The dynamics of population change in general and changes in family size
and spacing in particular are long-standing issues of intense
controversy and concern. So too, are the methods of explanation employed
by social scientists in studying these and other social phenomena.
Originally published in 1977, this book offered an account of a research
programme designed to explain the changes in fertility in post-war
England, and it offered a contribution to both debates. First, the
authors provide an account of the factors that influenced family size
and spacing in the post-war period, rejecting both classical population
theory on the Malthusian model and more recent economic theories of
fertility. Second, the authors discuss the weaknesses of the survey
techniques and the associated methods of inference that formed the basis
of their research design, as methods for producing explanations of
social phenomena.