Wednesday,
January 20 Introduction to course SOCIOLOGY 291
POPULATION AND SOCIETY
Spring 1999
Instructor: Professor Julie Phillips
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:00pm to 4:00pm
Office: A-356 Lucy Stone Hall, Livingston Campus
Telephone: (732) 445-7032
E-mail Address: japhill@rci.rutgers.edu
Web Site URL: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~japhill/Pop&Soc.html
This course is designed to introduce students to some of the major social issues relating to population size, growth, and composition. The course covers both historical and contemporary population issues. It also introduces some basic measures that demographers use to describe and study the behavior of a population. Approximately the first half of the course considers patterns of world population growth and the forces that affect them. We will discuss the dramatic improvements in health and life expectancy that have occurred in the last century as well as continuing high mortality patterns in developing countries. Fertility trends, both historical and contemporary, will also be examined in terms of how they shape population growth and composition. We will also consider consequences of the current high population growth rates in developing countries and whether policy initiatives are needed to reduce birth rates.
The second half of the course considers a variety of issues in the United States that are intimately connected with demographic patterns: immigration, family change, aging, poverty, urbanization, mobility, segregation, and violence. This section of the course focuses on the demographic causes and consequences of these phenomena.
Reading Requirements
The textbook for the course is Population: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues by John Weeks. You are also assigned a series of readings available in a course packet. Both the textbook and the course packet are available from New Jersey Books (108 Somerset Street). A list of recommended readings is included at the end of this syllabus. Both required and recommended readings will be on reserve at Kilmer Library on Livingston campus.
Handouts
Handouts for each lecture and other supplementary material will often be made available on the Internet at the web site listed at the top of this syllabus. It is important that you retrieve the handouts prior to each lecture. The handouts will help you follow and understand the major points of each lecture. Please let me know if you do not have Internet access.
Grading Criteria
Grading will be based on two problem sets (20%), a midterm exam (30%), and a final exam (50%). There will be no papers. The two problem sets may be done in groups of up to four students. The mid-term is scheduled for Wednesday, March 10, the class before spring break. The final will be held at the allotted time during the final exam period.
Class Project: State Demographic Profile. Due April 28, 1999. Email addresses for class.
Wednesday,
January 20 Introduction to course
SECTION I: ELEMENTS OF POPULATION CHANGE
Monday,
January 25 Elements
of Population Growth
Birth Rates, Death Rates, and Growth Rates
Weeks, John Chapter 1
Haub, Carl "New UN Projections predict a variety of demographic futures"
Wednesday,
January 27 Theories
of Population Growth and Their Implications
Weeks, John Chapter 3 (pp. 74-99)
Mann, Charles "How Many is Too Many?"
Monday,
February 1 Demographic
Data Sources
Weeks, John Chapter 2
SECTION II: MORTALITY DECLINE AS A SOURCE OF POPULATION GROWTH
Wednesday,
February 3 Components
of Mortality and History of Mortality Decline
Weeks, John Chapter 4 (pp. 110-129; 131-136)
Simon, Julian Pp. 30-60 (Articles by Preston, Hill and Haines)
Monday,
February 8 Mortality in Developed Countries: Trends, Reversals and
Inequalities
Weeks, John Chapter 4 (pp. 140-153)
Wednesday,
February 10 Causes
and Consequences of High Mortality in the Developing World
Weeks, John Chapter 4 (pp. 136-40)
Sen, Amaryta The Economics of Life and Death
Monday,
February 15 Measures
of Mortality
A life table example: Please do the exercise and we will discuss it on February 22.
Weeks, John Chapter 2 (pp. 129-131)
Appendix on Life Table
SECTION III: FERTILITY LEVELS: HOW ADAPTIVE?
Wednesday,
February 17 Fertility
as an Element of Population Growth
Weeks, John Chapter 5
Caldwell, John The Course and Causes of Fertility Decline
Monday,
February 22 Fertility
Trends in the U.S. and More Developed Countries
Weeks, John Chapter 6 (pp. 208-227)
Wednesday, February 24 Fertility Trends in Less Developed Countries (Movie)
Tierney, John Fanisi’s Choice
Monday,
March 1 Fertility
Trends in Less Developed Countries
Weeks, John Chapter 6 (pp. 198-208)
Cleland, John Different Pathways to Demographic Transition
SECTION IV: POPULATION POLICY: IS GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION REQUIRED TO RESTORE DEMOGRAPHIC BALANCE?
Wednesday,
March 3 Consequences
of Population Growth
Weeks, John Chapter 3 (pp. 102-103)
Chapter 12 (pp. 443-469)
Cohen, Joel Ten Myths of Population
Monday, March 8 Population Policy: Why or Why Not?
Weeks, John Chapter 14 (pp. 507-542)
Bongaarts, John Population Policy Options in the Developing World
Wednesday,
March 10 MIDTERM
SECTION V: AGE-SEX DISTRIBUTION AND POPULATION PROJECTION TECHNIQUES
Monday, March 22 Age-sex structure and population projection
Weeks, John Chapter 8 (pp. 289-304)
SECTION VI: IMMIGRATION: SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL ISSUES
Wednesday,
March 24 Introduction
to study of migration / overview
Weeks, John Chapter 7 (pp. 232-238; 253-263)
Monday,
March 29 Theories of
Migration
Weeks, John Chapter 7 (pp. 238-248; 251-253)
Simon, Julian The Case for Greatly Increased Immigration
Wednesday,
March 31 Consequences
and Implications of Migration
Weeks, John Chapter 7 (pp. 249-251)
Massey, Douglas The New Immigration and Ethnicity in the United States
Monday, April 5 Immigration to the United States and Immigration Policy Initiatives
Weeks, John Chapter 7 (pp. 263-265)
Frey, William Immigration, Domestic Migration and Demographic Balkanization in America
SECTION VII: CHANGES IN THE AMERICAN FAMILY
Wednesday,
April 7 History of
the Family and Recent Developments
Weeks, John Chapter 10
Popenoe et al. An Exchange on American Family Decline
Monday, April 12 Consequences of Decline of Family, Remarriage, Monogamy and Assortative Mating
McLanahan, Sarah The Consequences of Single Motherhood
SECTION VIII: THE GRAYING OF AMERICA
Wednesday,
April 14 Implications
of Mortality Decline - The Aging of America
Weeks, John Chapter 9 (changed to recommended reading)
Herman, Robin It’s an Old, Old, Old, Old World
Peterson, Peter G. Will America Grow Up before It Grows Old?
SECTION IX: THE DEMOGRAPHY OF WORK, INCOME AND POVERTY
Monday,
April 19 Income
Inequality in the United States
Weeks, John Chapter 10 (pp. 376-384)
Levy, John Incomes and Income Inequality
SECTION X: THE URBAN LANDSCAPE
Wednesday, April 21 Urbanization
Weeks, John Chapter 11 (pp. 399-417)
Monday, April 26 Mobility and Segregation
Weeks, John Chapter 11 (pp. 418-424)
Frey, William and Reynolds Farley Latino, Asian and Black Segregation in U.S. Metropolitan Areas: Are Multiethnic Metros Different?
Wednesday, April 28 The
Demography of Violence
Weeks, John Chapter 8 (Essay: Crime and the Age Structure – pp.302-303)
Morrison, Peter and Ira Lowry A Riot of Color: The Demographic Setting
Recommended Readings
Section I
Coale, Ansley J. 1974. "The History of the Human Population." In The Human Population. A Scientific American Book. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Co.
Waltenberg, Ben 1997. "The Population Explosion is Over." The New York Times Magazine. November 23, 1997: 60-63.
Section III
Seccombe, Wally "Men’s Marital Rights and Women’s Wifely Duties: Changing Conjugal Relations in the Fertility Decline." Pp. 66-84 in John Gillis, Louise Tilly and David Levine, editors. The European Experience of Declining Fertility, 1850-1970: The Quiet Revolution. Blackwell. Cambridge. 1992
Section IV
Sen, Amaryta 1995. "Population Policy: Authoritarianism versus Cooperation." International Lecture Series on Population Issues, The MacArthur Foundation, August 17, 1995, New Delhi.
Section V
Martin, Philip and Jonas Widgren 1996. "International Migration: A Global Challenge." Population Bulletin 51, no. 1 (April), p. 1-47.
Section VII
Farley, Reynolds 1996. "Changes in the American Family." In The New American Reality: How we got here, where we are going. Chapter 4, pp. 108-150. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.