Population and

Urbanization:
Living on Spaceship Earth
 Introductory Terms
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
 World Population Growth

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

Predictors of population growth:

Dependency ratios: indicate how many people
contribute to the labor force and how many
depend on others
Youth dependency ratio
Aged dependency ratio
Sex ratio: indicates the number of women eligible
to give birth and the number of potential spouses
Population pyramids: a visual depiction of sex
and dependency ratios
World Population Growth
 Explaining Population Patterns: Theories

Malthus’s theory of population

Humans are driven to reproduce; if no checks
are imposed, the population will increase
exponentially, resulting in food shortage
Possible checks on population growth: war,
disease, food shortage or famine
Malthus also suggested delaying marriage and
practicing abstinence until one could afford a
family (contraception was not yet viable)
 Explaining Population Patterns: Theories

Malthus’s theory of population

Critiques of Malthus
Did not anticipate role of capitalism in population
dynamics, e.g. encouraging excessive consumption
Did not anticipate increased productivity of
modern agricultural techniques
Saw 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
Malthus’s theory of population
Neo-Malthusians:
Accept much of the theory, but with some
modifications
Recognize that individuals’ personal goals are not
always consistent with the social goal of managing
population growth
Favor 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

Demographic transition theory

Attempts to explain why economic and social changes
alter the population size
Identifies three stages of development:
Stage 1: High birth and death rates balance out over
time; the pattern for much of human history
Stage 2: High birth rates remain but deaths decline
due to advances in health, sanitation, food supply
Stage 3: Low birth and death rates, low population
growth; the pattern in most industrial and post-
industrial societies
 Explaining Population Patterns: Theories

Demographic
transition
theory
 Explaining Population Patterns: Theories
Demographic transition theory
Critiques:
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
Demographic transition theory
Wealth 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 smaller
When children are working for their
parents, family sizes are larger
 Explaining Population Patterns: Theories

Conflict theory
Social 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 workers
Socialist societies can absorb population
growth; all can find jobs as the system
expands to include them
Policy: Population & Economic Development

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
 Population Change: Institutional Influences

Meso- level analysis

Key aspects of population change
Size: overall number of people
Composition: characteristics such as sex ratio,
age distribution, religious/ethnic representation
Distribution: geographic density or concentration
Demographic processes that affect population
Fertility: birth rate
Mortality: death rate
Migration: geographic movement of people
 Population Change: Institutional Influences

Factors affecting fertility rates:

Economic factors: the relationship between fertility
and poverty or prosperity is complex
Governmental
Pronatalist policies: encourage fertility
Antinatalist policies: discourage fertility
Religious and cultural norms
Education (especially for women)
Availability of contraception
 Population Change: Institutional Influences

Factors affecting fertility rates:

women’s education
 Population Change: Institutional Influences

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
 Population Change: Institutional Influences

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

Types of migration and mobility

Internal 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

Types of migration and mobility

International migration: movement from one country
to another
Influenced by political unrest, war, famine, natural
disasters, economic conditions and opportunities
Has been tightly controlled in western countries,
but immigration is still common
Curbed by restrictive immigration laws in
receiving countries, and by economic recessions
Refugees: those who flee in search of refuge from
war, political oppression, or religious persecution
 Micro-Level Population Patterns

Baby boom and baby bust

Changes in the population influence:
job prospects
retirement security
career decisions
deviance rates
 Urbanization

The Urbanization Process

People 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

Communities are locations that provide

residents with:
a place to live
a sense of identity and belonging
neighbors and friends
activities and social involvements
access to basic necessities like food, jobs,
schools, and health care
 Cities as Micro-Level Living Environments

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
Durkheim’s two types of social bonds
Mechanical 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
 How Did Cities Evolve?

Types of cities
Industrial 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?
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
Megalopolis: area where two cities merge along a
major transportation corridor
 Urban Problems, Environment, and Policy

Macro-level perspectives
Rural migrants and overcrowding (shantytowns)
Environment, infrastructure, and urban ecosystems
Poverty in the world’s cities
Permanent underclass: the global poor who lack
education and skills to join local and world
economy
Feminization 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
Urban planners & social policy: global trends
Urbanization 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