Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE SOC2072

 
TITLE Demographic Processes

 
UM LEVEL 02 - Years 2, 3 in Modular Undergraduate Course

 
MQF LEVEL 5

 
ECTS CREDITS 4

 
DEPARTMENT Sociology

 
DESCRIPTION Demography 2 Study-unit will provide the overview of the current European population processes, in view of its leading role in contemporary demographic processes: parting from traditional family types, intensive process of aging and intensified immigration movements from other continents. While the Basic Demography I study-unit deals with essential indicators, this study-unit will go deeper into measurement tools, and more detailed approach would be given to: mortality - healthy life expectancy, analysis of fertility (tempo and quantum aspects), nuptiality (rates of first kind), migration (internal migration models) and population projections (cohort component method and probabilistic population projections) all with specific references to the Maltese population. References will be made to other EU MS and other countries.

Study-unit Aims:

This study-unit aims at providing a better understanding of population processes at micro (individual, family) and macro (society, community) level to a student who is oriented towards understanding sociological processes and trends. This better understanding will result in the student's ability to explain and measure social demography processes such as: demographic transition, family dissolution, spacing of births, tempo and quantum effects of fertility, processes of population aging and compression/expansion of healthy life years, measure migratory movements and theories of second and third demographic transition. Request for more sophisticated data in demography and multi-level demography would be given a particular attention throughout this study-unit as it aims at more detailed analytical approach in comparison to Demography 1 study-unit.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding:
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- calculate and reconstruct life table;
- apply stable and stationary population models in practice;
- calculate the rates of first kind and understand the data sources necessary for their application,
- understand the causes and consequences of low fertility trends in Europe;
- explain the processes behind regional depopulation in Europe and its impact of social fabric of regions;
- analyse future population developments and environmental impacts of population growth.

2. Skills:
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- construct a life table from a limited data set;
- understand and calculate the mean length of generation, crucial to understand processes of population - development in the scenario of low fertility;
- work with rates of first kind - understand the occurrence exposure rates and person-years lived principle;
- make detailed projections of population and understand probabilistic population projections outcomes;
- understand how household projections are made and their importance in practice.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

Poston, Dudley and Bouvier, Leon (2010) "Population and Society: An Introduction to Demography", Cambridge University Press.
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 Center.
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)
The lecturer will provide a set of research papers linked to each topic of study as outlined in the document prepared for the Sociology Department Board.

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Assessment Due Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Examination (2 Hours) SEM2 Yes 100%

 
LECTURER/S Maja Miljanic Brinkworth

 

 
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 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

https://www.um.edu.mt/course/studyunit