Conditioning Factors for Fertility Decline in Bengal: History, Language Identity, and Openness to Innovations
Author(s)
Basu, Alaka Malwade; Amin, Sajeda
Abstract
Declines in fertility in the contemporary world tend to be explained in contemporary terms. Immediate causes are sought and generally center around issues of changing demand and supply. More specifically, the proponents of the importance of changing demand stress the changing structural conditions that alter the costs and benefits of children, while the “supply-siders” give central importance to family planning programs which purportedly increase awareness and practice of contraception so that birth control becomes both desirable and possible. In this article, we expand the concept and the relevance of diffusion on both these fronts. On the first point, the independence of the diffusion variable, we suggest that diffusion does not take place in a vacuum: there are characteristics of both the “diffusers” and the “diffusees” (if one may coin these terms) that determine the nature, pace, and impact of the diffusion process. Second, one needs a more general definition of what is being diffused, if we are properly to understand the role of diffusion in fertility change. Our contention is that there is more to be learned from an understanding of the forces that promote the diffusion of a new ideology or worldview than from focusing on the ways in which specific attitudes to contraception are spread.
