Population, Urbanization, and Environment Flashcards
Demography
Study of human population; analyzes size and composition of population and how and why people move from place to place
Fertility
Incidence of childbearing in country’s population; demographers describe using crude birth rate
Crude birth rate
of births given in year for every 1,000 people in population
Mortality
Incidence of death in country’s population; demographers measure using both crude death rate and infant mortality rate
Crude death rate
of deaths in given year for every 1,000 people in population
Infant mortality rate
of deaths among infants under one year of age for each 1,000 live births in given year
Life expectancy
Average life span of country’s population
Through most of human history, families had many children because…
Children were a needed source of labor, birth control was unreliable and many children born didn’t survive to adulthood
Basic idea behind demographic transition theory
Population patterns reflect society’s level of technological development
Zero population growth refers to level of reproduction that…
Maintains population at steady state
Urbanization has led to…
Expansion of suburbs, development of vast metropolitan regions, and development of megalopolis
What is study of interaction of living organisms and natural environment?
Ecology
Migration
Movement of people into and out of specified territory
Age-sex pyramid
Graphic representation of age and sex of population; demographers use to show composition of population graphically and to project population trends
Malthusian theory
-Prediction was flawed.
-first, By 1850, European birth rate began to drop, partly because children were becoming economic liability rather than asset and partly because people began using artificial birth control.
Second, Malthus underestimated human ingenuity: modern drip-irrigation techniques, advanced fertilizers and effective pesticides, increased farm production and saved vital resources far more than could have imagined
-has been criticized for ignoring role of social inequality in world abundance and famine.
-still offers important lesson: habitable land, clean water and fresh air are limited resources and greater economic productivity has taken heavy toll on natural environment . In addition, medical advances have lowered death rates, pushing up world population.
-Common sense tells us that no level of population growth can go on forever. People everywhere must become aware of the dangers of population increase
-historically, world population grew slowly, as high birth rates were offset by high death rates
-in late 1700s, Thomas Robert Malthus warned that growth would outpace food growth, resulting in social calamity
Demographic transition theory
- Thesis that links population patterns to society’s level of technological development; claims that technological advances slow population increase
- suggests that key to population control lies in technology; instead of runaway population increase feared by Malthus, it sees technology slowing growth and spreading material plenty
- currently, world is gaining 86.6 million people each year, with 98% of this increase taking place in poor countries. World population is expected to reach about 9.55 billion by 2050
- linked to modernization theory, one approach to global development; modernization theorists are optimistic that poor counties will solve their population problems as they industrialize, but notably dependency critics, strongly disagree. Unless there’s redistribution of global resources, they maintain, our planet will become increasingly divided into industrialized p “haves”, enjoying low population growth, and no industrialized “have-nots”, struggling in vain to feed more and more people
Zero population growth
Rate of reproduction that maintains population at steady level.
Urbanization
- Concentration of population into cities
- in both Europe and US, early sociologists presented mixed view of urban living; rapid urbanization troubled Tonnies, and Wirth saw personal ties and traditional morality, lost in anonymous rush of city. Durkheim and Park emphasized urbanism’s positive face, pointing to more personal freedom and greater personal choice
- one problem with all these views is that they paint urbanism in broad strokes that overlook effects of class, race and gender. There are many kinds of urbanites-rich and poor, black and white, Anglo and Latino, women and men-all leading distinctive lives.
- as the Thinking About Diversity box explains, share of minorities in largest US cities increased sharply since 1990. We see social diversity most clearly in cities where various categories of people are large enough to form distinct, visible communities
- came to North America with European colonists
- by 1850, hundreds of new cities had been founded from coast to coast
Suburbs
Urban areas beyond political boundaries of city
Metropolis
Large city that socially and economically dominates urban area
Megalopolis
Vast urban region containing # of cities and surrounding suburbs
Gameinschaft
Type of social organization in which people are closely tied by kinship and tradition; typical of rural village and joins people in what amounts to primary group
Gesellschaft
Type of social organization in which people come together only on basis of individual self-interest; typical of modern city and describes individuals motivated by own needs rather than by desire to help improve well-being of community
Sex ratio
of males for every 100 females in nations population
Urban ecology
Study of link between physical and social dimensions of cities
Social area analysis
Investigates what people in particular neighborhoods have in common
Urban ecology
- Change in distribution of urban residents or change in use of land
- the fact that many US cities are in crisis, with widespread poverty, high crime and barely functioning schools, seems to favor political economy model over urban ecology approach. But one criticism applies to both: both focus on US cities during limited period of history . Most of what we know about industrial cities doesn’t apply to preindustrial US towns in own past or to rapidly growing cities in many poor nations today.
- unlikely that any single model of cities can account for full range of urban diversity
Natural areas
People and their related activities that have unplanned quality–which arise when people freely choose to congregate in locations where their needs are fulfilled
- constantly dissolved, formed and relocated
- these changes in land use involve urban ecological processes
Neighborhoods
- Areas that may be either planned or unplanned-usually occur in family residence areas, where parents rear their children and where people experience daily personal contact with others in area
- constantly dissolved, formed and relocated
- these changes in land use involve urban ecological processes
Centralization
Tendency of people to cluster at some pivotal point in city
Decentralization
Tendency to move toward periphery of city
Segregation
Concentration of certain types of people or land use within particular area
Invasion-succession
- “Invade”-to move into area
- “succeed-when new group replaces dominant group in neighborhood or entire city
Natural environment
Earths surface and atmosphere, including living organisms and natural environment
Ecosystem
System composed of interaction of all living organisms and natural environment
Environmental deficit
- Profound long-term harm to natural environment caused by humanity’s focus on short-term material affluence
- societies increase by focusing on short-term benefits and ignoring long-term consequences brought on by way of life
- more complex society’s technology, greater its capacity to alter natural environment
- 54% of solid waste we throw away ends of in land-fills, which are filling up and can pollute groundwater
- supply of clean water is already low in some parts of world. Industrial technology has caused decline in air quality
- rain forests help remove carbon dioxide from atmosphere and are home to large share of planets living species. Under pressure from development, worlds rain forests are now half original size and shrinking about 1% annually
Hydroponic cycle
Earth naturally recycles water and refreshes land
Acid rain
Falling precipitation made my acidic air pollution
Rain forests
Regions of dense forestation, most of which circle globe close to equator
Global warming
Rise in earths average temperature due to increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in atmosphere
Environmental racism
Patterns of development that expose poor people, especially minorities, to environmental hazards
Ecologically sustainable culture
Way of life that meets needs of present generation without threatening environmental legacy of future generations
Net migration rate
- Difference between in-migration rate and out-migration rate
- in general, rich nations grow almost as much from immigration as from natural increase
First urban revolution
- Began with appearance of cities about 10,000 years ago
- by about 2,000 years ago, cities emerged in most regions of world except North America
- preindustrial cities have low-rise buildings; narrow, winding streets; and personal social ties
Second urban revolution
- began about 1750, as Industrial Revolution propelled rapid urban growth in Europe
- cities’ physical form changed as planners created wide, regular streets to facilitate commerce
- emphasis on business and increasing size of cities, made urban life more impersonal
Ferdinand Tonnies
Built analysis on concepts of Gameinschaft and Gesellshaft
Emile Durkheim
Agreed with much of Tonnies’s thinking but claimed that urbanites don’t lack social bonds; basis of social solidarity simply differs in 2 settings: mechanical & organic solidarity
Mechanical solidarity
Social bonds based on common sentiments and shred moral values. This type of social solidarity is typical of traditional, rural life
Organic solidarity
Social bonds based on specialization and interdependence; typical of modern, urban life
George Simmel
Claimed that overstimulation of city life produced blaze attitude in urbanities
Robert Park
At University of Chicago & claimed that cities permit greater social freedom
Louis Wirth
Saw large, dense, heterogenous populations creating impersonal and self-interested, though tolerant, way of life
Karl Marx
Analysis of conflict in city is echoed in urban political economy model
Third urban revolution
- Now occurring in poor countries
- almost all global population increase is taking place in cities; of the 28 cities with population greater than 10 million, 19 are in low-or middle-income nations
Environment
State of it is social issue because it reflects how human beings organize social life
Logic-of-growth thesis
Supports economic development, claiming that people can solve environmental problems as they arise
Limits-to-growth thesis
States that societies must curb development to prevent eventual environmental collapse
