1. Peer Reviewed Title: Contraception and sexual health. Author: Guillebaud J Source: Best Practice and Research: Clinical Obstetrics and Gynaecology. 2009 Apr;23(2):163-4. Abstract: This introductory article highlights the discrepancy between family planning and technological progress posing questions such as 'Where is the male pill or implant?' or 'Where is the single user-friendly method that effectively prevents both conception and sexually transmitted infections?' Language: English Keywords: GLOBAL | CRITIQUE | CONTRACEPTION | HEALTH | MALTHUSIANISM | POPULATION GROWTH | SEXUALITY | FAMILY PLANNING | ADOLESCENT PREGNANCY | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Science | Sociocultural Factors | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population | Personality | Psychological Factors | Behavior | Reproductive Behavior | Fertility Document Number: 341308   |
2. ![]() Title: Food and population: The return of Malthus? Commentary. Author: Bongaarts J Source: New York, New York, Population Council, 2008 Jul 11. [2] p. Abstract: This commentary sparked by the recent sharp rise in global food prices touches on 1) The connection between population and food supply; 2) Reducing unnecessary consumption could improve worldwide access to food; and 3) Practical solutions for the poorest countries. Language: English Keywords: DEVELOPING COUNTRIES | GLOBAL | CRITIQUE | EVALUATION | POPULATION | NEOMALTHUSIANISM | FOOD SUPPLY | PRICES | CONSUMPTION | POPULATION GROWTH | AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Science | Sociocultural Factors | Natural Resources | Environment | Commerce | Macroeconomic Factors | Economic Factors | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Rural Development Document Number: 327694   |
3. 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, Arsène 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   |
4. ![]() 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. 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   |
| 6. 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   |
| 7. 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   |
| 8. 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   |
| 9. 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   |
| 10. 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   |
| 11. 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   |
12. ![]() 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, Rondônia, 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   |
13. 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   |
| 14. 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   |
| 15. 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   |
| 16. Title: Physicians and fertility control in the Netherlands. Author: van Poppel F; Röling 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   |
| 17. 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   |
| 18. Title: Why "demographic fatigue" contributes little to our understanding of contemporary Africa. Author: Richey LA Source: DIFFERENTAKES. 2000 Spring;(3):1-4. Abstract: This paper examines the concept of "demographic fatigue" and its contribution to the understanding of contemporary Africa. The phrase "demographic fatigue" was first used in the publication "Beyond Malthus" by Lester Brown and colleagues. It describes what the authors perceive as the inability of governments to cope with the consequences of their rapid expanding populations. This concept goes beyond the neo-Malthusians in explaining the population conditions in Africa. It blames overpopulation for two of the most devastating events in postcolonial Africa: the epidemic of HIV/AIDS and the Rwandan genocide. By simply inserting the AIDS pandemic and genocide into the simplistic framework that locates population as the root of all evils, Brown pretends to address these issues and promote their solution--family planning--while actually ignoring all historical, anthropological, economic, and political facets that led to these crises. Language: English Keywords: AFRICA | POPULATION GROWTH | DEMOGRAPHIC IMPACT | POLITICAL FACTORS | NEOMALTHUSIANISM | Developing Countries | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences Document Number: 151863   |
| 19. 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   |
| 20. 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   |
| 21. 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   |
| 22. 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   |
| 23. 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   |
| 24. Title: Beyond Malthus: nineteen dimensions of the population challenge. Author: Brown LR; Gardner G; Halweil B Source: New York, New York, W. W. Norton, 1999. 167 p. (Worldwatch Environmental Alert Series) Abstract: This book is an expansion of a Worldwatch paper entitled "Beyond Malthus: Sixteen Dimensions of the Population Problem," which was published in September 1998. It tackles the consequences of population growth for 19 environmental and social dimensions of the human experience which include the following: grain production, fresh water, biodiversity, energy, oceanic fish catch, jobs, infectious disease, cropland, forests, housing, climate change, materials, urbanization, protected natural areas, education, waste, conflict, meat production, and income generation. Analysis of these 19 dimensions resulted in the emergence of "demographic fatigue" in many countries, which means that the government finds it difficult to cope with the threats brought about by these indicators. Like in countries that experienced rapid population growth for several decades, the challenge lies in simultaneously educating the ever-growing number of youngsters on finding jobs, and coping with various environmental consequences of rapid population growth. Language: English Keywords: GLOBAL | INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES | POPULATION GROWTH | DEMOGRAPHIC IMPACT | MALTHUSIANISM | ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT | NATURAL RESOURCES | EMPLOYMENT | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Environment | Macroeconomic Factors | Economic Factors Document Number: 148004   |
| 25. Title: [Malthus and fertility regulation. Comment on the article by Ives Charbit. Charbit's response] Malthus et la regulation de la fecondite. Commentaire a propos de l'article d'Yves Charbit. Reponse d'Ives Charbit. Author: Charbit Y Source: POPULATION. 1999 Nov-Dec;54(6):1037-9. Abstract: The author accepts that Etienne Van de Walle’s criticisms highlight interesting, debatable fine points on fertility according to Malthus when de Walle suggests that Malthus was affected by representations of the period. The concept of “intercourse” is considered. The central problem is that of precursors and their ambiguous position relative to the actual level of understanding about fertility mechanisms. It is not of interest to the modern reader to accept Malthus’s views on pre-scientific representations. It is simple and logical to think that Malthus realized that if English women residing in large urban centers had sexual relations without having children, the lack of pregnancy was due to the use of contraception. Malthus therefore came to an empirically-based conclusion. The author also responds to Van de Walle’s argument that he distinguishes without any textual basis moral constraint from prudent constraint. The reader is referred to the second chapter of the first book of the 7th edition of the “Essay upon the Principle of Population.” The problem of different levels of Malthusian thought is considered. Finally, Van de Walle is correct in noting that from the first edition of the Essay, regulation through the determination of marriage age was conceived by Malthus, but his criticism is unjustified. French Abstract: L'auteur accepte que les critiques d'Etienne Van de Walle apportent des précisions intéressantes, mais d'un intérêt discutable sur les mécanismes de la fécondité selon Malthus, quand Van de Walle suggère que Malthus soit marqué par les représentations de l'époque. La notion de « intercourse » est considérée. Le problème posé est celui des précurseurs et de leur position ambiguë par rapport au niveau actuel de connaissances des mécanismes de la fécondité. Il n'est pas intéressant pour le lecteur d'aujourd'hui d'inscrire à la pensée de Malthus dans la lignée de ces représentations pré-scientifiques. Il est simple et logique de penser que Malthus s'est rendu compte que si les Anglaises des grandes villes avaient des relations sexuelles sans avoir d'enfants, c'est parce qu'elles avaient recours à la contraception. Malthus a, donc, adopté une démarche empirique et statistique. L'auteur répond aussi à la critique de Van de Walle qu'il distingue sans aucune base textuelle la contrainte morale de la contrainte prudente. Le lecteur est renvoyé au deuxième chapitre du premier livre de la septième édition de « l'Essai sur le principe de population ». L'auteur considère le problème des niveaux de la pensée malthusienne. Enfin, Van de Walle a raison de souligner que dès la première édition de l'Essai, la régulation par le calcul de l'âge au mariage est envisagée par Malthus, mais sa critique n'est pas justifiée. Language: French Keywords: CRITIQUE | MALTHUSIANISM | POPULATION SIZE | BIRTH LIMITING | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population | Family Planning Document Number: 153449   |
| 26. Title: From Malthusian stagnation to modern growth. Author: Galor O; Weil DN Source: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW. 1999 May;89(2):150-4. Abstract: This paper investigates the historical evolution of the relationship among population growth, technological change, and standard of living. The analysis focuses on two most important differences among the Malthusian Regime, Post-Malthusian Regime, and Modern Growth Regime. These were the behavior of income per capita, and the relationship between the level of income per capita and the population growth rate. The Modern Growth Regime is characterized by steady growth in both income per capita and the level of technology. In the Malthusian regime, technological progress and population growth was glacial by modern standards and income per capita was fairly constant. In contrast to the Modern Growth Regime, the relationship between per capita income and population growth in the Malthusian Regime was positive. Post-Malthusian Regime shared one characteristic with each of the two regimes. In addition, this paper developed and described an endogenous-growth model consistent with the above mentioned transition process. Language: English Keywords: EUROPE, WESTERN | HISTORICAL REVIEW | THEORETICAL MODELS | POPULATION GROWTH | MALTHUSIANISM | ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT | INCOME | Europe | Developed Countries | Research Methodology | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Economic Factors | Socioeconomic Factors Document Number: 144348   |
| 27. Title: A cross-cultural race / class / gender critique of contemporary population policy: the impact of globalization. Author: Kuumba MB Source: SOCIOLOGICAL FORUM. 1999 Sep;14(3):447-63. Abstract: This paper presents a race/class/gender critique of population policy using women of African descent, in South Africa and the US, as a cross-cultural illustration. The paper particularly focuses on the ways in which global population policies simultaneously facilitate racial inequality, class exploitation, and gender subordination. This paper further explores the relationship between repressive reproductive polity, and reproductive imperialism, and the current trends toward increasing international economic polarization. An approach to the understanding of population policy that emphasizes the reproductive and productive capacities of African women offers a particular vantage point from which to investigate this relationship between population control and global capitalist interests. There is sufficient evidence to support the claim that, in addition to serving the dominant economic interests, contemporary population policy perpetuates the underdevelopment and exploitation of Third World women and communities. Language: English Keywords: SOUTH AFRICA | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA | CRITIQUE | LITERATURE REVIEW | BLACKS | WOMEN | POPULATION POLICY | POPULATION CONTROL | FAMILY PLANNING | MALTHUSIANISM | Africa, Southern | Africa, Sub Saharan | Africa | Developing Countries | Developed Countries | North America | Americas | Ethnic Groups | Cultural Background | Population Characteristics | Demographic Factors | Population | Social Policy | Policy | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences Document Number: 148129   |
| 28. Title: Malthusian models and Chinese realities: the Chinese demographic system 1700-2000. Author: Lee J; Wang F Source: POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW. 1999 Mar;25(1):33-65. Abstract: The authors summarize their current understanding of Chinese demographic behavior and confront the classic Malthusian model which has predominated in economic and demographic theory for the past 200 years. In so doing, the authors build a stylized model of a Chinese demographic system to contrast with the ideal model first proposed by Malthus and elaborated by others. The Chinese demographic system not only provides an alternative demographic model to the Malthusian model of preventive and positive checks, but the presumed universality of the Malthusian opposition needs qualification, as does the currently prevailing understanding of Chinese society and economy during the past 3 centuries. Mortality, nuptiality, fertility, and fictive kinship and adoption are identified as aspects of Chinese demographic behavior which persist today and differ from Western patterns. These aspects also temper the Malthusian understanding of comparative demographic behavior in general and China in particular. Language: English Keywords: CHINA | THEORETICAL STUDIES | MALTHUSIANISM | DEMOGRAPHICS | HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY | Developing Countries | Asia, Eastern | Asia | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences Document Number: 141541   |
| 29. Title: [Demography and development. And if Malthus was right] Demographie et developpement. Et si Malthus avait raison. Author: Lom AD Source: POP SAHEL. 1999 Dec;(28):35-7. Abstract: Demographic questions have provoked such interest in recent decades that the international community has held decennial conferences on the subject since 1974. Several scholars, of whom Malthus is the most renown, hold the idea that a large, rapidly growing population is a factor associated with poverty. The difficult socioeconomic conditions in southern, developing countries together with their rapid population growth rates would seem to lend credibility to Malthusianism. It is important to know to what extent in developing countries populations can contribute to development. Thus, other authors, including J.C. Chesnais and E. Boserup, argue that it is often under challenging situations and constraints that societies are driven to conceive alternate strategies to improve their quality of life. Populations are essentially forced to draw upon their creative powers in order to employ thus far underexploited, latent resources. The existence of a large market facilitates the growth of economies of scale at the population level, stimulates innovation, and therefore enables the growth of exchange and profit. The situation in Senegal is discussed as an example of a country constrained to continually do more to meet the health, education, nutrition, and labor needs of a large, young, and ever-growing population. Solutions to population problems in developing countries cannot be found in isolation. There is no substitute for socioeconomic development. French Abstract: Les questions démographiques ont provoqué un tel intérêt dans ces dernières décennies que la communauté internationale leur consacre des conférences décennales depuis 1974. L'idée qu'une population nombreuse à croissance rapide est un facteur de pauvreté est largement soutenue par plusieurs auteurs dont Malthus est parmi les plus célèbres. La situation socio-économique difficile des pays du Sud et leur croissance démographique rapide ne sont pas loin de leur donner raison. Une question importante est de savoir dans quelle mesure, dans les pays en voie de développement, la population peut contribuer au développement et non constituer une force d'inertie dans le contexte actuel. Ainsi que le soutiennent, entre autres auteurs J.C. Chesnais ou E. Boserup, c'est souvent sous des contraintes que les sociétés sont amenées à imaginer des stratégies alternatives viables afin de changer leurs conditions de vie. Donc, de là, on tire de l'imagination afin de mettre en valeur des ressources latentes sous-exploitées jusqu'alors. L'idée clé est que la pression créatrice préside au développement en créant les conditions de la créativité et l'innovation. L'existence d'un vaste marché permet de réaliser des économies d'échelle au niveau de la population, stimule l'innovation, et permet ainsi d'accroître les occasions d'échanges et de profits. La situation au Sénégal est discutée comme un exemple d'un pays contraint à faire chaque jour davantage d'efforts pour soigner, éduquer, nourrir, et trouver des emplois à une grande population jeune sans cesse croissante. Il semble que la solution aux problèmes démographiques dans les pays en voie de développement ne doit pas être recherchée en isolation. Il n'existe ni des substituts, ni des préalables au développement socio-économique. Language: French Keywords: DEVELOPING COUNTRIES | THEORETICAL STUDIES | POPULATION GROWTH | ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT | MALTHUSIANISM | DEMOGRAPHY | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population | Economic Factors | Population Theory | Social Sciences Document Number: 151904   |
| 30. Title: The need to reassess the role of the population variable in global development. Author: Lutz W Source: YEARBOOK OF POPULATION RESEARCH IN FINLAND. 1998-1999;35:30-8. Abstract: In the 1970s thinking about the future global population trends and the environment was largely influenced by The Limits to Growth, a report presented at the Club of Rome. It is based on an economic, demographic and environmental simulation model, called World3, which is applied to the world taken as a whole. However, discrepancies have been noted in such a model and modelers have learned many lessons since the application of the model in 1970s. These lessons include the following: that the world is much too heterogeneous to apply the same behavioral equations to different parts of the world; that the model should not be too highly integrated; and that an intersectoral model should also satisfy the sectoral disciplinary concerns. In a probabilistic outlook of future global population growth and aging, uncertainties involved in the calculations of projections are dealt with by presenting the alternative scenarios of unknown probability and the high and low variants in addition to the medium variant. In addition, such an approach is more intensively based on expert judgement and captures the possibilities of Malthusian checks. In conclusion, the author states that the probabilistic method is a more differentiated approach that may contribute to moving further beyond the simplistic controversy surrounding the Malthusian theory. Language: English Keywords: MALTHUSIANISM | POPULATION GROWTH | DEVELOPMENT PLANS | Population Theory | Demography | Social Sciences | Population Dynamics | Demographic Factors | Population Document Number: 148268   |
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