Lecture: Oscar Martinez Tapia on the Silent Revolution Theory

Oscar Martinez Tapia on the Silent Revolution Theory

On Thursday, 11 December, the Dean of MIUC Oscar Martinez Tapia will give a special lecture on the topic of Inglehart’s “Silent Revolution Theory”, followed by Q&A.

Thursday, December 11, 2014
MIUC Campus
Avenida Don Jaime de Mora y Aragón, s/n Finca El Pinillo
29601 Marbella

Start: 11am
Classroom: Education

The 1960s revisited: The Silent Revolution Theory

The Silent Revolution Theory was first introduced by Ronald Inglehart and the World Value Survey in the early 1970s and has since grown into one of the biggest projects in the social sciences. It analyses the way that values started to change after 1945 by the unprecedented economic growth and the high levels of economic and physical security.

Inglehart’s main hypothesis is that generations born after 1945, under these high levels of both economic and physical security, started shifting their orientation from “materialist” to “post-materialist” values, giving birth to the counterculture of the 1960s, civil rights and antiwar movements, the emergence of the “green movement”, hippies, vegetarians and new creative potentials for inventing technologies. Moreover, this shift in values encouraged the political parties of the day to adopt the new shape of “post-materialist” agenda, signalling the end of the traditional party loyalties.

The Silent Revolution theory has been one of the most far reaching and controversial theories for the last forty years, at the same time widely acknowledged in the academic community. It is a must for any social science student, and especially important in the business world where the consumption patterns are altered by the new values of citizens.

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