The Developmental Idealism in Taiwan: College Students' Perpectives of Socioeconomic Development, Democratization,and Family Changes

Li-Shou Yang, University of Michigan

This proposal studies developmental idealism in Taiwan. The main goal of this research is to understand young people’s knowledge, ideas, and beliefs of development paradigm and related matters. We collect information about how Taiwanese young people perceive the meaning of development and how they evaluate the developmental progress of different countries around the world. Of particular interest is about their views of the relations among social, economic, democratic, and family life during the developmental process. This study analyzes the panel survey data of Taiwan college students and collects focus group data. Combining the quantitative and qualitative data, we will study young people’s developmental ideas and beliefs. Our focus is to explicate the perceived associations of socioeconomic progress, democratic transition, and family changes from the viewpoints of young generation in Taiwan. The results of this research will extend our understanding on the acceptance or rejection of developmental paradigm in Taiwan.