QUALITATIVE METHODS - A KEY TO A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF DEMOGRAPHIC BEHAVIOR

The past several years have seen systematic attempts to assess the ext ent to which analytic approaches from anthropology and, to a lesser de gree, from other social sciences, can provide insights into demographi c behavior. These five commentaries, introduced by Carla Makhlouf Ober meyer, examine the potentials and limitations of qualitative methods f or improving our understanding of population processes. Susan Greenhal gh argues that demography tends to be supportive of the existing insti tutions of society and their political and policy goals. An infusion o f qualitative methods into demography would be a correction for this b ias. Tom Fricke contends that the characteristics of a demographically viable theory of culture derive from its emphasis on understanding hi ghly concrete and local situations. Another way of integrating demogra phy and anthropology, writes Vijayendra Rao, is for ethnographic analy sis to inform rational choice models, which generate hypotheses that a re then analyzed with survey data using demographic methods. David Ker tzer notes that demographic change can be understood only in terms of a web of relationships involving cultural norms, social structure, pol itical power, and economic relations. Finally, John Knodel argues that focus groups and in-depth interviews make collection of qualitative d ata more practical for demographers, permit data to be collected in se veral communities in the same study, and facilitate comparative analys is of findings between different settings.