| CODE | SOC2071 | ||||||||
| TITLE | Introduction to Demography | ||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 02 - Years 2, 3 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Sociology | ||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit will provide an overview of the major areas of demographic change in the context of everchanging challenges of the modern world – issues related to low fertility, fast ageing, uncontrolled urbanisation, migratory flows with unintended consequences on the global socio-economic and political scene, mortality and morbidity, contraception and education and sustainable demographic development. The course explains the evolution of demography from an accounting technique into a science with its own theories (Theory of Demographic Transition for example), observation plans presented in the form of Lexis diagram for cohort and cross-sectional approaches, mortality and morbidity analysis and life table functions, fertility and reproduction issues, nuptiality and family formation as well as international and internal migration movements. Practical examples of various policies and impact of politics will be discussed. It will at the end summarise the knowledge in the form of hypothesis necessary for population and household projections and their applications. Study-Unit Aims: This study-unit aims at providing a better understanding of population processes at the micro (individual), mezzo (family) and macro (society, community) level to a student who is oriented towards understanding socio-economic and political processes and trends. This better understanding will result in student's ability to explain demographic processes such as: why reproductive considerations and decisions varied throughout human history, what motivates people to migrate, why people live and work longer, how race explains certain mortality aspects or why mortality of infants differ from that one of the adults to mention but a few. These and other processes and how they were embedded in the demographic theories will be the aim of this study-unit. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Explain life table functions and their role in the measurement of mortality; - Distinguish between cohort and cross-sectional approaches in demography; - Explain the differences in age-specific fertility rates and why they change from generation to generation (cohort fertility); - Understand different migratory movements and the impact of the changing geo-political landscapes, as well as the difficulties in data collection; - Differentiate between sources of population and household data; - Explain why populations differ in their development and their outcomes. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Apply cohort approach adopted by demographers as a monitoring tool; - Read and understand a life-table without a difficulty; - Discuss the multi-disciplinary character of the international migration; - Understand the requirements for projections of population and households; - Be able to create a questionnaire for census or survey data collection purposes. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Poston, Dudley and Bouvier, Leon (2010/2017) "Population and Society: An Introduction to Demography", Cambridge University Press (main textbook) Supplementary Textbooks: - Wolfgang Lutz (2021) Advanced Introduction to Demography (Elgar Advanced Introductions) Elgar - Goerres, Achim and Vanhuysse, Pieter (2021) Global Political Demography, Palgrave, MacMillan - Rowland T. Donald (2009) "Demographic Methods and Concepts", Oxford University Press. - Hinde, Andrew (1998) "Demographic Methods", Arnold. - Palmore and Gardner (1989) "Measuring Mortality, Fertility and Natural Increase", East-West Population Institute, East-West Centre. - Newell, Colin (1988) "Methods and Models in Demography", Belhaven Press, London. - Chiang Chin Long (1984) "The Life Table and its Applications", Robert Krieger Publishing Co. - Shryok and Siegel (1978) "The Methods and Materials of Demography", Washington, DC, Academic Press, New York (condensed version). In addition, the lecturer shall provide the handouts with graphs, tables which will cover all sections intended in this course as listed in the document provided to the Sociology Department Board. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Maja Miljanic Brinkworth |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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