Chapter

14

Why should we care?

“Will our planet be able to support it’s growing population?”

Are chronic famine and mass starvation the fate of most humans

Photo taken by Mike Wells (United Kingdom). In the Karamoja district, Uganda, April

1980. Of a Starving boy and a missionary. Photo won World Press Photo of the Year

Demography is the

study of size, composition, growth and distribution of human populations.

Thomas Malthus, an English economist, was the first to see this rapid growth in populations as a sign of doom.

He believed that the population will grow geometrically (2 to 4 to 8 to 16) while the food supply grows arithmetically (1 to 2 to 3 to 4) = Thomas Theorem.

What Malthus meant was, that if there are births that go unchecked, the population of a country, or even the whole world.. Will outstrip all of its food supply.

This group of demographers believed that Malthus underestimated his theory, they believe that the situation is worse than Malthus ever imagined.

For instance : The worlds population is growing so fast that in just the time it took you to read chapter 14, another 20,000 to 40,000 babies will be born!

These people believe that

Europe’s demographic

transition provides a more

accurate view into the

future.

The high death rates will

offset the high birth rates.

Population shrinkage is already

occurring in 65 countries

“It is simply to early to tell”

VS

Especially considering that the world has improved seeds and fertilizers to make food more available for each and every person on Earth..

Starvation occurs not because the Earth produces too little food, but because certain places lack food.

(Droughts and Wars are the main reasons)

Lots and lots and lots of people…..

Least Industrialized Nations

(Poor) are growing 15 times faster than Most Industrialized Nations

Symbolic interaction perspective.

Status of Parenthood is important especially to a woman in poverty.

› The more children a woman has to take care of, the more she thinks she has achieved the purpose for which she was born.

$$$ Reliance on Children in Old Age

The least industrialized nations are going have more children, compared to the U.S. who are having so few children. If it was not

for immigration the U.S. population would

begin to shrink.

Family Planning-› China: 1 Family = 1 Child

Demographic Variables – three ways to measure population growth

1.Fertility – the number of children a women actually bears; lowest in Eastern Europe and highest in Middle Africa

2.Mortality – annual deaths per 1,000 people

3.Migration – the Net migration rate is the number of immigrants and the number of emigrants

17

Population Growth Variables

Fertility the average number

of children a woman bears.

Fecundity is the number of

children that women are

capable of bearing.

› The fecundity number is rather

high, considering some women have given birth to

over 30 children.

Crude Birth Rate is the

annual number of live births

per 1,000 population.

19

Crude Death Rate is the annual number of deaths per 1,000 population.

The highest death rate recorded is 28, in Botswana and Lesotho in southern Africa. Kuwait holds the lowest records of death rates.

Net Migration Rate is the difference between the number of immigrants and emigrants per 1,000 population.

› Emigrants are people moving out of the country, and immigrants are people moving into a country.

The most common flow of migration is from the Least Industrialized Nations to the industrialized countries.

Fertility, mortality, and net migration

make up a country’s growth rate.

The net change after people have been

added to and subtracted from a

population is known as the basic

demographic equation.

Growth rate= births-deaths + net migration

A city can be defined as a place in which a large number of

people are permanently based and do not produce

their own food.

Cities, on a large scale, first appeared about 3500 B.C., first in Iraq and Iran, then later in West Africa

The key to the origin of cities is the development of efficient agriculture

200 years ago the only city in the world that had a population of more than a million was China

The Industrial Revolution led to a big rise in city populations

24

The Rise of Cities

25

Urbanization refers to masses of people moving to the cities 77 % of the population in the industrialized world lives in

cities

There are many “pulls” in regards to city life

Metropolis – Central city surrounded by smaller cities and their suburbs

Megalopolis – Two metropolises & their many suburbs (Texas Triangle: Dallas, Fort

Worth, Huston)

Megacity – A City with 10 million residents

( NEW YORK)

› From Country to City – In 1790 only 5 % of Americans

lived in cities; today it is 79 %

› From City to City – Five of the fastest growing cities are in

the West and 5 are in the South

› Between Cities – Edge Cities: clusters of buildings and

services near the intersections of major highways

› Within the City – Gentrification: middle class people

moving to rundown areas of a city

› From City to Suburb – Suburbanization – Today, over 50 %

of Americans live in Suburbs– why?

27

U.S. Urban Patterns

Desire to Retreat to Safe Haven

Urban Crime and Violence is “Push”

Cost of Living and Space is “Pull”

29

Rural Rebound

The Concentric Zone Model – Ernest Burgess – cities expand

outward from its center – 5 zones

The Sector Model – Homer Hoyt – a concentric zone can contain

several sectors

The Multiple-Nuclei Model – Harris and Ullman – some cities

have several centers (i.e. fast food restaurants and clothing stores)

The Peripheral Model – Chauncey Harris – impact of highways on

the movement of people away from the cities

30

Models of Urban Growth

31

Who Lives in the City? – Herbert Gans did participant observation in the West End of Boston and determined 5 different types of people live in the cities:

›The Cosmopolites›The Singles›The Ethnic Villagers›The Deprived›The Trapped

32

City Life

Many people are leaving the cities and businesses are following = the cities tax base to shrink = less $ for education

As cities tax base shrank and building deteriorated, many banks began Redlining(refusing to give loans to housing & business developments in problem areas).

Deindustrialization many factories moving to other countries where the labor is cheaper

33

Urban Problems &

Social Policy

34

Policies enacted which have attempted to resolve urban problems.

Urban renewal: Tearing down an area and rebuilding, which can revitalize the area but often times does not benefit its inhabitants (pretty new condos that people can not afford)

Enterprise Zones: A designated area of a city that offers incentives to businesses, such as reduced taxes, to move into the area