Deomography, Ageing population and Key themes in Family Flashcards
What factors allow for demography to be measured within the family(6)? Describe them.
-Birth rate- The number of live births per 1000 of the population per year.
-Fertility rate- The average number of childer per adult woman.
-Infant mortality rate- The number of deaths of children under the age of 1, per 1000 live births per year.
-Mortality rate- The number of deaths per 1000 of the population per year.
-Net migration-The number of people moving into a country, minus the number of people moving away.
-Life expectancy- The average length of time someone is expected to live today: the average age a newborn baby born today would reach, assuming mortality rates remain the same as they are.
What trends have been found in birth rate? Fertility rate? Infant mortality rate? Mortality rate?
What reason has McKeown given for reduced mortality rate? What did Tranter argue instead?
-Birth rate- the birth rate has fallen significantly since the beginning of the 20th century. There were peaks after both World Wars, known as the ‘baby booms’.
-Fertility rate- This fell dramatically from the late 19th century with families having fewer children and more women choosing to delay childbearing, or not have children at all. There was an increase in 2001, but still well below historical numbers. Mostly seen an continued decrease.
-Infant mortality rate- Has declined, people have stopped having ‘insurance children’.
-Mortality rate- The mortality/death rate has fallen dramatically over the years. This is usually put down to improved public health.
-McKeown argued that the main factor was improved nutrition, and therefore it was social and economic improvements that brought down the death rate, rather than health innovations. Disputed by Tranter who argued 3/4 of the fall in death rate between 1850-1970 could be caused by the elimination of lots of preventable disease.
What trends can be identified within net migration? Has there been a constant since 1945?
Which year in the 20th century was significant for net emigration? Despite this what has the norm been since the 1980s? What is the current Life expectancy of males/females? What was the life expectance in 1901?
-Net migration: Has increased significantly in the second half of the 20th century, having been very low prior to that. For many years before the Uk was a net exporter of people.
-Since 1945 there has been significant fluctuation. There are times when immigration and emigration are higher or lower, impacting net migration.
-There have still been years of net emigration(the most recent being 1992, the most statistically significant being the 70s and 80s).
-Norms since the middle 80s is for more people to leave.
-Current life expectancy is 79.2 for males and 83.1 for females. This has been steadily climbing for many years, although the rate of increase has slowed. In 1901, the life expectancy was 48.5 for males and 52.4 for females
What type of population does the UK currently have? Why?
According to Hirsch why is the dependency ratio problematic?
What does Townsend argue regarding old age?
-An ageing population.
-Low death rates and low birth rates means that the UK’s population no longer resembles the traditional ‘population pyramid’, but is being turned on its head with the ‘baby boomers’ becoming the dependent older adults of today.
-The dependency ratio is problematic according to Hirsh people will need to retire later and pay more tax.
-Townsend argues that old age is a social construct and society has enforced helplessness and dependency on older adults, rather than it being a biological inevitability.
What key impacts does an ageing population have on families?
-Families have to find money for care costs, etc. rather than having them funded by state.
-Older adults may have to sell their homes to pay for care, meaning the next generation does not receieve an expected inheritance.
What are the criticims for the ‘ageing problem as a major problem’?
-Increasingly older adults are a prosperous section of society(the grey pound). Blaikie says that older adults are consumers and have disposable income and leisure time to spend.
-High net migration can help resolve the problem of an increased dependency ratio, bringing in more working-age adults.
-Pilcher suggests that the problems are not really difficulties of social policy, rather than demography. The issue is not old people, but poor old people- often women. If social policy can reduce inequality and discrimination against women, then the ageing population would be less of a problem.
What key themes run through families and households?
-Socialisation: The family is the agent of primary socialisation and that process is fundamental to the sociology of the family.
-Culture and identity: Many of the more contemporary studies in relation to the family link to identity and the way in which families have been a fundamental part of someone’s culture and identity, and the extent to which this is still the case.
-Social differentiation, power and stratification: Throughout the topic the different experiences of different genders, social classes and ethnicities have been considered, and the question of who has power in the family and in society has been asked, especially by Marxist and feminist sociologists.
