On Theory Development: Applications to the Study of Family Formation

The field of demography has benefitted from its opening up to the paradigms used in other social sciences. That opening has turned modern demography into a sort of multicultural society in which the different cultures benefit from each other. Demographers do however sometimes retrench and isolate themselves from outside influences. Lakatos strategy of progressive problem shifts is considered as a way of avoiding a war of paradigms and integrating the varied elements and influences now found within demography. Furthermore while we can also go beyond the anchored narratives approach such narratives will remain key intermediate steps since they provide partial theories ready for inclusion into a broader new theory. No overarching theory in the social sciences can be mono-paradigmatic or mono-causal. It must therefore be located at a higher level of generality but in such a way that it remains flexible enough to permit more rigorously formulated specifications created to fit historical experiences and their variation.