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Abstract The theory of demographic transition served as the principal descriptive tool for fertility change in developing nations for more than 30 years. Weaknesses of the theory as both a descriptive and an explanatory framework have led largely to its rejection. While a number of alternative frameworks have been suggested, none has received the widespread support once accorded transition theory. This analysis reviews transition theory and argues for the theoretical importance of institutional factors in fertility decline. Sub‐Saharan Africa serves as the locus of the analysis because it remains the world region with the highest fertility and the one in which the transition is just beginning. The organization of agricultural production is hypothesized to be important for fertility behavior and is identified as one of three institutional areas in which rural sociology may be uniquely qualified to contribute.

SummaryThe paper examines the relationship between infant mortality and a complex measure of socioeconomic status for evidence of diminution. In data on counties in the United States with a minimum of 20 infant deaths over the 5-year period 1971–75, no evidence of a declining relationship between socioeconomic status and infant mortality was found. Both level of community affluence and racial composition of the population exerted direct effects on levels of infant deaths. In addition, both socioeconomic status and racial composition exhibited indirect effects which operated through teenage childbearing. When total infant mortality was subdivided, teenage fertility serves as a mediating variable in the link between socioeconomic status and neonatal mortality, but not for the postneonatal components. Given the nearly equivalent total effect of socioeconomic status on infant mortality, it is concluded that the classic division into neonatal (supposedly a function of biological and genetic agents) and postneonatal (traditionally attributed to social and environmental agents), may be too crude to allow the contemporary effects of the socioenvironmental milieu to be evaluated effectively.

Abstract The welfare of rural families in many African countries depends on their solidarity ties with urban kin. These ties often channel remittances from urban workers and support the education and economic mobility of children from rural families through fosterage into urban families. The continued operation of these rural‐urban solidarity networks, however, is challenged by recent economic downturns and increased urban poverty. Using Cameroon as a case study, we examine the effects of economic downturns on child fosterage as a component of changes in rural‐urban solidarity. Results show a net decline in rural outfosterage rates during the years of economic decline. Such findings raise concern for the economic mobility prospects for children from rural families, especially in a climate of increased competition for limited formalsector employment.