International Journal of Public Opinion Research Vol. 5 No. 3
0954—3892/93 S3.00
POSTMATERIALISM AS A DIMENSION OF CULTURAL CHANGE
ABSTRACT The results of a broad, inductive study of cultural orientation in Norway are used to throw light on issues in the debate on dimensions of cultural change. Inglehart's index of materialism—postmaterialism is shown to constitute one diagonal in a two-dimensional cultural space with axes resembling those discussed by Flanagan. It is argued that they both fail to appreciate the importance of cultural differences along the other diagonal, opposing hedonistic and austerity oriented, in demographic terms typically younger men with low education versus well educated older women.
The latest book of Ronald Inglehart, Culture shift in advanced industrial society (1990), sums up the impressive results of his two decade endeavor to describe the gradual cultural change from materialist to postmaterialist values and analyze its causes and consequences. The book covers a lot of important and debated issues, where Inglehart argues elegantly in favor of cultural or value explanations of behavior. He also forcefully counters critical comments to his earlier writings. The purpose of this article is not to contest the general theoretical assumptions of Inglehart, the idea of a lasting imprint of experiences during adolescence on the value preferences of the individual, giving rise to relatively stable intergenerational differences in cultural orientation as the socioeconomic conditions during socialization change over time, differences which through the process of generational replacement change the aggregate value preferences of a society. What will be questioned is certain aspects of his description of the content of the intergenerational differences in cultural orientation as a shift from materialism to postmaterialism. The empirical database of Inglehart is outstanding as regards the number of cases and the impressive span in time and space they cover. The main part of the analysis relies on a very narrow set of indicators, however, derived from his theoretical reasoning about the nature of cultural change in industrial societies. What happens when one uses a more open, inductive approach and a much broader set of value indicators? The results from an analysis of a series of large value surveys, called the Norwegian Monitor, show far more pronounced © World Atsociatitn for Public Opinion Research iggj
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Ottar Hellevik