In Disciplining Statistics Libby Schweber compares the science of population statistics in England and France during the nineteenth century, demonstrating radical differences in the interpretation and use of statistical knowledge. Through a comparison of vital statistics and demography, Schweber describes how the English government embraced statistics, using probabilistic interpretations of statistical data to analyze issues related to poverty and public health. The French were fa...

Remarkably, most conventional wisdom about the shifting balance of world power virtually ignores one of the most fundamental components of power: population. The studies that do consider international security and demographic trends almost unanimously focus on population growth as a liability. In contrast, the distinguished contributors to this volumesecurity experts from the Naval War College, the American Enterprise Institute, and other think tankscontend that demographic decline in ...

Nobel laureate Robert Fogel's compelling study, first published in 2004, examines health, nutrition and technology over the last three centuries and beyond. Throughout most of human history, chronic malnutrition has been the norm. During the past three centuries, however, a synergy between improvements in productive technology and in human physiology has enabled humans to more than double their average longevity and to increase their average body size by over 50 per cent. Larger, healthier...

For over a hundred years, demography has been at the heart of the Zionist project, reflected in the goal of creating and maintaining a Jewish majority in Israel and in ensuring the physical continuation of the Jewish people. Demography continues to be an essential issue in the current struggle between Israel and Palestine. Yet in academic discourse, demography is treated as a minor, largely technical side-issue in the social sciences, with little theoretical consideration given to populati...

Population ageing is projected to affect all countries across the world in coming decades. The current rate of population ageing is unprecedented in human history with population projections indicating that this will be an enduring trend. Moreover, population ageing is spatially pervasive, affecting every man, woman and child. This has considerable implications for policy responding to the economic, social and healthcare outcomes of population ageing. The potential economic implications ha...

This new volume maps the complex interplay of demographic and socioeconomic changes in the United States, where rapid aging and ethnic diversification are merely the most salient of the many issues with major long-term implications. Drawing on The United States Census Bureau’s post-2010 detailed projections, as well as a wealth of data distilled from authoritative sources, the authors tackle many of the urgent policy questions raised by America’s changing population. The book explores the ...

This book represents the vitality, diversity, and distinctiveness of contemporary Puerto Rican letters and writers. It is concerned with the image and identity of the Puerto Rican as it is reflected in literature.

This book explores how low fertility levels could fundamentally change a country's population and society. It analyzes the profound effects below average birthrates have on virtually all aspects of society, from the economy to religion, from marriage to gender roles. An introduction written by Dudley L. Poston Jr. provides a general overview of this relatively new phenomenon that has already impacted nearly one-half of the countries of the world today. Poston also discusses the broad impli...

Since the 1973 publication of Alain Peyrefitte’s prophetic When China Awakens, developments in East Asia have outstripped even the wildest predictions. China has undergone the fastest industrialization and urbanization process in history, yet tensions there are rising as some realize how far they have been left behind. This volume explores the applicability of European economic and social models to our analysis of East Asia’s and, in particular, China’s situation. Though millions ...

Drawing on the interdisciplinary research projects of scholars from various social science and humanities disciplines, this book explores how African migration to Western countries after the neo-liberal economic reforms of the 1980s transformed West African states and their new transnational populations in Western countries.

In light of the limited achievements of the Arab Spring and other pro-democracy movements, volume 39 examines and unpacks arguments that these protests represent both a new phase and new prospects for democratic mobilization. The volume engages with new theoretical and methodological perspectives and illuminates novel aspects of transnational social movement dynamics, such as the evolving role of information technology, deterritorialisation and government counter-responses.

This book presents an innovative demographic toolkit known as the ProFamy extended cohort-component method for the projection of household structures and living arrangements with empirical applications to the United States, the largest developed country, and China, the largest developing country. The ProFamy method uses demographic rates as inputs to project detailed distributions of household types and sizes, living arrangements of all household members, and population by age, sex, race/e...