DV411      Half Unit
Population, Development and Environment: an Analytical Approach

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

Using the demographic transition as its framework, the course examines different analytic approaches to the main interrelationships between population change, socio-economic development and environmental changes. It draws on a variety of theoretical, historical and contemporary experiences to address and explore these interconnections. It aims to provide balance between theoretical understanding, knowledge of empirical evidence and basic causal processes, and implications for policy.

The course begins by providing an overview of the world's current demographic situation at both the global and the regional levels. It then addresses Malthusian and anti-Malthusian perspectives on the basic relationships linking population growth and economic growth as well as environmental changes. These contrasting perspectives are considered in the context of both historical and contemporary experience. The course then proceeds to assess demographic transition theories and their relationships to theories and processes of economic development, urbanisation and socio-structural change. Urban growth, migration, and urbanization receive special attention. The implications of population change for issues of employment, savings and investment are considered, as are issues relating to energy, food production and security, carbon emissions and climate change. Contemporary neo-Malthusian arguments, with their environmental components are also considered, as are issues relating to women's empowerment, democratization, and population aging. Further details will be provided at the start of the session.

15 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

There will be a reading week in Week 6.

Presentation

Essay (1500 words)

Students are expected to contribute in seminars and submit a 1,500-word formative essay in AT.

A focussed reading list will be provided. However, relevant readings include:

• Dyson, Tim (2010) Population and development: the demographic transition. Zed Books, London, UK. ISBN 9781842779590
• Tim Dyson “A partial theory of world development: The neglected role of the demographic transition in shaping modern society” in International Journal of Population Geography, 7, 2001;
• Gould, W.T.S. (2015). Population and Development (2nd ed.). Routledge.
• Nancy Birdsall, A C Kelley and S Sinding (eds) Population Matters: Demographic change, Economic Growth, and Poverty in the Developing World, Oxford University Press 2001;
• Samways, David. 2022. “Population and Sustainability: Reviewing the Relationship Between Population Growth and Environmental Change”. The Journal of Population and Sustainability 6 (1):15-41.
• M Livi-Bacci A Concise History of World Population, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford 2001;
• T Dyson, Population and Food: Global Trends and Future Prospects, Routledge, 1996;
• R H Cassen (Ed), Population and Development: Old Debates, New Conclusions, Overseas Development Council, Washington DC, 1994;
• Cole, M.A., Neumayer, E. “Examining the Impact of Demographic Factors on Air Pollution”. Population and Environment 26, 5–21 (2004).
• G. McNicoll, J. Bongaarts and E. P. Churchill (eds.) Population and Public Policy : Essays in Honor of Paul Demeny - Supplement to Population and Development Review 38 (2012) (open access).

Exam (100%), duration: 120 Minutes in the Spring exam period