population and urbanization
TRANSCRIPT
Population and Urbanization
Seth AllenIntroduction to Sociology
Chapter Outline
• Demography: The Study of Population• Population Growth in Global Context• A Brief Glimpse at International Migration Theories• Urbanization in Global Perspective• Perspectives on Urbanization and the Growth of
Cities• Problems in Global Cities• Urban Problems in the United States• Population and Urbanization in the Future
Population
• World’s population of 6.8 billion in 2010 is increasing by more than 76 million people per year.
• Between 2000 and 2030, almost all of the world’s 1.4 % annual population growth will occur in low-income countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Changes in Population Changes occur as a result of three processes:
• Fertility (births)• Mortality (deaths)• Migration/Emigration
Population Pyramid
A graphic representation of the distribution of a population by sex and age.
Population Pyramid Exercise Go to Population Pyramid website and let’s look some countries.
Group #1 Group #2 Group #3
GermanyClick on each year from 1950 to 2010. Are there age groups that are particularly thin? Why is this? What is happening to the youngest age groups over time?
United StatesClick on each year between 1950 and 2010. Notice the bulge that emerges beginning in 1950 and continues to move up the age brackets. What generation of people is this?
China Click on each year from 1950 to 2015. What do you notice about the age distribution? What does the changes mean for Chinese society?
Population Composition
• The biological and social characteristics of a population, including age, sex, race, marital status, education, occupation, income, and size of household.
• The sex ratio is the number of males for every hundred females in a given population.– A sex ratio of 100 indicates an equal number of
males and females in the population.– A number greater than 100, indicates there are
more males than females; if it is less than 100, there are more females than males.
Theories of Population Growth
• The Malthusian Perspective• The Marxist Perspective• The Neo-Malthusian Perspective• Demographic Transition Theory
Malthusian Perspective• If left unchecked, the population would
exceed the available food supply.
• Population would increase in a geometric progression (2, 4, 8, …).
• The food supply would increase by an arithmetic progression (1, 2, 3, 4 . . .).
Marxist Perspective
• Using technology, food can be produced for a growing population.
• Overpopulation will lead to the eventual destruction of capitalism.
• Workers will become dissatisfied and develop class-consciousness because of shared oppression.
Marxist Perspective Applied to the Irish Potato Famine of 1846
Ireland operated as colony of Britain, who controlled their exports. A disease decimated the potato crop in 1846 and the British were reluctant to act. The British failed to send enough of their own crops to aid the hungry people and over 1 million Irish people died over the next decade.1
1. Jim Donnelly, “The Irish Famine,” BBC History, The Irish Famine.
The Neo-Malthusian Perspective
• Overpopulation and rapid population growth result in global environmental problems.
• People should be encouraging zero population growth-roughly 2 children per couple.
Demographic Transition TheoryStage 1: Preindustrial Societies - little population growth,
high birth rates offset by high death rates.
Stage 2: Early Industrialization - significant population growth, birth rates are relatively high, death rates decline.
Stage 3: Advanced Industrialization and Urbanization - very little population growth occurs, birth rates and death rates are low.
Stage 4: Postindustrialization - birth rates decline as more women are employed and raising children becomes more costly.
Demographic Transition Theory
The demographic transition model has been criticized for being narrowly applicable to the Western world.
Look how quickly this process has happened in the rapidly industrializing nations of Latin America.
Theories of Migration
Conflict Theories• Split labor market theory• World systems theory
Functionalist Theories• Neoclassical economic
approach• New household economics
of migration approach
Other Theories• Institutional theory-Groups
‘push’ and ‘pull’ migrants to new nations
• Network theory –Family and business networks create channels of migrants
Percentage of people living in cities 2009
Emergence and Evolution of the City• The earliest humans are believed to have emerged
anywhere from 40,000 to 1,000,000 years ago.• Scholars date the development of the first city
between 3500 and 3100 BCE.
Three preconditions: • A favorable physical environment.• An advanced technology that could produce a
social surplus.• A well-developed political system to provide social
stability to the economic system.
Preindustrial Cities
• The largest preindustrial city was Rome. By 100 C.E., it may have had a population of 650,000 (Chandler and Fox, 1974).
• Crowded housing conditions and a lack of adequate sewage facilities increased the hazards from plagues and fires, and death rates were high.
• Food supplies were limited.• Migration to the city was difficult.• Concept of nation-state emerged
Jericho is believed to be the oldest know city,
founded around 8,000 B.C.
Industrial Cities• The Industrial Revolution changed the
nature of the city.– Factories attract workers from rural area.– Rapidly developing transportation
technology brings more of them, and from farther away.
– Urban populations mushroom.– The metropolis is born
• A central city and suburbs that dominate the cultural and economic life of a region.
Post Industrial Cities
• Economies gradually shift from secondary (manufacturing) production to tertiary (service and information-processing) production.
• Cities increasingly rely on an economic structure that is based on scientific knowledge rather than industrial production, and as a result, a class of professionals and technicians grows in size and influence.
Three Models of the City
Park’s Concentric Model based on Chicago in 1925
What are the some of the challenges of the concentric model? Can it be applied to other cities?Are there geographic, political, and demographic changes that could distort this model?
Conflict Perspectives on Urban Growth
• Developers, capitalist class, and government leaders, not individuals, determine how cities are laid out
• Land is developed according to its exchange value and conflicts arise over the use value
• Governments subsidize growth in certain areas, allow others to decline (uneven development theory)
• Entire neighborhoods have been ‘conquered’ by gated communities and public space is privatized
It is easy to see how in a city like
Charlotte, government
subsidies can influence the
economic health of a neighborhood.
Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives on Cities Sociologist Robert Sampson, author of The Great American City, discusses how high community morale can positively affect how people respond to natural disasters (Link)
Symbolic interactionists focus on peoples’ experiences in city life; how they view their neighbors, communities, how they interact, and how they perceive urban living in general.
Simmel's View of City Life
• Urban life is stimulating; it shapes people's thoughts and actions.
• Many urban residents avoid emotional involvement with each other and try to ignore events taking place around them.
• Urban living can be liberating - people have opportunities for individualism and autonomy.
Suburbs• Since World War II, the U.S. population has
shifted as people moved to the suburbs.• Suburbanites rely on urban centers for
employment but pay property taxes to suburban governments and school districts.What would conflict, functionalist, and symbolic interactionists have to say about suburban life?
Suburban Wars
People move to suburbs to find cheaper housing, better schools, and move away from the problems of the city
How might conflict theorists view the proposed secession of Ballantyne and other affluent parts of cities?
Report from WSOCTV, aired on 4/12/12 (Link)
The World’s Ten Largest Metropolises
Questions for You: 1. Do you see how the Malthusians would be concerned about over-population? 2. Notice the cities that are currently the largest in the world-what do you think that
this means for the future of global politics?