Chapter 15
Population and
Urbanization:
Living on Spaceship Earth
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of
SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Introductory Terms
Demography: the study of human populations,
including their size, geographic location,
movement, concentration, and changing
characteristics
Population: can refer to any society, group, or
category of people
Below replacement levels: population decrease
since there are fewer births than deaths
Population momentum: population increase due
to large numbers of births
Urbanization: movement of people to cities
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
World Population Growth
Macro-level growth has resulted from:
Human thinking ability, which allowed successful
competition for survival of the species
The agricultural revolution led to food surplus
and longer life-spans
The industrial revolution led to improved health
and sanitation measures, bringing the death rate
down
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
World Population Growth
Predictors of population growth:
Dependency ratios: indicate how many people
contribute to the labor force and how many
depend on others
Youth dependency ratio
Aged dependency ratio
Sex ratio: indicates the number of women
eligible to give birth and the number of
potential spouses
Population pyramids: a visual depiction of sex
and dependency ratios
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
World Population Growth
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Explaining Population Patterns: Theories
Malthus’s theory of population
Humans are driven to reproduce; if no checks
are imposed, the population will increase
exponentially, resulting in food shortage
Possible checks on population growth: war,
disease, food shortage or famine
Malthus also suggested delaying marriage and
practicing abstinence until one could afford a
family (contraception was not yet viable)
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Explaining Population Patterns: Theories
Malthus’s theory of population
Critiques of Malthus
Did not anticipate role of capitalism in population
dynamics, e.g. encouraging excessive consumption
Did not anticipate increased productivity of modern
agricultural techniques
Saw abstinence as main way to prevent births; did
not recognize the potential for contraception
Poverty does not result inevitably from population
growth
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Explaining Population Patterns: Theories
Malthus’s theory of population
Neo-Malthusians:
Accept much of the theory, but with some
modifications
Recognize that individuals’ personal goals are not
always consistent with the social goal of managing
population growth
Favor contraception over “moral restraint”
Recognize that much environmental damage is
caused by corporate pollution and excessive
consumption, not population growth per se
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Explaining Population Patterns: Theories
Demographic transition theory
Attempts to explain why economic and social
changes alter the population size
Identifies three stages of development:
Stage 1: High birth and death rates balance out
over time; the pattern for much of human history
Stage 2: High birth rates remain but deaths decline
due to advances in health, sanitation, food supply
Stage 3: Low birth and death rates, low population
growth; the pattern in most industrial and postindustrial societies
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Explaining Population Patterns: Theories
Demographic
transition
theory
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Explaining Population Patterns: Theories
Demographic transition theory
Critiques:
Fails to consider several factors
• Age at marriage
• Contraceptive availability
• A country’s land and resources
• Economic structure, religious beliefs, political philosophy
• Economic expansion
Assumes modernization results in rational choice
about family size; instead, small families are due to
economic development and urbanization
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Explaining Population Patterns: Theories
Demographic transition theory
Wealth flow theory: decisions about family
size result from two strategies: wealth flow
from parents to children and vice versa
When wealth flows from parents to children, family
sizes are smaller
When children are working for their parents, family
sizes are larger
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Explaining Population Patterns: Theories
Conflict theory
Social and structural factors built into the
economic system, not automatic population
growth, are the cause of poverty
Capitalist structures result in wealth for
capitalists and create overpopulation and poverty
for workers
Socialist societies can absorb population growth;
all can find jobs as the system expands to
include them
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Policy: Population & Economic Development
Policy decisions often rest on whether leaders
believe that population growth slows economic
development, since economic prosperity is a
political goal
Measures to slow population growth: improved
sex education, access to contraceptives, and
providing education and job opportunities,
especially for women
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Population Change: Institutional Influences
Meso-level analysis
Key aspects of population change
Size: overall number of people
Composition: characteristics such as sex ratio, age
distribution, religious/ethnic representation
Distribution: geographic density or concentration
Demographic processes that affect population
Fertility: birth rate
Mortality: death rate
Migration: geographic movement of people
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Population Change: Institutional Influences
Factors affecting fertility rates:
Economic factors: the relationship between
fertility and poverty or prosperity is complex
Governmental
Pronatalist policies: encourage fertility
Antinatalist policies: discourage fertility
Religious and cultural norms
Education (especially for women)
Availability of contraception
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Population Change: Institutional Influences
Factors affecting fertility rates:
women’s education
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Population Change: Institutional Influences
Factors affecting mortality rates
Life expectancy: the average number of years
people live in a particular society
Indicates overall health conditions in a country
National differences in mortality are caused by
disease, poor health care, poverty, war and
civil strife, draught and famine, malnutrition
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Population Change: Institutional Influences
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Population Change: Institutional Influences
Factors affecting migration and mobility
Push-pull model: some people are pushed
from their original locations by wars, plagues,
famine, political or religious conflicts,
economic crises, or other factors, and pulled
to new locations by economic opportunities or
political and religious tolerance
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Population Change: Institutional Influences
Types of migration and mobility
Internal migration: movement within a country
Urbanization, or rural to urban migration, is common
Influenced by job and housing opportunities
Internally displaced persons: forcibly relocated
within their own countries
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Population Change: Institutional Influences
Types of migration and mobility
International migration: movement from one
country to another
Influenced by political unrest, war, famine, natural
disasters, economic conditions and opportunities
Has been tightly controlled in western countries, but
immigration is still common
Curbed by restrictive immigration laws in receiving
countries, and by economic recessions
Refugees: those who flee in search of refuge from
war, political oppression, or religious persecution
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Micro-Level Population Patterns
Baby boom and baby bust
Changes in the population influence:
job prospects
retirement security
career decisions
deviance rates
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Urbanization
The Urbanization Process
People move from rural to urban locations, where
they hold mostly non-rural occupations
They undergo a change in lifestyle in the city
Urbanization accompanies:
Modernization: transformation from traditional
societies to bureaucratized states
Industrialization: transformation from agricultural
and hand-made goods to manufacturing industries
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Urbanization
Communities are locations that provide
residents with:
a place to live
a sense of identity and belonging
neighbors and friends
activities and social involvements
access to basic necessities like food, jobs, schools,
and health care
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Cities as Micro-Level Living Environments
Tonnies’ two community extremes:
Gemeinschaft: small, traditional communities
characterized by families and personal
relationships and values
Gesellschaft: large, impersonal urban areas
characterized by formal relationships, contracts
and a money economy, and isolation
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Cities as Micro-Level Living Environments
Durkheim’s two types of social bonds
Mechanical solidarity: society held together by
shared beliefs, values, and traditions,
homogeneity of thought; typical of rural areas
and simple societies
Legal system emphasizes moral order
Organic solidarity: society held together by an
interdependence among people with a
specialized division of labor; common in
complex societies
Legal system emphasizes making amends for
wrongdoing
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Cities as Micro-Level Living Environments
Rural life
Dominant for much of human history
Rural areas: fewer than 1,000 people per
square mile
21% of the U.S. population lived in a rural area
in the year 2000
Rural sociology: the study of social life in nonmetropolitan areas
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Cities as Micro-Level Living Environments
Life in the city
Urban residential patterns
Neighborhoods: identifiable areas within the larger
metropolitan area
• Meet most needs of residents: food, schools, religions
• Residents are homogenous with respect to income,
interests, ethnicity or race, etc.
• High degree of social interaction among residents
• Symbolic commitment, feeling of belonging
Suburbs: areas immediately adjacent to the city,
extending beyond the city limits
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Cities as Micro-Level Living Environments
Human relationships in cities
Simmel: the stimulation and economic relations of
urban life cause city dwellers to be insensitive and
avoid intense relations, to protect their privacy
Goffman’s civil inattention: elaborate ways of
pretending not to make contact
Wirth: people in high-density, heterogeneous areas
develop coping mechanisms, including sophistication
and depersonalization
Fischer: urban life strengthens social groups,
diversifies subcultures, and encourages intimate
social circles among those who share similar
activities or traits
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
How Did Cities Evolve?
Meso-level organizational structures
Theories of urban development:
The Chicago School theory: cities grow in a series of
circles, moving out from the center; each circle is
dominated by a particular type of activity and
residential pattern
• Processes that constantly occur in cities: residential
segregation; invasion by a new ethnic, religious, or
socioeconomic group; succession by that group
Conflict theories: urban space is socially defined and
scarce, causing conflict over its allocation; cities are
dominated by elites who create poverty and
exploitation of the poor; urbanization and
modernization are a cause of poverty
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
How Did Cities Evolve?
Types of cities
Industrial cities: primarily commercial centers
motivated by competition; developed around
factories, transport and communication systems
Postindustrial cities: center on service sector,
not manufacturing; closely tied to global
capitalism and instant information exchange
Urbanized nations: countries in which more
than half of the population live in urban areas
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
How Did Cities Evolve?
Types of cities
“New towns”: cities built from scratch by
urban planners as economically self-sufficient
entities with all necessary amenities
Gentrification: low income areas that see
increases in income and housing prices, often
due to middle and upper class people buying
and renovating rundown properties
Conflict theorists point out that the poor are
displaced and excluded
Megacities: cities with over 10 million people
Megalopoplis: area where two cities merge
along a major transportation corridor
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
How Did Cities Evolve?
Global urban variations:
Indigenous cities: traditional cities that
usually predate European ones; centers
include a bazaar and religious and
government buildings
Dual cities: modern, westernized "colonial"
central cities located next to a traditional,
indigenous cities
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Urban Problems, Environment, and Policy
Macro-level perspectives
Rural migrants and overcrowding
(shantytowns)
Environment, infrastructure, and urban
ecosystems
Poverty in the world’s cities
Permanent underclass: the global poor who lack
education and skills to join local and world economy
Feminization of poverty: increase of women and
their children in the ranks of the impoverished
Crime and delinquency in the city
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.
Urban Problems, Environment, and Policy
Urban planners & social policy: global trends
Urbanization will continue
Information & transport technology will increase
contact and reduce commitment to specific areas
International boundaries will diminish in importance
Economies will rely on brain, not brawn, which will
continue to increase inequality
Conflicts between cultural and political groups will
continue to affect urban life
McDonaldization, or creation of consumer worlds
dominated by Western food, music, fashion, and
entertainment, will continue
© Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.