Sociology Notes - Chapter 20

Population and Urbanization

Chapter 20 - skip 20.7

Population Theories

20.1

• Malthusian Theory: (Thomas Robert Malthus)
  • Malthus studied historical cycles of population rapid growth followed by a rapid decline
  • Theorized: Human populations grew or decline, according to the availability of life necessities, especially food
  • “Positive” Checks- primary factors that stop population growth: Famine, Disease, War
• “New Malthusians” =
  • Fear population growing too fast-like Malthus-but today is worse
  • Population following an exponential curve
• “Anti-Malthusians” =
  • Argue that some of Malthus’ assumptions were incorrect
  • Instead, the Demographic Transition Theory is more accurate
• Demographic Transition Theory
  • Demographic transition = switch from high fertility w/ high mortality, to low mortality and low fertility
  • As the death rate goes down, so does the fertility rate

Theories

• Modernization leads to conditions that encourage low fertility
  • With mortality reduced, people no longer want large families
  • In pre-industrial society, children are valuable to the workforce (large family = benefit)
  • In Urban society, children are a financial drain (large family = cost)
  • Thus, Malthus was wrong to say humans never restrict fertility

Why are people starving?

20.1

• Not enough food?
  • The world produces more food per person now than 70 years ago (improved agriculture)
  • World hunger decreased by 40% in the past 20 years
• People starve due to food shortages in particular places
  • Drought and ware are the primary causes that slow/stop food production

Population Growth: 3 Demographic Variables

20.2

• Fertility rate = average number of children had by women of childbearing age (world ave. = 2.5)
  • Influenced by age of entry into the sexual union and use of contraception
  • Fecundity = the number of children that women are capable of having (could be as high as 30 per woman)
• Mortality = the amount of death
  • Shaped by the level of nutrition, acceptance of immunization, provisions for sanitation, commitment to health care/education
• Migration = movement from one place to another (within or between countries)

Population Changes

• Age and sex structures
  • Age structure: proportions of persons of various age groups that make up the total population
  • Sex structure: proportions of males and females in a population
  • To predict population, you need to know fertility and mortality rates, but also age and sex structures

Urbanization and City Development

20.3

• City = a large number of people, permanently located and do not produce their own food (from improved agriculture and transportation)
• Urbanization = mass movement to cities
  • push/pull factors = rural areas lack work opportunities and variety; cities have a division of labor, entertainment, jobs
  • Metropolis (large influential city and surrounding suburbs)
  • Megalopolis - 2+ overlapping
  • Megacity - 10+ million

U.S. Urban Patterns

20.4

• Suburbanization = people moving from the urban core to adjacent areas
  • Over half of all Americans now live in the suburbs
  • Invasion/Succession Cycle = groups of different socio-economic/race/ethnic backgrounds displace another group
  • poor/rural migrants take over low-rent areas, the middle class moves out, later a different migrant group moves in, and so on…
• Gentrification = the movement of middle and upper classes back into rundown cities and areas (downtown), displacing the poor as they buy and restore homes (reverse of “urban/white fight”)

Urban Growth Models

20.5

• Concentric Zones = city expands from the center with ringed zones with different functions (business, worker housing, wealthy housing, commuters, etc.)
• Sector Model = zones (rings) may contain sectors of different types
• Multiple Nuclei = cities have many centers, each with distinct activities (e.g. car sales, entertainment, restaurants)
• Peripheral Model = Encircling highways draws people and services away from the center to the outskirts