between couple’s capital and timing and fertility levels. A subsequent cluster analysis allows me to conclude that fertility is both an outcome of social class (dis)positions and a factor underpinning class differentiation. Consequently, I highlight that differences in fertility levels across these two countries can be explained by the differences in their class composition. Furthermore, I suggest that changes within each country are explicated by class-specific habitus which make fertility transition unfolded differentially. In sum, I argue that a relational approach based on Bourdieu’s theory and methods helps us to better understand population dynamics over time and across countries.

Author

• Andres Felipe Castro, University of Pennsylvania