Chapter 15Chapter 15Population and Population and Urbanization:Urbanization:
Living on Spaceship Living on Spaceship EarthEarth
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Demography: the study of human populations, including their size, geographic location, movement, concentration, and changing characteristics
Population: can refer to any society, group, or category of people
Below replacement levels: population decrease since there are fewer births than deaths
Population momentum: population increase due to large numbers of births
Urbanization: movement of people to cities
Introductory Terms
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Macro-level growth has resulted from:
Human thinking ability, which allowed successful competition for survival of the species
The agricultural revolution led to food surplus and longer life-spans
The industrial revolution led to improved health and sanitation measures, bringing the death rate down
World Population Growth
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Predictors of population growth:Dependency ratios: indicate how many people contribute to the labor force and how many depend on others
Youth dependency ratioAged dependency ratio
Sex ratio: indicates the number of women eligible to give birth and the number of potential spousesPopulation pyramids: a visual depiction of sex and dependency ratios
World Population Growth
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Malthus’s theory of populationHumans are driven to reproduce; if no checks are imposed, the population will increase exponentially, resulting in food shortagePossible checks on population growth: war, disease, food shortage or famineMalthus also suggested delaying marriage and practicing abstinence until one could afford a family (contraception was not yet viable)
Explaining Population Patterns: Theories
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Malthus’s theory of populationCritiques of Malthus
Did not anticipate role of capitalism in population dynamics, e.g. encouraging excessive consumption Did not anticipate increased productivity of modern agricultural techniquesSaw abstinence as main way to prevent births; did not recognize the potential for contraception Poverty does not result inevitably from population growth
Explaining Population Patterns: Theories
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Malthus’s theory of populationNeo-Malthusians:
Accept much of the theory, but with some modificationsRecognize that individuals’ personal goals are not always consistent with the social goal of managing population growthFavor contraception over “moral restraint”Recognize that much environmental damage is caused by corporate pollution and excessive consumption, not population growth per se
Explaining Population Patterns: Theories
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Demographic transition theoryAttempts to explain why economic and social changes alter the population sizeIdentifies three stages of development:
Stage 1: High birth and death rates balance out over time; the pattern for much of human historyStage 2: High birth rates remain but deaths decline due to advances in health, sanitation, food supplyStage 3: Low birth and death rates, low population growth; the pattern in most industrial and post-industrial societies
Explaining Population Patterns: Theories
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Explaining Population Patterns: Theories
Demographic transition theory
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Demographic transition theoryCritiques:
Fails to consider several factors•Age at marriage•Contraceptive availability•A country’s land and resources •Economic structure, religious beliefs, political
philosophy•Economic expansion
Assumes modernization results in rational choice about family size; instead, small families are due to economic development and urbanization
Explaining Population Patterns: Theories
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Demographic transition theoryWealth flow theory: decisions about family size result from two strategies: wealth flow from parents to children and vice versa
When wealth flows from parents to children, family sizes are smallerWhen children are working for their parents, family sizes are larger
Explaining Population Patterns: Theories
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Conflict theorySocial and structural factors built into the economic system, not automatic population growth, are the cause of poverty
Capitalist structures result in wealth for capitalists and create overpopulation and poverty for workersSocialist societies can absorb population growth; all can find jobs as the system expands to include them
Explaining Population Patterns: Theories
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Policy decisions often rest on whether leaders believe that population growth slows economic development, since economic prosperity is a political goal
Measures to slow population growth: improved sex education, access to contraceptives, and providing education and job opportunities, especially for women
Policy: Population & Economic Development
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Meso-level analysis
Key aspects of population changeSize: overall number of peopleComposition: characteristics such as sex ratio, age distribution, religious/ethnic representationDistribution: geographic density or concentration
Demographic processes that affect populationFertility: birth rateMortality: death rateMigration: geographic movement of people
Population Change: Institutional Influences
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Factors affecting fertility rates:
Economic factors: the relationship between fertility and poverty or prosperity is complex
GovernmentalPronatalist policies: encourage fertility Antinatalist policies: discourage fertility
Religious and cultural norms
Education (especially for women)
Availability of contraception
Population Change: Institutional Influences
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Factors affecting fertility rates: women’s education
Population Change: Institutional Influences
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Factors affecting mortality rates
Life expectancy: the average number of years people live in a particular society
Indicates overall health conditions in a country
National differences in mortality are caused by disease, poor health care, poverty, war and civil strife, draught and famine, malnutrition
Population Change: Institutional Influences
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Population Change: Institutional Influences
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Factors affecting migration and mobility
Push-pull model: some people are pushed from their original locations by wars, plagues, famine, political or religious conflicts, economic crises, or other factors, and pulled to new locations by economic opportunities or political and religious tolerance
Population Change: Institutional Influences
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Types of migration and mobilityInternal migration: movement within a country
Urbanization, or rural to urban migration, is common
Influenced by job and housing opportunities
Internally displaced persons: forcibly relocated within their own countries
Population Change: Institutional Influences
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Types of migration and mobilityInternational migration: movement from one country to another
Influenced by political unrest, war, famine, natural disasters, economic conditions and opportunitiesHas been tightly controlled in western countries, but immigration is still commonCurbed by restrictive immigration laws in receiving countries, and by economic recessionsRefugees: those who flee in search of refuge from war, political oppression, or religious persecution
Population Change: Institutional Influences
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Baby boom and baby bust
Changes in the population influence: job prospects
retirement security
career decisions
deviance rates
Micro-Level Population Patterns
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The Urbanization ProcessPeople move from rural to urban locations, where they hold mostly non-rural occupations
They undergo a change in lifestyle in the city
Urbanization accompanies:Modernization: transformation from traditional societies to bureaucratized states
Industrialization: transformation from agricultural and hand-made goods to manufacturing industries
Urbanization
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Communities are locations that provide residents with:
a place to livea sense of identity and belongingneighbors and friendsactivities and social involvementsaccess to basic necessities like food, jobs, schools, and health care
Urbanization
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Tonnies’ two community extremes:
Gemeinschaft: small, traditional communities characterized by families and personal relationships and values
Gesellschaft: large, impersonal urban areas characterized by formal relationships, contracts and a money economy, and isolation
Cities as Micro-Level Living Environments
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Durkheim’s two types of social bondsMechanical solidarity: society held together by shared beliefs, values, and traditions, homogeneity of thought; typical of rural areas and simple societies
Legal system emphasizes moral order
Organic solidarity: society held together by an interdependence among people with a specialized division of labor; common in complex societies
Legal system emphasizes making amends for wrongdoing
Cities as Micro-Level Living Environments
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Rural lifeDominant for much of human history
Rural areas: fewer than 1,000 people per square mile
21% of the U.S. population lived in a rural area in the year 2000
Rural sociology: the study of social life in non-metropolitan areas
Cities as Micro-Level Living Environments
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Life in the city
Urban residential patternsNeighborhoods: identifiable areas within the larger metropolitan area
• Meet most needs of residents: food, schools, religions
• Residents are homogenous with respect to income, interests, ethnicity or race, etc.
• High degree of social interaction among residents• Symbolic commitment, feeling of belonging
Suburbs: areas immediately adjacent to the city, extending beyond the city limits
Cities as Micro-Level Living Environments
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Human relationships in citiesSimmel: the stimulation and economic relations of urban life cause city dwellers to be insensitive and avoid intense relations, to protect their privacy
Goffman’s civil inattention: elaborate ways of pretending not to make contact
Wirth: people in high-density, heterogeneous areas develop coping mechanisms, including sophistication and depersonalization
Fischer: urban life strengthens social groups, diversifies subcultures, and encourages intimate social circles among those who share similar activities or traits
Cities as Micro-Level Living Environments
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Meso-level organizational structuresTheories of urban development:
The Chicago School theory: cities grow in a series of circles, moving out from the center; each circle is dominated by a particular type of activity and residential pattern
• Processes that constantly occur in cities: residential segregation; invasion by a new ethnic, religious, or socioeconomic group; succession by that group
Conflict theories: urban space is socially defined and scarce, causing conflict over its allocation; cities are dominated by elites who create poverty and exploitation of the poor; urbanization and modernization are a cause of poverty
How Did Cities Evolve?
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Types of citiesIndustrial cities: primarily commercial centers motivated by competition; developed around factories, transport and communication systems
Postindustrial cities: center on service sector, not manufacturing; closely tied to global capitalism and instant information exchange
Urbanized nations: countries in which more than half of the population live in urban areas
How Did Cities Evolve?
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Types of cities“New towns”: cities built from scratch by urban planners as economically self‑sufficient entities with all necessary amenities
Gentrification: low income areas that see increases in income and housing prices, often due to middle and upper class people buying and renovating rundown properties
Conflict theorists point out that the poor are displaced and excluded
Megacities: cities with over 10 million people
Megalopoplis: area where two cities merge along a major transportation corridor
How Did Cities Evolve?
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Global urban variations:Indigenous cities: traditional cities that usually predate European ones; centers include a bazaar and religious and government buildings
Dual cities: modern, westernized "colonial" central cities located next to a traditional, indigenous cities
How Did Cities Evolve?
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Macro-level perspectivesRural migrants and overcrowding (shantytowns)Environment, infrastructure, and urban ecosystemsPoverty in the world’s cities
Permanent underclass: the global poor who lack education and skills to join local and world economyFeminization of poverty: increase of women and their children in the ranks of the impoverished
Crime and delinquency in the city
Urban Problems, Environment, and Policy
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Urban planners & social policy: global trendsUrbanization will continue
Information & transport technology will increase contact and reduce commitment to specific areas
International boundaries will diminish in importance
Economies will rely on brain, not brawn, which will continue to increase inequality
Conflicts between cultural and political groups will continue to affect urban life
McDonaldization, or creation of consumer worlds dominated by Western food, music, fashion, and entertainment, will continue
Urban Problems, Environment, and Policy