In 1981, the European and World Values surveys started the empirical investigations of value orientations on a global scale. This volume builds on these surveys, which now cover a time period of a quarter of a century. Two chapters discuss basic theoretical and methodological issues of value research, while four chapters focus on contemporary processes of value change: cultural globalization, individualization, secularization and democratization. These analyses of the data from the value surveys give new life to social science classics such as Tocqueville, Durkheim, Marx and Weber. The...

Based upon the data collected by values surveys since 1981, this volume presents detailed analyses of cultural change and stability in a number of key countries around the globe. Democratization, individualization, modernization and secularization are some of the key concepts that the authors trace in their respective countries.