Population and Urbanization

Introduction to Sociology
Seth Allen
 Chapter Outline

• Demography: The Study of Population

• Population Growth in Global Context
• A Brief Glimpse at International Migration
Theories
• Urbanization in Global Perspective
• Perspectives on Urbanization and the Growth of
Cities
• Problems in Global Cities
• Urban Problems in the United States
• Population and Urbanization in the Future
 Population
• World’s population of 6.8 billion in 2010
is increasing by more than 76 million
people per year.

• Between 2000 and 2030, almost all of the

world’s 1.4 % annual population growth
will occur in low-income countries in
Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
 Changes in Population
Changes occur as a result of three processes:

• Fertility (births)
• Mortality (deaths)
• Migration/Emigration
 How Did We Get So Big So Fast?

Link to YouTube video

 Population
Pyramid
A graphic
representation of
the distribution of
a population by sex
and age.
Population Pyramid Exercise
Go to Population Pyramid website and let‟s look some countries.

Group #1 Group #2 Group #3

Germany United States China

Click on each year from Click on each year Click on each year from
1950 to 2010. Are between 1950 and 1950 to 2015. What do
there age groups that 2010. Notice the bulge you notice about the
are particularly thin? that emerges beginning age distribution? What
Why is this? What is in 1950 and continues does the changes mean
happening to the to move up the age for Chinese society?
youngest age groups brackets. What
over time? generation of people is
this?
 Population Composition
• The biological and social characteristics of a
population, including age, sex, race, marital
status, education, occupation, income, and
size of household.

• The sex ratio is the number of males for

every hundred females in a given
population.
– A sex ratio of 100 indicates an equal number of
males and females in the population.
– A number greater than 100, indicates there are
more males than females; if it is less than 100,
there are more females than males.
Theories of Population Growth
• The Malthusian Perspective
• The Marxist Perspective
• The Neo-Malthusian Perspective
• Demographic Transition Theory
 Malthusian Perspective
• If left unchecked, the population would
exceed the available food supply.

• Population would increase in a geometric

progression (2, 4, 8, …).

• The food supply would increase by an

arithmetic progression (1, 2, 3, 4 . . .).
 Marxist Perspective
• Using technology, food can be produced
for a growing population.

• Overpopulation will lead to the eventual

destruction of capitalism.

• Workers will become dissatisfied and

develop class-consciousness because of
shared oppression.
 Marxist Perspective Applied to the
Irish Potato Famine of 1846
Ireland operated as colony of
Britain, who controlled
their exports. A disease
decimated the potato crop
in 1846 and the British
were reluctant to act. The
British failed to send
enough of their own crops
to aid the hungry people
and over 1 million Irish
people died over the next
decade.1

1. Jim Donnelly, “The Irish Famine,” BBC History, The Irish Famine.
 The Neo-Malthusian Perspective
• Overpopulation and rapid population
growth result in global environmental
problems.

• People should be encouraging zero

population growth-roughly 2 children per
couple.
Demographic Transition Theory
Stage 1: Preindustrial Societies - little population
growth, high birth rates offset by high death rates.

Stage 2: Early Industrialization - significant population

growth, birth rates are relatively high, death rates
decline.

Stage 3: Advanced Industrialization and Urbanization -

very little population growth occurs, birth rates and
death rates are low.

Stage 4: Postindustrialization - birth rates decline as

more women are employed and raising children
becomes more costly.
Demographic Transition Theory
The demographic transition
model has been criticized for
being narrowly applicable to the
Western world.

Look how quickly this process

has happened in the rapidly
industrializing nations of Latin
America.
 Theories of Migration
Conflict Theories Functionalist Theories
• Split labor market theory • Neoclassical economic
• World systems theory approach
• New household economics
of migration approach

Other Theories
• Institutional theory-Groups
‘push’ and ‘pull’ migrants to
new nations
• Network theory –Family and
business networks create
channels of migrants
Percentage of people living in
cities 2009
 Emergence and Evolution of the City
• The earliest humans are believed to have
emerged anywhere from 40,000 to 1,000,000
years ago.
• Scholars date the development of the first city
between 3500 and 3100 BCE.

Three preconditions:
• A favorable physical environment.
• An advanced technology that could produce a
social surplus.
• A well-developed political system to provide
social stability to the economic system.
 Preindustrial Cities
• The largest preindustrial city was Rome. By 100 C.E., it may have
had a population of 650,000 (Chandler and Fox, 1974).
• Crowded housing conditions and a lack of adequate sewage
facilities increased the hazards from plagues and fires, and death
rates were high.
• Food supplies were limited.
• Migration to the city was difficult.
• Concept of nation-state emerged
Jericho is believed to be
the oldest know city,
founded around 8,000
B.C.
 Industrial Cities
• The Industrial Revolution changed the
nature of the city.
– Factories attract workers from rural area.
– Rapidly developing transportation
technology brings more of them, and from
farther away.
– Urban populations mushroom.
– The metropolis is born
• A central city and suburbs that dominate the
cultural and economic life of a region.
 Post Industrial Cities

• Economies gradually shift from secondary

(manufacturing) production to tertiary (service
and information-processing) production.
• Cities increasingly rely on an economic
structure that is based on scientific knowledge
rather than industrial production, and as a
result, a class of professionals and technicians
grows in size and influence.
Three Models of the City
Park’s Concentric Model based on
Chicago in 1925

What are the some of the challenges

of the concentric model?
Can it be applied to other cities?
Are there geographic, political, and
demographic changes that could
distort this model?
 Conflict Perspectives on Urban Growth
•Developers, capitalist class, and government leaders, not
individuals, determine how cities are laid out
•Land is developed according to its exchange value and
conflicts arise over the use value
•Governments subsidize growth in certain areas, allow others
to decline (uneven development theory)
•Entire neighborhoods have been „conquered‟ by gated
communities and public space is privatized
It is easy to see
how in a city like
Charlotte,
government
subsidies can
influence the
economic health of
a neighborhood.
Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives on
Cities
Sociologist Robert
Sampson, author of
The Great American
City, discusses how
high community
morale can positively
affect how people
respond to natural
disasters (Link)

Symbolic
interactionists focus
on peoples‟
experiences in city
life; how they view
their neighbors,
communities, how
they interact, and how
they perceive urban
living in general.
 Simmel's View of City Life
• Urban life is stimulating; it shapes
people's thoughts and actions.
• Many urban residents avoid emotional
involvement with each other and try to
ignore events taking place around them.
• Urban living can be liberating - people
have opportunities for individualism and
autonomy.
 Suburbs
• Since World War II, the U.S. population has
shifted as people moved to the suburbs.
• Suburbanites rely on urban centers for
employment but pay property taxes to
suburban governments and school districts.
What would conflict,
functionalist, and symbolic
interactionists have to say
about suburban life?
 Suburban Wars

People move to
suburbs to find
cheaper housing,
better schools, and
move away from the
problems of the city

How might conflict

theorists view the
proposed secession
of Ballantyne and
other affluent parts of
cities?

Report from WSOCTV, aired on 4/12/12 (Link)

The World’s Ten Largest Metropolises

Questions for You:

1. Do you see how the Malthusians would be concerned about over-population?
2. Notice the cities that are currently the largest in the world-what do you think
that this means for the future of global politics?