Post-Materialism

Description

"The sociological theory of Post-materialism assumes an ongoing transformation of individuals and society which liberates them gradually from the stress of basic acquisitive or materialistic needs. In the first place, the term "post-materialism" and the related concept of "the silent revolution" was made rather notorious in political and social sciences by Ronald Inglehart since the beginning of the seventies referring a new religious moral against the consumerism.

One of Inglehart's main assumptions is that individuals pursue various goals in hierarchical order. First, material needs like hunger or thirst have to be satisfied. If this is done, the focus will be gradually shifting to nonmaterial goods. Hence, according to Inglehart's interpretation of Maslow's hierarchy of human goals, cohorts which often experienced economic scarcities would ceteris paribus place strong priorities on economic needs or economic growth and safety needs such as a strong national defense and "law and order" (materialism). On the other hand, cohorts who have experienced high material affluence start to give high priority to values such as individual improvement, personal freedom, citizen input in government decisions, the ideal of a society based on humanism, and maintaining a clean and healthy environment.

This hypothesis would imply that a growing part of society becomes more post-materialist given long periods of material affluence. The post-material orientations acquired during socialisation should also be rather steadfast, because they are claimed to be a rather stable value-system value in contrast to more volatile political and social attitudes." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-materialism)