TWICE THE SIZE - DIT Update - Dublin Institute of Technology

Figure 7: Inglehart-Welzel Cultural Map of the World. Source: World Values Survey (2007).
The World Values Survey, in operation at intervals since 1981, was designed to provide a
comprehensive measurement of all major areas of human concern, from religion to politics to
economic and social life. The analysis of specially developed indicators has shown that value
systems can be quite well described by two dimensions: (1) traditional/secular-rational and (2)
survival/self-expression values. The traditional/secular-rational aspect reflects the contrast
between societies for which religion is very important and those who place strong emphasis on
the secular-rational attitudes. Societies associated with the traditional values emphasise the
importance of parent-child ties and respect to authority, and have very strong family and prolife
values. These societies have high levels of national pride and a nationalistic outlook.
Societies with secular-rational values have the opposite views on these topics. The second
dimension polarises the survival values with those of self-expression. It is linked with the
transition from industrial society to post-industrial societies. The exceptional levels of wealth
generated by the past generations in advanced societies have resulted in an increasing share of
the population taking survival for granted. In consequence, the main concerns for people have
moved from achieving economic and physical security to an emphasis on subjective well-being,
self-expression and quality of life. Self expression values give a high priority to environmental
protection, tolerance of diversity and rising demands for participation in decision-making in
economic and political life (WVS, 2007).
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