New open-access book: La evolución cultural en México. Cuatro décadas de cambio de valores, 1982-2023, by Alejandro Moreno
The World Values Survey Association is pleased to announce the publication of La evolución cultural en México. Cuatro décadas de cambio de valores, 1982-2023 (Cultural Evolution in Mexico: Four Decades of Value Change, 1982-2023), by Professor Alejandro Moreno (ITAM, Mexico City), Treasurer of the WVSA and member of its Executive Committee, who served as WVSA Vice-President from 2013 to 2022 and Treasurer in 2022-2028. The book is published by Banco Nacional de México (Banamex) as volume VII of its long-running series Los valores de los mexicanos, initiated in the 1980s with the work of Dr. Enrique Alduncin.
The study draws on two survey series: the seven Mexican waves of the World Values Survey (1982, 1990, 1996-97, 2000, 2005, 2012 and 2018) and the Banamex values surveys of 2003 and 2023. Together, these data portray the values and beliefs of five generations of Mexicans, from the post-Revolution cohort born between 1923 and 1945 to the youngest adults of today.
Professor Moreno interprets this evidence through the theory of cultural evolution and value change developed by Ronald F. Inglehart. The analysis shows that Mexican society has moved along two principal value dimensions, tradition versus modernity and survival versus self-expression, with a clear trajectory towards self-expression and freedom of choice. This shift has opened a gap between older and younger generations, which the author identifies as a new axis of social polarization. The book closes with a forward-looking question: what Mexico will look like after 2040, when today’s young generations hold the country’s positions of leadership.
The volume was launched on 11 June 2025 at the Palacio de Cultura Banamex (Palacio de Iturbide) in Mexico City, with comments by Miguel Basáñez, and was subsequently presented at the Guadalajara International Book Fair.
The digital edition (in Spanish, 396 pages, ISBN 978-607-9398-41-5) is freely available from Fomento Cultural Banamex:
https://issuu.com/fomentoculturalbanamexac/docs/la_evolucio_n_cultural_en_me_xico._cuatro_d_cadas_de
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