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Peer Reviewed

Title: Knut Wicksell on the benefits of depopulation.
Author: Wicksell K
Source: Population and Development Review. 2008 Jun;34(2):347-355. Archives.
Abstract: The possible effects of declining population numbers on human societies have attracted increasing attention in recent years. This is hardly surprising. Despite continuing improvements in mortality, downward trends in fertility have yielded negative rates of natural increase in a growing number of countries. In the first half of the present decade, deaths were more numerous than births in every country in Eastern Europe. Current total fertility rates are below replacement level, sometimes by a wide margin, in the rest of Europe, as well as in East Asia, Northern America, Australia, and in some countries of Southeast Asia, West Asia, and Latin America. As their age distributions become less supportive of population growth, many countries in these regions will shrink in size unless natural decrease is offset by net immigration. But concern with potential population decline is far from novel. As early as 1890, Ars�ne Dumont's book, Depopulation et civilisation, addressed the issue as it pertained to France. In the years leading up to World War I, numerous commentaries by social scientists and politicians in Western countries were written on the nearing prospect of population decrease-seemingly foreshadowed by the then steadily falling birth rates. Most such accounts were gloomy. A short essay by Knut Wicksell, Can a country become underpopulated?, is a notable example of the smaller, optimistic subcategory of that literature. (excerpt)
Language: English
Keywords:
EUROPE, WESTERN | CRITIQUE | POPULATION STATISTICS | POPULATION | POPULATION DECREASE | MALTHUSIANISM | STANDARD OF LIVING | FERTILITY DETERMINANTS | FAMILY PLANNING | INHERITANCE | MOTIVATION | ECONOMIC FACTORS | Europe | Developed Countries | Research Methodology | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Science | Sociocultural Factors | Fertility | Ownership | Socioeconomic Factors | Psychological Factors | Behavior
Document Number: 327377

Title: Fertility and fertility control in pre-revolutionary China.
Author: Wolf AP; Engelen T
Source: Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 2008 Winter;38(3):345-375.
Abstract: The argument of Malthus' First Essay on Population is largely developed on the basis of a comparison between three countries-Britain, the United States, and China. England is presented as an example of an "old state" in which population growth has been considerable in the past but is slow at present. The reason is that "a foresight of the difficulties attending the rearing of a family acts as a preventative check, and the actual distress of some of the lower classes, by which they are disabled from giving the proper food and attention to their children, acts as a positive check." This observation holds for all old states because they lack the resources necessary to support further growth. Malthus offers the United States as an example of a new state in a "healthy country . . . with plenty of food and room" and institutions that made good land affordable and agriculture a good investment. The result was that, as in new colonies generally, the population grew "with astonishing rapidity." Malthus underlines the point by asking why an equal number of people did not "produce an equal increase in the same time in Great Britain." His answer is, "The great and obvious cause . . . is the want of food and room, or in other words, misery." China was known to Malthus as "one of the most fertile, best cultivated, most industrious, and most populous countries in the world," but Smith characterized it as a country in which "the poverty of the lowest ranks of people . . . far surpasses that of the most beggarly nations in Europe." Quesnay summed up the prevailing view: "In spite of . . . the abundance that reigns, there are few countries that have so much poverty among the humbler classes. However great the empire may be, it is too crowded for the multitude that inhabit it." (excerpt)
Language: English
Keywords:
CHINA | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA | UNITED KINGDOM | LITERATURE REVIEW | FERTILITY | POPULATION CONTROL | MALTHUSIANISM | POPULATION THEORY | POVERTY | FERTILITY RATE | MARITAL FERTILITY | Asia, Eastern | Asia | Developing Countries | Developed Countries | North America | Americas | United Kingdom | Europe, Western | Europe | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population | Population Policy | Social Policy | Policy | Political Factors | Sociocultural Factors | Demography | Social Sciences | Science | Socioeconomic Factors | Economic Factors | Birth Rate | Fertility Measurements
Document Number: 325519

Title: Emergence of the Indian National Family Planning Program.
Author: Harkavy O; Roy K
Source: In: The global family planning revolution: three decades of population policies and programs, edited by Warren C. Robinson and John A. Ross. Washington, D.C., World Bank, 2007. :301-323.
Abstract: In comparison with neighboring Pakistan and other developing countries, India's rate of population growth was not particularly high. Its overall annual rate of population increase was about 2.2 percent in 1961 and 2.5 percent in 1971, with substantial differences from region to region. Relatively high mortality, together with a high prevalence of widowhood and a cultural taboo on remarriage by widows, prevented extremely high levels of population growth. Nonetheless, more than a million people were added to India's population each month. Furthermore, 2.4 percent of the world's area, which contained about 15 percent of the world's population, accounted for a population density of 300 or more people per square kilometer. Govind Narain, Secretary of the Ministry of Health's Family Planning and Urban Development Department in the late 1960s, expressed the prevailing government outlook: "The high growth rate of this large population . . . poses tremendous socio-economic problems not only for the maintenance of minimal standards of living but also for raising them. Already a vast development by way of large increases in agricultural and industrial production has been neutralized by population growth. . . . The manifold expansion of employment, housing, educational and other facilities has been almost entirely swallowed by the fast growing population". (excerpt)
Language: English
Keywords:
INDIA | HISTORICAL REVIEW | CENSUS | POPULATION GROWTH | POPULATION GROWTH ESTIMATION | POPULATION POLICY | POPULATION PRESSURE | MALTHUSIANISM | FAMINE | FOOD SUPPLY | INCENTIVES | CONTRACEPTIVE METHODS | MEASUREMENT | SOCIAL SCIENCES | FOREIGN AID | FAMILY PLANNING PROGRAMS | Developing Countries | Asia, Southern | Asia | Population Statistics | Research Methodology | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population | Estimation Techniques | Social Policy | Policy | Political Factors | Sociocultural Factors | Carrying Capacity | Natural Resources | Environment | Population Theory | Demography | Science | Contraception | Family Planning | Financial Activities | Economic Factors
Document Number: 321993

5.
Title: Malthus and three approaches to solving the population problem.
Author: Rutherford D
Source: Population-E. 2007;62(2):213-238.
Abstract: The terms of Malthus' population principle are clear: there is an intrinsic divergence between population growth and the subsistence needed to sustain it. But difficulties arise when we look at the solutions proposed by Malthus in his writings, since certain essential concepts are used in complex ways. In this article, Donald Rutherford contributes to the debate by analysing the different concepts of human behaviour and of subsistence that appear throughout Malthus' works. He examines in turn the various solutions to the population problem envisaged by Malthus, and finds each one wanting, before concluding that Malthus appears to advocate a diversified and balanced economy. But Malthus is wary of overspecialization in industry and commerce, and argues for equilibrium between the different sectors and different economic activities, thereby rejecting the solution that was to prevail in the following centuries. (author's)
Language: English
Keywords:
GLOBAL | LITERATURE REVIEW | MALTHUSIANISM | POPULATION GROWTH | POPULATION THEORY | FOOD SECURITY | AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT | BEHAVIOR | ECONOMIC FACTORS | REPRODUCTION | ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT | SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT | Demography | Social Sciences | Science | Sociocultural Factors | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population | Food Supply | Natural Resources | Environment | Rural Development
Document Number: 322309

6.
Peer Reviewed

Title: Population control in India: Prologue to the emergency period.
Author: Connelly M
Source: Population and Development Review. 2006 Dec;32(4):629-667.
Abstract: Some 30 years after the event, the Emergency Period remains the one episode in the history of family planning in India that would appear to require no introduction. It has become emblematic of everything that can go wrong in a program premised on "population control" rather than on reproductive rights and health. This included time-bound performance targets; a preference for methods that minimized the need for sustained motivation; disregard for basic medical standards; incentive payments that, for the very poorest, constituted a form of coercion; disincentives that punished nonparticipation; and official consideration of compulsory sterilization, which, even if never enacted into law, signaled that achieving national population targets might override individual dignity and welfare. (excerpt)
Language: English
Keywords:
INDIA | HISTORICAL REVIEW | DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS | HIGH FERTILITY POPULATION | GOVERNMENT | POPULATION CONTROL | HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY | FAMILY PLANNING POLICY | POPULATION POLICY | MALTHUSIANISM | INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION | DEVELOPMENT POLICY | INCENTIVES | Asia, Southern | Asia | Developing Countries | Research Methodology | Fertility | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population | Political Factors | Sociocultural Factors | Social Policy | Policy | Demography | Social Sciences | Science | Family Planning | Population Theory
Document Number: 310806

7.
Peer Reviewed

Title: Reproductive and sexual rights: history and contemporary challenges.
Author: Das A
Source: Journal of Family Welfare. 2006;52 Spec No:19-24.
Abstract: Control over women's reproductive abilities and functions have been one of the key aspects of the domination over women and their secondary status in society. It is, therefore, not surprising that from the earliest times, movements for women's rights have included reproductive and sexual rights as some of their key concerns. This may sound surprising to many who consider reproductive rights as a modernday struggle, a struggle that has intensified only after the International Conference for Population and Development in 1994. This is not so. The earliest demands of women's movements in the West included demands for the right to vote, equal pay for equal work, the right to property, the right to education, as well as the right to initiate divorce, obtain and use contraceptives, have abortions and decide whether or not to go through pregnancy. In India too, the work on women's upliftment done by the great social reformers of the nineteenth century like Pandit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar in Bengal or Mahatma Jyotiba Phule in Maharashtra included issues like widow remarriage, polygamy, and child marriage which are clearly within the realm of reproductive rights. (excerpt)
Language: English
Keywords:
GLOBAL | INDIA | HISTORICAL REVIEW | REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS | FAMILY PLANNING | CONTRACEPTION | MALTHUSIANISM | EUGENICS | POPULATION CONTROL | POPULATION POLICY | Asia, Southern | Asia | Developing Countries | Human Rights | Political Factors | Sociocultural Factors | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Science | Genetics | Biology | Social Policy | Policy
Document Number: 305290

8.
Peer Reviewed

Title: Liberal ends, llliberal means: National security, "environmental conflict" and the making of the Cairo consensus.
Author: Hartmann B
Source: Indian Journal of Gender Studies. 2006 May-Aug;13(2):195-227.
Abstract: The field of environmental security, and in particular Thomas Homer-Dixon's model of environmental conflict, were heavily influenced by neo-Malthusian degradation narratives, which disproportionately blame population pressures for generating poverty, environmental degradation, migration and political violence. In turn, the presence of these degradation narratives provided an avenue through which population actors and interests could intersect with the emerging environmental security agenda in the 1990s. As part of a political strategy to engage the foreign policy establishment in the 1994 UN Population Conference in Cairo, private population flinders supported environmental conflict research and its dissemination at a variety of venues. There was a general willingness to deploy racially-charged demographic alarmism, particularly concerning population and migration, in the representation of Third World threats. The result was a kind of ideological schizophrenia within the population community as some actors used the politics of fear to generate support for the Cairo conference, while others appealed to a feminist agenda of women's empowerment and reproductive health. Some did both at the same time. This case illustrates the tension between liberal foreign policy goals and the illiberal means and ideologies deployed to achieve them, and the critical role played by private philanthropy. It is a cautionary tale with relevance today as certain population agencies are employing demographic explanations of terrorism to attract conservative support for international family planning assistance. (author's)
Language: English
Keywords:
GLOBAL | CRITIQUE | INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION | ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION | NATIONAL SECURITY | POLICY | POPULATION GROWTH | MIGRATION | RESOURCES | MALTHUSIANISM | POLITICAL FACTORS | REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH | Sociocultural Factors | Environment | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population | Organization and Administration | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Science | Health
Document Number: 305292

9.
Title: Looking into the Malthusian abyss [letter]
Author: King M; Wang EY
Source: Lancet. 2006 Mar 4;367(9512):730.
Abstract: John Cleland and Steven Sinding are to be congratulated on becoming neo-Malthusian, but they don't go far enough. The conventional wisdom assumes that, as development takes place, birth rates will fall to match death rates, so that populations will eventually stabilise. Unfortunately, the conventional wisdom takes no account of time, and forgets that, while this is supposed to be happening, rapidly growing populations may be exceeding the carrying capacity of their ecosystems, they may have no new land to go to, and they may be failing to develop adequate economic links with the rest of the world. The end result of all this is the direst poverty, starvation, and violence. Malthus did not have a name for this predicament, but Liebenstein did: demographic entrapment. This has a definitive stage when starvation, violence, or both have actually broken out, and a warning stage when, because populations are increasing rapidly, these can be confidently predicted. (excerpt)
Language: English
Keywords:
RWANDA | ETHIOPIA | POPULATION THEORY | MALTHUSIANISM | POPULATION PRESSURE | Africa, Central | Africa, Sub Saharan | Africa | Developing Countries | Africa, Eastern | Demography | Social Sciences | Science | Sociocultural Factors | Carrying Capacity | Natural Resources | Environment
Document Number: 299361

10.
Peer Reviewed

Title: An empirical test of a neo-malthusian theory of fertility change.
Author: Neumayer E
Source: Population and Environment. 2006 Mar;27(4):327-336.
Abstract: Some neo-Malthusians regard fertility as being kept in check by scarcities and constraints and, conversely, as being raised by economic prosperity. Since out-migration to developed countries and the receipt of food aid from developed countries relax the constraints imposed by a country's carrying capacity, both will have a positive effect on fertility rates in developing countries. Moreover, better economic prospects will also raise fertility, all other things equal. This article provides an empirical test of these hypotheses derived from a neo-Malthusian theory of fertility change. The results fail to confirm the theory and often contradict it. (author's)
Language: English
Keywords:
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES | RESEARCH REPORT | POPULATION | FERTILITY | CHANGES | MALTHUSIANISM | POPULATION THEORY | MARRIAGE POSTPONEMENT | FOOD SUPPLY | MIGRATION | ECONOMIC FACTORS | DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Social Change | Sociocultural Factors | Demography | Social Sciences | Science | Marriage | Nuptiality | Natural Resources | Environment
Document Number: 309618

11.
Peer Reviewed

Title: Introduction: Taming the beast.
Author: Rao M
Source: Indian Journal of Gender Studies. 2006 May-Aug;13(2):163-169.
Abstract: People frequently ask me-and these are people typically critical of the important role played by the Indian women's movements in their opposition to many government programmes and policies related to population-why is population considered a 'women's issue'? Why isn't it a health issue? And why are these women always critical of everything? These are very relevant questions indeed, but answer are not always so easy to provide. The issue of population is not merely a woman's issue, nor is it merely an issue that concerns health-far, far too many other issues and discourses are involved. 'Women and motherhood' has course been an extremely important trope in the construction of nations across the world. In the case of India what is also indicated in this discourse is the troubled, indeed fraught, ideas of Indian womanhood that had informed a range of nationalist debates in the 19th century, from age consent to sati. In the colonial period Indian women had been objects of nationalist reformist agendassetting right what were conceived as the aberrations of recent past; practices such as widow immolation and child marriages were evidence to the British that they did indeed have a civilising mission among the barbaric and traditional natives. (excerpt)
Language: English
Keywords:
INDIA | CRITIQUE | WOMEN'S GROUPS | POPULATION POLICY | MALTHUSIANISM | EUGENICS | FAMILY PLANNING PROGRAMS | POLITICAL FACTORS | RELIGIOUS ASPECTS | REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS | Asia, Southern | Asia | Developing Countries | Interest Groups | Sociocultural Factors | Social Policy | Policy | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Science | Genetics | Biology | Family Planning | Religion | Human Rights
Document Number: 305300

12.
Peer Reviewed

Title: Birth prevention in the American and French fertility transitions: contrasts in knowledge and practice.
Author: Van de Walle E; De Luca V
Source: Population and Development Review. 2006 Sep;32(3):529-555.
Abstract: The fertility transition began earlier in France and the United States than in other Western countries. It occurred earlier in France than in the United States, and from lower levels largely because of France's later age at marriage. France appears to have experienced a continuous decline from a level of 5.0 children per woman in the first decade of the nineteenth century to 3.2 in 1901.1 In the United States, marital fertility scarcely declined before 1840, when the total fertility rate of the white population was estimated at 6.6 children per woman. By 1900, total fertility had dropped to 3.6. The population of the United States numbered 5 million at the beginning of the period and 75 million at the end. It was growing through the steady inflow of high-fertility migrants and was moving out of the Atlantic coastal region where the birth rate was much lower than elsewhere in the country. The French population, in contrast, grew only slightly during the nineteenth century, and remained in the 30 million range. (excerpt)
Language: English
Keywords:
FRANCE | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA | HISTORICAL REVIEW | CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARISONS | DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS | POPULATION | CONTRACEPTION | DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION | HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY | MARRIAGE PATTERNS | REPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOR | PRONATALIST POLICY | MALTHUSIANISM | Developed Countries | Europe, Western | Europe | North America | Americas | Comparative Studies | Studies | Research Methodology | Family Planning | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Demography | Social Sciences | Science | Sociocultural Factors | Marriage | Nuptiality | Fertility | Population Policy | Social Policy | Policy | Political Factors | Population Theory
Document Number: 310804

13.
Peer Reviewed

Title: What would Malthus say about AIDS in Africa?
Author: Cleland J; Sinding S
Source: Lancet. 2005 Nov 26;366(9500):1899-1901.
Abstract: Much has been written about how AIDS is undermining development in sub-Saharan Africa. The UK Prime Minister Tony Blair characterised the disease as "the biggest barrier to tackling poverty". But not enough is being said about the threat to African development posed by continued and rapid population growth. Paradoxically, one reason why the population issue is being overlooked could be the success of family planning programmes in other world regions, which has given a false sense that the population problem has been solved. In Asia (south Asia, southeast Asia, and east Asia) and Latin America, and to a lesser extent in the Arab states, international promotion of family planning has been successful in reducing birth rates, and hence, population growth. In the past 45 years, Asia's population rose by 129% from 1.7 to 3.9 billion people. Projections for the next 45 years are for more modest growth, with a further rise of 33% to an expected population of 5.2 billion people by 2050. The proportionate projected increase in Latin America and the Caribbean is similar at 39%, from 0.56 to 0.78 billion. In Asia and Latin America, the end of the era of population growth is in sight. (excerpt)
Language: English
Keywords:
AFRICA | AFRICA, SUB SAHARAN | AFRICA, NORTH | CRITIQUE | AIDS | HIV PREVENTION | EPIDEMICS | MALTHUSIANISM | FERTILITY | POPULATION GROWTH | FAMILY SIZE, DESIRED | POVERTY | Developing Countries | HIV Infections | Viral Diseases | Diseases | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population | Family Size | Family Characteristics | Family and Household | Socioeconomic Factors | Economic Factors
Document Number: 293089

14.
Peer Reviewed

Title: The Maltho-Marxian hypothesis 'economics controls population': a test and a projection.
Author: MacIntyre F
Source: Population Review. 2005;44(2):[24] p..
Abstract: Malthus and Marx held that population was controlled by economics. Malthus believed there were environmental constraints on the supportable population; Marx felt that human ingenuity would overcome all limits to growth. Neither had supporting data. The US Census reveals an intermediate position in which the supportable limit increases exponentially (faster than Malthus expected) but at 1/4 the rate of unfettered human reproduction (slower than Marx expected). Its rate offers an independent estimate of effective economic growth. A brief and sharp-cornered excursion from the resulting theoretical line forms a nearly perfect Gaussian dip, with the Depression on the down side and the Baby Boom on the other. A related analysis shows that the world population is well fitted by a 'Pimentel logistic' stabilizing at 2-3 billion after an 'oil-supported' Gaussian bulge. This approach explains the Doomsday hyperbola, and also what allows us to avoid its singularity. (author's)
Language: English
Keywords:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA | LITERATURE REVIEW | RESEARCH REPORT | LOGISTIC MODEL | THEORETICAL MODELS | CENSUS | ECONOMIC FACTORS | POPULATION DYNAMICS | POPULATION PROJECTION | MALTHUSIANISM | MARXISM | Developed Countries | North America | Americas | Mathematical Model | Research Methodology | Population Statistics | Demographic Factors | Population | Estimation Techniques | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Science | Sociocultural Factors | Socialism | Political Systems | Political Factors
Document Number: 297135

15.

Title: The "population factor" and deforestation in Brazilian Amazonia: towards a mediating perspective. Draft.
Author: Sydenstricker-Neto J
Source: [Unpublished] 2005. Presented at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 31 - April 2, 2005. 29 p.
Abstract: Although significant progress in our understanding of the dynamics of land-use and land-cover change (LUCC) has been made, human population pressure continues to be portrayed as the major factor affecting forest destruction. This paper assesses the importance of the "population factor" as a cause of deforestation in Machadinho D'Oeste, Rond�nia, Brazilian Amazonia. The analysis draws from multiple data sources (i.e. demographic census, household survey, landcover maps, and in-depth interviews) and different methodological approaches (i.e. fuzzy sets statistics, remote sensing/GIS analysis, and interpretivist qualitative approach). The paper contends that a full account of the complex web of drivers involved in tropical deforestation needs to go beyond demographics per se. The paper shows that social structure and mediating factors such as cultural aspects and human capital involving education, managerial skills, previous rural experience, and integration to the local and regional contexts mediate migrants' relationships with the local environment. (author's)
Language: English
Keywords:
BRAZIL | RESEARCH REPORT | QUALITATIVE RESEARCH | DATA SOURCES | POPULATION PRESSURE | DEFORESTATION | POPULATION GROWTH | MALTHUSIANISM | FORESTS | ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY | POPULATION DYNAMICS | LAND TENURE | South America, Eastern | South America | Latin America | Americas | Developing Countries | Research Methodology | Data Collection | Carrying Capacity | Natural Resources | Environment | Environmental Degradation | Demographic Factors | Population | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Science | Sociocultural Factors | Policy | Political Factors | Socioeconomic Factors | Economic Factors
Document Number: 320561

16.

Title: Defusing the population bomb: Is security a rationale for reducing global population growth?
Author: Urdal H
Source: In: Environmental Change and Security Program Report. Issue 11, [compiled by] Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Environmental Change and Security Program. Washington, D.C., Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Environmental Change and Security Program, 2005. :5-11.
Abstract: Demographic and environmental factors have claimed a dominant position in post-Cold War security discourse. According to neo-Malthusians, rapid population growth will lead to per capita scarcity of natural resources such as cropland, freshwater, forests, and fisheries, increasing the risk of violent conflict over scarce resources. In contrast, resource-optimists claim that scarcity of agricultural land, caused by high population density, may drive technological innovation, which could lead to economic development and thus build peace over the long term. Although world population growth is projected to eventually level out, some areas and countries will experience relatively high growth rates for decades to come. If these areas are seriously threatened by instability and violent conflict, reducing population growth could be an important concern for the international community. (excerpt)
Language: English
Keywords:
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES | THEORETICAL STUDIES | CRITIQUE | EVALUATION | POPULATION | POPULATION GROWTH | POPULATION CONTROL | MALTHUSIANISM | WAR | PRODUCTIVITY | POPULATION GROWTH ESTIMATION | POPULATION THEORY | POPULATION DENSITY | URBANIZATION | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population Policy | Social Policy | Policy | Political Factors | Sociocultural Factors | Demography | Social Sciences | Science | Economic Development | Economic Factors | Estimation Techniques | Research Methodology | Population Distribution | Geographic Factors | Urban Population Distribution
Document Number: 325128

17.

Peer Reviewed

Title: The moral lens of population control: condoms and controversies in southern Malawi.
Author: Kaler A
Source: Studies in Family Planning. 2004 Jun;35(2):105-115.
Abstract: The study presents an investigation of stories about condoms in southern Malawi. Malawians� concerns about coercive population control imposed by a national government or international cabal provide a moral lens through which condoms and other health promotions are viewed, with unknown but probably negative impact on the use of condoms. The focus of the study is on the long shadow cast by population control because it is under researched and, in fact, virtually unmentioned in most studies of health promotion, yet appears to be common if not ubiquitous. Moreover, this long shadow poses a distinct challenge to HIV-prevention and intervention efforts. The data for the study were gathered by six Malawian research assistants in Balaka district, in southern Malawi, who kept journals over a period of three years in which they recorded conversations and everyday chats that they observed. These journals demonstrate that condoms do not arrive in communities as neutral, value-free objects; rather they enter a social setting permeated with ideas about health, self-protection, and danger. The lens of population control has proved to be both durable and flexible, providing a moral context in which both commodities and actors can be understood. Disentangling condoms from the symbolic nexus in which they are fused with disease, population control, and malevolence will be an ongoing challenge in the struggle to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in Malawi. (author's)
Language: English
Keywords:
MALAWI | QUALITATIVE RESEARCH | POPULATION CONTROL | CONDOM USE | PERCEPTION | HIV PREVENTION | MALTHUSIANISM | COMMUNICATION STRATEGY | Africa, Southern | Africa, Sub Saharan | Africa | Developing Countries | Research Methodology | Population Policy | Social Policy | Policy | Risk Reduction Behavior | Behavior | Psychological Factors | HIV Infections | Viral Diseases | Diseases | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Communication
Document Number: 193303

18.
Title: Governance for population stabilization in India: need for a paradigm shift.
Author: Nanda AR
Source: Health for the Millions. 2004 Aug-Nov;:20-22.
Abstract: The population issue has mostly been perceived as a demographic or numerical concern of the elites rather than a genuine concern of the individual or the family particularly of the poor and the marginalized. This neo-Malthusian mind set has by and large pervaded the planners, policy makers, administrators, elitist scholars and the rich and upper middle class of citizenry. It has been, to quote Amartya Sen, one of 'authoritarianism' rather than 'cooperation'. A balanced non-judgmental two-way linkage between population stabilization and sustainable development laced with crosscutting perspectives of human rights and dignity as well as gender equality, equity and justice, constituted the basic perception of Mahatma Gandhi, when he countered the arguments of the exponents of international birth control movement trying to make India an arena for their experimentation in the 1920s and 30s. (excerpt)
Language: English
Keywords:
INDIA | HISTORICAL REVIEW | POLICYMAKERS | POPULATION STABILIZATION | INVOLUNTARY FERTILITY CONTROL | GOALS | FAMILY PLANNING POLICY | MALTHUSIANISM | STERILIZATION, SEXUAL | GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS | INCENTIVES | Developing Countries | Asia, Southern | Asia | Administrative Personnel | Organization and Administration | Population Size | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population | Population Policy | Social Policy | Policy | Planning | Family Planning | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Programs
Document Number: 280707

19.
Title: The gendered nature of contraception in France: Neo-Malthusianism, 1900-1920.
Author: Accampo EA
Source: Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 2003 Autumn;34(2):235-262.
Abstract: Using increasingly sophisticated statistical analysis, modern demographers have tried to correlate marriage, birth, and death patterns with economic factors, but the explanatory power of statistics has its own limits. Quantitative data may confirm the conscious and deliberate effort to limit family size, but any attempt to measure the actual use and specific forms of contraception during the nineteenth century poses daunting obstacles. Lacking the ability to interview those who caused the demographic transition in France means that knowing exactly what people did and thought behind closed doors as they produced fewer babies must remain hidden. As the carriers and bearers of children, did women initiate efforts to prevent conception? Or, as the primary breadwinners for the family, did the men? Did husbands and wives or illicit lovers engage in intimate conversations about how to enjoy sexual pleasure without suffering its consequences? Or, in the relatively repressive and (by twenty-first-century standards) un-sexualized culture of the nineteenth century, did couples simply abstain from sex? Intently focused on the causes of the decline, demographic historians of France until recently have paid scant attention to the culture within which that decline took place. Nor have they investigated the interrelationship between contraception and gender relations, or what impact contraceptive practices might have had on sexual desire and the construction of individual identity. (excerpt)
Language: English
Keywords:
FRANCE | LITERATURE REVIEW | CONTRACEPTION | MALTHUSIANISM | POPULATION DYNAMICS | CULTURE | Europe, Western | Europe | Developed Countries | Family Planning | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Demographic Factors | Population
Document Number: 287153

20.

Peer Reviewed

Title: Was there a neolithic mortality crisis?
Author: Caldwell JC
Source: Journal of Population Research. 2003 Nov;:[23] p..
Abstract: The case that mortality rose either with the Neolithic Revolution or subsequent urbanization is made by both medical ecologists and anthropologists. The former point out that only dense farming or urban populations could sustain epidemic disease. Many anthropologists believe that Palaeolithic society either controlled population numbers or experienced low natural fertility, and that both fertility and mortality rose with denser, sedentary populations. Given that the evidence for low hunter-gatherer fertility is unsatisfactory, and that the balance of fertility and mortality was inevitably approximately maintained into the Neolithic period, it is possible that there was no Neolithic mortality crisis. This paper examines how the case was built for near-consensus on such a mortality crisis, and the implications of this case being wrong. (author's)
Language: English
Keywords:
GLOBAL | HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY | PREVALENCE | DISEASES | MALTHUSIANISM | POPULATION THEORY | MORTALITY | Demography | Social Sciences | Measurement | Research Methodology | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population
Document Number: 280126

21.
Title: Physicians and fertility control in the Netherlands.
Author: van Poppel F; R�ling H
Source: Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 2003 Autumn;34(2):155-185.
Abstract: The Netherlands, like many other European countries, began to experience a strong fertility decline during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The annual values of the total fertility rate (TFR--the average number of children per woman) in Figure 1 show that after an initial rise, fertility started its decline in 1879. This decline continued until 1937, when the average number of children per woman had reached 2.57, three children less than in 1879. A further decline occurred from 1966 to 1975; during this period, TFR decreased from 2.90 to 1.65. The transition that took place between 1880 and 1930 was recognized as crucial almost from its inception. Beaujon (1853-1890), the Dutch economist and statistician, for example, argued in 1888, using marital fertility rates for the period from 1860 to 1879, that "restriction of the fertility of marriages is not completely unfamiliar to our country.' In his opinion, indications of the "voluntary limitation of marital fertility" could be found in several provinces during the second half of the 1870s. He also noted, however, that "control of the number of births within marriage is a rare exception." (excerpt)
Language: English
Keywords:
NETHERLANDS | SUMMARY REPORT | PHYSICIANS | POPULATION CONTROL | MALTHUSIANISM | REPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOR | RELIGION | FAMILY SIZE | FERTILITY DECLINE | Europe, Western | Europe | Developed Countries | Health Personnel | Delivery of Health Care | Health | Population Policy | Social Policy | Policy | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Fertility | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population | Family Characteristics | Family and Household | Fertility Changes
Document Number: 287433

22.
Title: Population and development: from population control to reproductive health.
Author: DeJong J
Source: In: Handbook on development policy and management, edited by Colin Kirkpatrick, Ron Clarke and Charles Polidano. Cheltenham, England, Edward Elgar, 2002. :193-203.
Abstract: The debate as to whether population growth is an obstacle or incentive to human progress and well-being has persisted at least since the late eighteenth century in Europe and has always aroused controversy. The tendency to see population growth as a main constraint on development, food supply and the world's natural resources, has its origins in the work of Thomas Malthus of the early nineteenth century. In its contemporary form �- coined 'neo-Malthusianism' -- this orientation led to a high level of international funding for population control programmes to reduce fertility in the developing world. Such programmes met strong resistance in recent decades, both for their exclusive emphasis on reducing population growth (without addressing the health consequences of reproduction or promoting broader social development), and for the manner in which they have been implemented. Partly in response to these criticisms, the UN-sponsored International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994 in Cairo marked a fundamental shift in international population policies from narrow demographic objectives to the endorsement of a wider goal of 'reproductive health'. (excerpt)
Language: English
Keywords:
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES | HISTORICAL REVIEW | THEORETICAL STUDIES | EVALUATION | POPULATION | POPULATION POLICY | POPULATION THEORY | DEVELOPMENT POLICY | MALTHUSIANISM | FAMILY PLANNING POLICY | CONTRACEPTION | REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH | Social Policy | Policy | Demography | Social Sciences | Family Planning | Health
Document Number: 287229

23.
Title: Challenging neo-Malthusian deforestation analyses in West Africa's dynamic forest landscapes.
Author: Leach M; Fairhead J
Source: POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW. 2000 Mar;26(1):17-43.
Abstract: This paper argues that neo-Malthusian deforestation narratives misrepresent the relationships between people and forest in Western Africa and misstate the ways these relationships have developed during the last century. In doing so, an assumption was made that these narrative obscure widespread processes by which people have enriched landscapes with trees, and in which the peopling of a landscape has sometimes meant an expansion of tree and forest. This argument and a range of supportive evidence were presented in the first half of this paper including the neo-Boserupian explanation. This neo-Boserupian explanation proves inadequate to account entirely for these processes and for the differences between trajectories of change that have occurred from place to place. By framing the issue primarily in terms of relationships between aggregate populations, an aggregate environment or resource set, and technology, both neo-Malthusian and neo-Boserupian perspectives exclude crucial questions relating to social and ecological specificity and history. The second half of the paper presents a landscape structuration perspective that is grounded in fuller appreciation of social differences in environmental and resource priorities; of the diverse institutions that shape resource access and control; and of ecological variability and the legacies and pathways through which landscapes respond to use. Through examples from Ghana and Guinea, the authors show why such perspective is useful for comprehending locale-specific trajectories of change and the factors that can tip the balance between positive and negative population-forest relationships.
Language: English
Keywords:
AFRICA, WESTERN | INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES | CASE STUDIES | MALTHUSIANISM | DEFORESTATION | SOIL DEGRADATION | Developing Countries | Africa, Sub Saharan | Africa | Studies | Research Methodology | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Environmental Degradation | Environment
Document Number: 149497

24.
Title: Population perspectives and sustainable development.
Author: Rajeswar J
Source: Sustainable Development. 2000;8(3):135-141.
Abstract: Neo-Malthusianism advocates 'population control' as the solution to all major global problems. While overpopulation is a serious problem, blaming the population growth in the South as the prime cause for the destruction of the environment is hypocritical. Rather than the 'bottom billion', it is the 'top billion' population from the 'affluent' West - and their 'effluence' - that is inflicting greater environmental injury to the earth. In the patriarchal system of free-market economy, aborigines and women are marked inferior. Given the strong preference for male children in many Third World countries, the statistics on 'missing girls' explain the sad situation of female infanticide and underreporting of female births. Most contraceptive research is aimed at women only. Furthermore, newly developed contraceptives would be first tested on poor women of colour, often without their knowledge or consent. However, after the 1994 Cairo Population Conference, reproductive rights and empowerment of women are recognized as key issues in controlling population growth. There must be a radical change and paradigm shift in policy-making at every level from subjugation and subordination to partnership in order to solve most of the world's problems. (author's)
Language: English
Keywords:
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES | DEVELOPING COUNTRIES | PHILOSOPHICAL OVERVIEW | SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT | POPULATION THEORY | MALTHUSIANISM | OVERPOPULATION | POPULATION CONTROL | ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT | CONSUMPTION | POPULATION GROWTH | EUGENICS | DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS | WOMEN'S STATUS | SEX PREFERENCE | CONTRACEPTION RESEARCH | GENDER ISSUES | FAMILY PLANNING PROGRAMS | ETHICS | Economic Development | Economic Factors | Demography | Social Sciences | Carrying Capacity | Natural Resources | Environment | Population Policy | Social Policy | Policy | Macroeconomic Factors | Population Dynamics | Population | Genetics | Biology | Socioeconomic Factors | Value Orientation | Psychological Factors | Behavior | Contraception | Family Planning | Programs | Organization and Administration
Document Number: 181894

25.
Title: Emile Zola against Malthusianism.
Author: Zola E
Source: POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW. 2000 Mar;26(1):145-52.
Abstract: This paper presents excerpts from Fecondite, a novel written by Emile Zola in 1899. Fecondite is a didactic moral fable about the conquest of fortune and the continual birth of offspring. The novel's central characters, Mathieu and Marriane Froment convey Zola's anti-Malthusian views through their life story. At the start of the novel, they are a poor couple with 4 children. By its end, they have had 12 children, with 7 surviving, and innumerable grandchildren and great grandchildren. Through hard work and prudence, they have gradually amassed a large and highly productive landed estate, called Chantebled. It was acquired from once-rich but feckless neighbors whose decline in fortune mirrors the Froments' rise and whose depopulationist views are thereby shown to be groundless.
Language: English
Keywords:
FRANCE | MALTHUSIANISM | FERTILITY | Europe, Western | Europe | Developed Countries | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population
Document Number: 149502

26.
Title: Like herrings in a barrel. Population.
Source: ECONOMIST. 1999 Dec 31;:13-4.
Abstract: In a span of only 1000 years, the human race has multiplied 20-fold. In the year 1000, world population was 0.31 billion; it increased to 6 billion by the year 2000. It is projected that by 2050 world population will be 9 billion. However, it is noted that the increase has slowed as a result of rich nations breeding lesser number of children and adopting the Malthusian restraint. This action has caused the world to experience demographic transition, in the way that societies alter as they get richer. The process starts with a decline in mortality, leading to a short population explosion; then, after an interval of variable length, a steep decline in the birth rate, which slows, halts or may even reverse the rise in numbers. Such changes have occurred in the continents of Europe, Africa, Asia and the countries of China and India.
Language: English
Keywords:
GLOBAL | POPULATION GROWTH | POPULATION SIZE | DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION | MALTHUSIANISM | POPULATION DYNAMICS | Demographic Factors | Population | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences
Document Number: 148740

27.
Title: Some thoughts on ICPD+5.
Author: AbouZahr C
Source: BULLETIN OF THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION.. 1999;77(9):767-70.
Abstract: This article concerns the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo in 1994. The 1960s were the years when the UNFPA was conceived and established with a mandate to raise awareness about the population problem and to assist developing countries in addressing these problems. At that time, the topics of discussion were focused on population bombs, demographic entrapment, scarcity of food, water, and renewable resources. The concern on population dates back much further of course to Malthus and his contemporaries and their analysis of the relationship between population growth and food availability. Many population programs and policies were implemented to address the population problems in developing countries such as the rapid increase in availability of technologies for reducing fertility. In contrast, the present Cairo agenda paid more attention to women's empowerment, autonomy and the improvement of their political, social, economic and health status for the attainment of sustainable development. The trend towards the feminist agenda explains the continuing tensions, so vociferously expressed during the ICPD+5 process, between conservatives and progressive groups.
Language: English
Keywords:
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES | CRITIQUE | POPULATION GROWTH | CONTRACEPTION | MALTHUSIANISM | FOOD SUPPLY | POPULATION POLICY | ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population | Family Planning | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Natural Resources | Environment | Social Policy | Policy | Economic Factors
Document Number: 145620

28.
Title: Reflections on sustainability, population growth, and the environment -- revisited.
Author: Bartlett AA
Source: CARRYING CAPACITY NETWORK FOCUS. 1999;9(1):49-68.
Abstract: This article clarifies the definition of the concept of sustainability and the implications of its use. The introduction notes that, during the 1980s, the concept of an agriculturally "sustained yield" began to be more widely applied as an antidote to the specter posed by the book "Limits to Growth." Next, the article points out that the term "sustainable growth" is an oxymoron when applied to material things, that definitions of "sustainable development" give no clue about how this can be achieved, that the term "carrying capacity" is central to discussions of population growth, that prominent individuals in the US deny the population problem, that the US Environmental Protection Agency fails to acknowledge the centrality of population growth to environmental degradation, and that the work of Malthus continues to be marginalized. The essay continues by considering the role of population consumption rather than size, population momentum, the way communities support population growth, and pseudo solutions such as "growth management through smart growth," the creation of jobs, building highways, and regional planning. Next, the essay details the impact of population growth on democracy, war and peace, injustice, and the economy. After presenting a series of laws and hypotheses that clarify implications of the use of the concept of sustainability, the article offers observations as well as technical and political predictions relating to sustainability and ends by defining the challenge of becoming a sustainable society.
Language: English
Keywords:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA | THEORETICAL STUDIES | POPULATION | OVERPOPULATION | SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT | CARRYING CAPACITY | ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION | MALTHUSIANISM | DEMOCRACY | WAR | ECONOMIC FACTORS | ECOLOGY | POLITICAL FACTORS | Developed Countries | North America | Americas | Natural Resources | Environment | Economic Development | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Political Systems
Document Number: 139481

29.
Title: Population and economic growth.
Author: Becker GS; Glaeser EL; Murphy KM
Source: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW. 1999 May;89(2):145-9.
Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between population and economic growth. It analyzes the implications of the effects of higher population density on per capita incomes and other variables in different countries and other geographic regions. Several statistical models that interpolate population to cities, investment in human capital and economic growth, were utilized to help analyze population growth. Generally, economists, along with others, have believed that higher population lowers per capita incomes by diminishing returns. On the contrary, there are few proofs demonstrating that higher population in more developed economies reduce per capita incomes. Population may reduce productivity secondary to traditional diminishing returns from more intensive use of land and other natural resources. However, large populations encourage greater specialization and increased investments in knowledge. Therefore, the net relation between greater population and per capita incomes relies on whether the inducements to human capital and expansion of knowledge are stronger than diminishing returns to natural resources.
Language: English
Keywords:
GLOBAL | CRITIQUE | THEORETICAL MODELS | POPULATION GROWTH | ECONOMIC FACTORS | MALTHUSIANISM | INCOME | ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT | Research Methodology | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Socioeconomic Factors
Document Number: 144347

30.
Title: [Population and economic growth. Does population control have a scientific basis?] Poblacion y crecimiento economico. Tiene fundamentos cientificos el control de la poblacion?
Author: Boltvinik J
Source: DEMOS. 1999;(12):4-5.
Abstract: This work argues that the evolution of population growth and economic development in Mexico demonstrates that the Malthusian perspective is an inadequate basis for population programs. A graph depicting gross national product (GNP) smoothed through 5-year moving averages and population growth in Mexico from 1941 to 1995 indicates that both increased between 1941 and the mid-1970s, with the population growth rates rising from 2.5% to 3.2% annually and the GNP from slightly over 4% to nearly 7%. Both rates dropped after the mid-1970s, and were lower in 1995 than in 1941. The results demonstrate a positive association between the two, whereas the Malthusian hypothesis would predict slower economic growth as population growth accelerates. The correlation between the two variables is positive, high, and significant at the 0.01 level. Julian Simon and collaborators carried out a series of regressions for 66 countries with per capita incomes under $1000, using rate of per capita income growth as the dependent variable and 3 indicators of population. The associations between rate of demographic growth and total population were not statistically significant, but the positive association with population density was significant. Methodological criticisms of regressions between population growth and economic growth have focused on their inability to demonstrate which variable influences the other or whether other variable(s) may also be exerting influence. Available studies may not have sufficiently long time horizons to demonstrate correlation. The central methodological problem with both the Malthusian argument and its detractors appears to be the isolation of population from history and from social development. All key factors except population are assumed to be more or less fixed.
Spanish Abstract: Este trabajo argumenta que la evoluci�n del crecimiento demogr�fico y el desarrollo econ�mico en M�xico demuestra que la perspectiva maltusiana es una base inadecuada para los programas de poblaci�n. Un gr�fico que muestra el producto nacional bruto (PNB) con respecto a los promedios de desplazamiento quinquenales y al crecimiento demogr�fico en M�xico de 1941 a 1995 se�ala que ambos aumentaron entre 1941 y mediados del decenio de 1970, y que las tasas de crecimiento demogr�fico aumentaron de 2,5% a 3,2% anualmente y que el PNB pas� de un poco m�s del 4% a casi 7%. Ambas tasas disminuyeron despu�s de mediados de los a�os 70, y fueron m�s bajas en 1995 que en 1941. Los resultados demuestran una relaci�n positiva entre las dos, mientras que la hip�tesis maltusiana predecir�a un crecimiento econ�mico m�s lento a medida que acelera el crecimiento demogr�fico. La correlaci�n entre las dos variables es positiva, elevada e importante al nivel de 0,01. Julian Simon y colaboradores realizaron una serie de regresiones de 66 pa�ses con ingresos per c�pita por debajo de $1.000, usando la tasa de aumento de los ingresos per c�pita como la variable dependiente y 3 indicadores de poblaci�n. Las relaciones entre la tasa de crecimiento demogr�fico y la poblaci�n total no fueron significativas estad�sticamente, pero la relaci�n positiva con la densidad de poblaci�n s� fue significativa. Las cr�ticas metodol�gicas de regresiones entre el crecimiento demogr�fico y el crecimiento econ�mico se han centrado en su incapacidad de demostrar cu�l es la variable que influye en la otra o si otra u otras variables pueden tambi�n ejercer influencia. Es posible que los estudios disponibles no tengan horizontes con un tiempo suficientemente largo para demostrar la correlaci�n. El problema metodol�gico principal con el argumento maltusiano y sus detractores parece ser el aislamiento de la poblaci�n de la historia y del desarrollo social. Se supone que todos los factores clave, salvo la poblaci�n, son m�s o menos fijos.
Language: Spanish
Keywords:
MEXICO | CRITIQUE | MALTHUSIANISM | POPULATION GROWTH | ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT | POPULATION THEORY | North America | Latin America | Americas | Developing Countries | Demography | Social Sciences | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population | Economic Factors
Document Number: 158048


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