ISS-4228 Population, People and Resources: Generations and
Regeneration
Code
Weight of the course
Period
Course Leader
Lecturer
Teaching Methods
Modes of Assessment
Contact
ISS-4228
8 ECTS
TERM 2
Mahmood Messkoub
Loes Keysers, Mahmood Messkoub, Auma Okwany, Karin Astrid
Siegmann
Participatory Lectures, Workshops: Work-group Discussions and
Presentations, Debates and Case-studies
Assignment(s): 85%, Group Assignment: 15%
Marieke Klopper
Learning objectives
This course will provide participants with theoretical and conceptual frameworks for the understanding
of the inter-relationship between generations and social development, through the study of changes in
demographics (fertility, mortality, age structure and migration) of a country, social relationships among
generations and their implications for development policy design and implementation.
Course description
The course centres on the inter-relationship between population and generation, reproduction of
labour and social regeneration and reproduction and the role of development in this inter-relationship.
The social reproduction here is more about renewal and change than maintaining the existing social,
cultural and economic structures which could not only limit economic development but also constrain
capabilities, freedom and human development.
It is a truism that development is about how to change ‘people’ lives, and hopefully improve them.
This truism ends as soon as one asks who the ‘people’ are (who should be the object of development)
and what the policies should be. This is fundamentally about the design and implementation of
development policies that should be aimed at people who are differentiated on the basis of
demographic, gender, race, class and other social and economic categories.
The course is designed around three blocks, which reflect our approach to the inter-relationship
among population, generation, social policy and regeneration/reproduction. In block one participants
will be introduced to the basic concepts of population studies. Block two focuses on population as a
resource, its work and employment implication as well as its relationship with other resources such as
land and the environment. In block three we explore some of the education and health policies that
are essential to regeneration/reproduction of individual and societies. Different models of social
provisioning (private and state/public, residual and universal) will also be discussed and their
implications for equality of access and outcome analysed.
Indicative readings
Cole, J. and D. Durham (2007) ‘Introduction: Age, Regeneration, and the Intimate Politics of
Globalization’ in: Cole, J. and D. Durham (eds) Generations and Globalization: Youth, age,
and family in the new world economy, pp. 1-28. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Crook, N. (1997) Principles of Population and Development – with illustrations from Asia and Africa.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gould, W.T.S. (2009) Population and Development. London: Routledge.
Kaboub, F. (2007) ‘Employment Guarantee Programs: A Survey of Theories and Policy Experiences’.
Levy Economics Institute Working Paper No. 498. Annandale-on-Hudson, NY: Levy
Economics Institute
Livi-Bacci, M. (1997) A Concise History of World Population (2nd edn). Oxford: Blackwell.
Mkandawire, T. (ed.) (2004) Social Policy in a Development Context. Basingstoke; Geneva: Palgrave
Macmillan; UNRISD.