COURSE

INTRODUTION OT POPULATION STUDIES(soc227)

ASSIGNMENT

Write any course outline on population

TOPIC

Population and urbanizaion

PRESENTED BY

USMAN ISA DARI

NSU/SS/SOC/1893/18/19

COURSE LECTURE

Dr ABDULLAHI BASHIR IDRIS

SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY FACULTY OF SOCIAL

SCIENCE NASARAWA STATE UNIVERSITY, KEFFI
 JUNE,2021

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is a second year course on population and urbanisation studies

designed primarily for students in Urban and Regional Planning. It is a course that
provides basic knowledge on world population growth and distribution, the
demographic and cultural characteristics including types and causes of population
movement and the concept of environmental resources and the influence on
culture. It also focuses on the relationship between urbanisation and
industrialisation, transportation, education and modernization, world distribution
of terrain, mineral, water and biotic resources, policies and strategies in planning
for urban and regional development in relation to urbanisation in less
industrialized countries.

1
 INTRODUCTION:

The world is becoming increasingly urbanized. Today, more than half of the global
population lives in urban areas, while the urban share worldwide is rising from
around one third in 1950 to around two thirds in 2050. Sustainable development
depends critically on the successful management of urban growth to create
sustainable cities in both developed and developing countries. The Population
Division prepares estimates and projections of the size of the urban population at
the global, regional and national levels. It also tracks the current and future size of
the world’s largest cities. The Division produces the dataset World Urbanisation
Prospects on a regular basis. We have commented that population change is an
important source of other changes in society. The study of population is so
significant that it occupies a special subfield within sociology called demography.
To be more precise, demography is the study of changes in the size and
composition of population. It encompasses several concepts: fertility and birth
rates, mortality and death rates, and migration (Weeks, 2012).Weeks, J. R. (2012).
Population: An introduction to concepts and issues (11th ed.). Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth. Let’s look at each of these briefly.

Introduction to Population and Urbanization

There used to be a place called Centralia, Pennsylvania. Some current maps might
still show the town, which was on Route 61 in the heart of Pennsylvania’s coal
region. But many others have removed the defunct town from atlases, despite
the fact that there are still a few die-hard residents there. The town incorporated
in the 1860s and once had several thousand residents, largely coal workers. But
the story of its demise begins a century later, in 1962. That year, a trash-burning
fire was lit in the pit of the old abandoned coalmine outside of town. The fire
moved down the mineshaft and ignited a vein of coal. That fire is still burning.

Of course, some initial efforts were made to put out the fire, both above ground
and below. But it continued to burn a few days later. It was put out again, and
again it flared up. This is when it traveled down the vein and ignited the coal
deposit beneath the ground. For more than 20 years, people tried to extinguish
the underground fire, but no matter what they did, it returned. There was little
government action, and people had to abandon their homes as toxic gases
engulfed the area and sinkholes developed. The situation drew national attention
when the ground collapsed under 12-year-old Todd Domboski in 1981. He was in
his yard when a sinkhole four feet wide and 150 feet deep opened up beneath
him. He clung to exposed tree roots and saved his life; if he had fallen a few feet
farther, the heat or carbon monoxide would have killed him instantly. In 1983,
engineers studying the fire concluded that it could burn for another century or
more, and could spread over nearly 4,000 acres. At this point, the government
offered to “buy out” existing residents, relocating them to nearby towns. A few
determined Centralians refused, and they are the only ones who remain. In one
field, signs warn people to enter at their own risk, as the ground is hot and
unstable.

As we examine population, urbanization, and the environment, we will see how

these subjects relate to Centralia. Environmental disaster. Abandoned ghost
town. A population forced from their homes. Today, the few stalwart residents
refuse to leave, but the government owns their homes. And the fire burns on
(DeKok 1986). A warning sign in a field is shown here.This warning sign advises
people of the environmental dangers of Centralia. (Photo courtesy Max
Edmands/flickr) Many of you have seen the 2000 movie, Erin Brokovich, about a
legal assistant who spearheads a $300 million lawsuit against a California power
company. The story is true, and the town of Hinkley, California, is an example of a
cancer cluster, a geographic area with proportionately higher cancer rates (in the
Erin Brokovich case caused by a toxin leaked into the groundwater) . It can be
very challenging to go up against major governmental or corporate interests, and
the Hinkley case is an inspiring example of success; however, the damage
wrought on that area’s population cannot be undone. As the stories of Centralia
and Hinkley illustrate, there are important societal issues connected to the
environment and how and where people live. Sociologists begin to examine these
issues through demography, or the study of population, and how it relates to
urbanization, the study of the social, political, and economic relationships in
cities. Environmental sociologists look at the study of how humans interact with
their environments. Today, as has been the case many times in history, we are at
a point of conflict in a number of these areas. The world’s population has recently
reached seven billion. When will it reach eight billion? Can our planet sustain such
a population? We generate more trash than ever, from Starbucks cups to
obsolete cell phones with toxic chemicals to food waste that could be composted.
Where it is all going? Chances are that you are likely unaware of where your trash
ends up. And while this problem exists worldwide, trash issues are often more
acute in urban areas. Cities and city living create new challenges for both society
and the environment. These kinds of interactions between people and places are
of critical importance.

 How do sociologists study these issues? A functionalist sociologist might

focus on the way that all aspects of population, urbanization, and the
environment serve as vital and cohesive elements, ensuring the continuing
stability of society. A functionalist might study how the growth of the global
population encourages emigration and immigration, and how emigration
and immigration serve to strengthen ties between nations. Or she might
research how migration impacts environmental issues; for example, how
have forced migrations, and the resulting changes in a region’s ability to
support a new people group, affected both the displaced people and the
area of relocation? Another topic a functionalist might research is the way
that various urban neighborhoods specialize to serve cultural and financial
needs.
  A conflict theorist, interested in the creation and reproduction of
inequality, might ask how peripheral nations’ lack of family planning
impacts the overall population in comparison to core nations that tend to
have lower fertility rates? Or, how do inner cities become ghettos, nearly
devoid of jobs, education, and other opportunities? A conflict theorist
might also study environmental racism and other forms of environmental
inequality. For example, looking at Hurricane Katrina, which parts of New
Orleans’ society were the most responsive to the evacuation order? Which
area was most affected by the flooding? And where (and in what
conditions) were people living in those areas housed, both during and
before the evacuation?

 A symbolic interactionist interested in the day-to-day interaction of groups

and individuals might research topics like how family-planning information
is presented to and understood by different population groups, how people
experience and understand urban life, and what language people use to
convince others of the presence (or absence) of global climate change. For
example, some politicians wish to present the study of global warming as
junk science, and other politicians insist it is a proven fact.

Demography and Population

A street filled with people is shown here. Earth’s population, which recently grew
to 7 billion, is always on the move. (Photo courtesy of David Sim/flickr) We
recently hit a population milestone of seven billion humans on the earth’s
surface. The rapidity with which this happened demonstrated an exponential
increase from the time it took to grow from five billion to six billion people. In
short, the planet is filling up. How quickly will we go from seven billion to eight
billion? How will that population be distributed? Where is population the highest?
Where is it slowing down? Where will people live? To explore these questions, we
turn to demography, or the study of populations. Three of the most important
components affecting the issues above are fertility, mortality, and migration.The
fertility rate of a society is a measure noting the number of children born. The
fertility number is generally lower than the fecundity number, which measures
the potential number of children that could be born to women of childbearing
age. Sociologists measure fertility using the crude birthrate (the number of live
births per 1,000 people per year). Just as fertility measures childbearing, the
mortality rate is a measure of the number of people who die. The crude death
rate is a number derived from the number of deaths per 1,000 people per year.
When analyzed together, fertility and mortality rates help researchers understand
the overall growth occurring in a population. Another key element in studying
populations is the movement of people into and out of an area. Migration may
take the form of immigration, which describes movement into an area to take up
permanent residence, or emigration, which refers to movement out of an area to
another place of permanent residence. Migration might be voluntary (as when
college students study abroad), involuntary (as when Somalians left the drought
and famine-stricken portion of their nation to stay in refugee camps), or forced
(as when many Native American tribes were removed from the lands they’d lived
in for generations).
Population Growth

Changing fertility, mortality, and migration rates make up the total population
composition, a snapshot of the demographic profile of a population. This number
can be measured for societies, nations, world regions, or other groups. The
population composition includes the sex ratio (the number of men for every
hundred women) as well as the population pyramid (a picture of population
distribution by sex and age). A pyramid graph depicting the 2011 population of
the United States, grouped by age.

This population pyramid shows the breakdown of the 2010 American population
according to age and sex. (Graph courtesy of Econ Proph blog and the U.S. Census
Bureau) Varying Fertility and Mortality Rated by Country As the table above
illustrates, countries vary greatly in fertility rates and mortality rates—the
components that make up a population composition. (Chart courtesy of CIA
World Factbook 2011)

Country Population (in millions) Fertility Rate Mortality Rate Sex

Ratio Male to Female

Afghanistan 29.8 5.4% 17.4%1.05

Sweden 9.1 1.7% 10.2%0.98

United States of America 313.2 2.1% 8.4% 0.97

Comparing these three countries reveals that there are more men than women in
Afghanistan, whereas the reverse is true in Sweden and the United States.
Afghanistan also has significantly higher fertility and mortality rates than either of
the other two countries. Do these statistics surprise you? How do you think the
population makeup impacts the political climate and economics of the different
countries?

Demographic Theories

Sociologists have long looked at population issues as central to understanding

human interactions. Below we will look at four theories about population that
inform sociological thought: Malthusian, zero population growth, cornucopian,
and demographic transition theories.

1. Malthusian Theory

Thomas Malthus (1766–1834) was an English clergyman who made dire

predictions about earth’s ability to sustain its growing population. According to
Malthusian theory, three factors would control human population that exceeded
the earth’s carrying capacity, or how many people can live in a given area
considering the amount of available resources. He identified these factors as war,
famine, and disease (Malthus 1798). He termed these “positive checks” because
they increased mortality rates, thus keeping the population in check, so to speak.
These are countered by “preventative checks,” which also seek to control the
population, but by reducing fertility rates; preventive checks include birth control
and celibacy. Thinking practically, Malthus saw that people could only produce so
much food in a given year, yet the population was increasing at an exponential
rate. Eventually, he thought people would run out of food and begin to starve.
They would go to war over the increasingly scarce resources, reduce the
population to a manageable level, and the cycle would begin anew. Of course, this
has not exactly happened. The human population has continued to grow long past
Malthus’s predictions. So what happened? Why didn’t we die off? There are three
reasons that sociologists suggest we continue to expand the population of our
planet. First, technological increases in food production have increased both the
amount and quality of calories we can produce per person. Second, human
ingenuity has developed new medicine to curtail death through disease. Finally,
the development and widespread use of contraception and other forms of family
planning have decreased the speed at which our population increases. But what
about the future? Some still believe that Malthus was correct and that ample
resources to support the earth’s population will soon run out.

2.Zero Population Growth

A neo-Malthusian researcher named Paul Ehrlich brought Malthus’s predictions

into the 20th century. However, according to Ehrlich, it is the environment, not
specifically the food supply, that will play a crucial role in the continued health of
planet’s population (Ehrlich 1968). His ideas suggest that the human population is
moving rapidly toward complete environmental collapse, as privileged people use
up or pollute a number of environmental resources, such as water and air. He
advocated for a goal of zero population growth(ZPG), in which the number of
people entering a population through birth or immigration is equal to the number
of people leaving it via death or emigration. While support for this concept is
mixed, it is still considered a possible solution to global overpopulation.

3.Cornucopian Theory

Of course, some theories are less focused on the pessimistic hypothesis that the
world’s population will meet a detrimental challenge to sustaining itself.
Cornucopian theory scoffs at the idea of humans wiping themselves out; it asserts
that human ingenuity can resolve any environmental or social issues that develop.
As an example, it points to the issue of food supply. If we need more food, the
theory contends, agricultural scientists will figure out how to grow it, as they have
already been doing for centuries. After all, in this perspective, human ingenuity
has been up to the task for thousands of years and there is no reason for that
pattern not to continue (Simon 1981).

4.Demographic Transition Theory

Whether you believe that we are headed for environmental disaster and the end
of human existence as we know it, or you think people will always adapt to
changing circumstances, there are clear patterns that can be seen in population
growth. Societies develop along a predictable continuum as they evolve from
unindustrialized to postindustrial. Demographic transition theory (Caldwell and
Caldwell 2006) suggests that future population growth will develop along a
predictable four-stage model.

In Stage 1, birth, death, and infant mortality rates are all high, while life
expectancy is short. An example of this stage is 1800s America. As countries begin
to industrialize, they enter Stage 2, where birthrates are higher while infant
mortality and the death rates drop. Life expectancy also increases. Afghanistan is
currently in this stage. Stage 3 occurs once a society is thoroughly industrialized;
birthrates decline, while life expectancy continues to increase. Death rates
continue to decrease. Mexico’s population is at this stage. In the final phase,
Stage 4, we see the postindustrial era of a society. Birth and death rates are low,
people are healthier and live longer, and society enters a phase of population
stability. Overall population may even decline. Sweden and the United States are
considered Stage 4.

Current Population Trends

As mentioned earlier, the earth’s population is seven billion. That number might
not seem particularly jarring on its own; after all, we all know there are lots of
people around. But consider the fact that human population grew very slowly for
most of our existence, then doubled in the span of half a century to reach six
billion in 1999. And now, just over ten years later, we have added another billion.
A look at the graph of projected population indicates that growth is not only going
to continue, but it will continue at a rapid rate.
The United Nations Population Fund (2008) categorizes nations as high fertility,
intermediate fertility, or low fertility. They anticipate the population growth to
triple between 2011 and 2100 in high-fertility countries, which are currently
concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa. For countries with intermediate fertility rates
(the U.S., India, and Mexico all fall into this category), growth is expected to be
about 26 percent. And low-fertility countries like China, Australia, and most of
Europe will actually see population declines of approximately 20 percent. The
graphs below illustrate this trend.

Projected Population in Africa:

A graph projecting the growing population of Africa.

This graph shows the population growth of countries located on the African
continent, many of which have high fertility rates. (Graph courtesy of USAID)

Projected Population in the United States:

A graph predicting the growing population of the United States.

The United States has an intermediate fertility rate, and therefore, a

comparatively moderate projected population growth. (Graph courtesy of USAID)
Projected Population in Europe:

A graph predicting the growing population of Europe. This chart shows the
projected population growth of Europe for the remainder of this century. (Graph
courtesy of USAID) It would be impossible to discuss population growth and
trends without addressing access to family planning resources and birth control.
As the stages of population growth indicate, more industrialized countries see
birthrates decline as families limit the number of children they have. Today, many
people—over 200 million—still lack access to safe family planning, according to
USAID (2010). By their report, this need is growing, with demand projected to
increase by 40 percent in the next 15 years. Many social scholars would assert
that until women are able to have only the children they want and can care for,
the poorest countries will always bear the worst burden of overpopulation.

Urbanization

The New York City skyline at night is shown here.

The lights of New York City are an iconic image of city life. (Photo courtesy of Or
Hiltch/flickr) Urbanization is the study of the social, political, and economic
relationships in cities, and someone specializing in urban sociologywould study
those relationships. In some ways, cities can be microcosms of universal human
behavior, while in others they provide a unique environment that yields their own
brand of human behavior. There is no strict dividing line between rural and urban;
rather, there is a continuum where one bleeds into the other. However, once a
geographically concentrated population has reached approximately 100,000
people, it typically behaves like a city regardless of what its designation might be.

The Growth of Cities

According to sociologist Gideon Sjoberg (1965), there are three prerequisites for
the development of a city. First, good environment with fresh water and a
favorable climate; second, advanced technology, which will produce a food
surplus to support non-farmers; and third, strong social organization to ensure
social stability and a stable economy. Most scholars agree that the first cities were
developed somewhere in ancient Mesopotamia, though there are disagreements
about exactly where. Most early cities were small by today’s standards, and the
largest city at the time was most likely Rome, with about 650,000 inhabitants
(Chandler and Fox 1974). The factors limiting the size of ancient cities included
lack of adequate sewage control, limited food supply, and immigration
restrictions. For example, serfs were tied to the land, and transportation was
limited and inefficient. Today, the primary influence on cities’ growth is economic
forces. Since the recent economic recession has reduced housing prices,
researchers are waiting to see what happens to urban migration patterns in
response. A chart illustrating the growing percentage of the U.S. population living
in urban areas in comparison to rural areas from 1800 (roughly 10 percent) to
(roughly 75 percent).

As this chart illustrates, the shift from rural to urban living in the United States has
been dramatic and continuous. (Graph courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau)
Urbanization In The United States

Urbanization in the United States proceeded rapidly during the Industrial Era. As
more and more opportunities for work appeared in factories, workers left farms
(and the rural communities that housed them) to move to the cities. From mill
towns in Massachusetts to tenements in New York, the industrial era saw an
influx of poor workers into America’s cities. At various times throughout the
country’s history, certain demographic groups, from recent immigrants to post-
Civil War southern Blacks, made their way to urban centers to seek a better life in
the city.

Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (1906) offers a snapshot of the rapid change taking
place at the time. In the book, Sinclair explored the difficult living conditions and
hideous and unsafe working conditions in a Chicago-area meatpacking plant. The
book brought the plight of the urban working poor to the front and center of the
public’s eye, as well as turning the stomachs of most modern readers with its
graphic discussion of food preparation before the advent of government
regulation.

References
1."Urbanization". MeSH browser. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 5 November 2014. The
process whereby a society changes from a rural to an urban way of life. It refers also to the gradual
increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas.
2."Urbanization in". demographic partitions. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
Tacoli, Cecilia (2015). Urbanisation, rural-urban migration and urban poverty. McGranahan, Gordon,
Satterthwaite, David. London: International Institute for Environment and Development. ISBN
9781784311377. OCLC 942419887.

3. "Urban life/population: Open-air computers". The Economist. 27 October 2012. Retrieved 20 March
2013.

4. "Urbanization". UNFPA – United Nations Population Fund.

Barney Cohen (2015). "Urbanization, City Growth, and the New United Nations Development Agenda".
3 (2). Cornerstone, The Official Journal of the World Coal Industry. pp. 4–7. Archived from the original on
27 June 2015. Retrieved 26 June 2015.

5.population