Resources also refer to the scientific community that has organized around research questions relating to human fertility. In short, the importance of the topic and the resources focused on fertility make this an exciting and active research area. The fundamental sociological insight is that much variability in human behavior can be traced to group-specific structural and cultural factors . In short, microeconomics focuses on decision-making within particular social contexts, sociologists stress the behavioral variability across contexts and the macrolevel structures that produce this variability. My work focuses on the macroanalytic structures and how they influence behavior or behavioral processes but incorporates micro-level variability.
Macroanalytic structures can take different forms.
Frequently, my explanations of fertility variation have focused on variation in the institution of the family generally and in patriarchy in particular- a theory of human fertility must be embedded in a theory of family and family change. But in turn, a theory of family must be embedded in a theory of social change. Consequently, economic, educational, political and other institutions play an important explanatary role in my work on fertility and family. My work contributes to the sociological literature that stresses historical and cultural continuity in social change. My experience suggests that interesting and important questions are numerous.