Demography

Question 1

What is demography?

Answer 1

The study of the population

Question 2

What is birth rate?

Answer 2

The number of live births, per 1000 of the population, per year

Question 3

What is the birth rate trend?

Answer 3

Decline in birth rate

Question 4

What is the total fertility rate?

Answer 4

The average number of children women will have in their fertile years

Question 5

What is the TFR trend?

Answer 5

Much lower than in the past

Question 6

What do the changes in birth rate and total fertility rate reflect?

Answer 6

• more women are remaining childless than in the past

- women are postponing having children

Question 7

What is the average age for giving birth now?

Answer 7

29.6years

Question 8

What are the reasons for decline in the birth rate?

Answer 8

1. Changes in the position of women
2. Decline in the infant mortality rate (if infants survive parents will have fewer of them)
3. Children have become an economic liability
4. Child centredness

Question 9

Give examples of major changes in the position of women in the 20th century

Answer 9

• legal equality with men (including right to vote)
• Increased educational opportunities (girls do better than boys)
• More women in paid employment
• Changes to family life and women’s role
• Easier access to divorce
• Access to abortion and reliable contraception

Question 10

How do Changes in the position of women explain decline in birth rate and total fertility rate?

Answer 10

Women see other possibilities in life other than traditional role of houswife/mother. Many delay having (or none at all) children in order to pursue a career.

Question 11

What is infant mortality rate?

Answer 11

The number of infants who die before their first birthday, per thousand babies born alive, per year.

Question 12

How has IMR declined?

Answer 12

• improved housing + better sanitation (clean drinking water, flush toilets)
• better nutrition
• better knowledge of hygiene, child health and welfare
• a fall in the number of married women working
• improved services for mothers and children (postnatal clinics)
• mass immunisation

Question 13

In what ways have children changed from economic assets to economic liabilities?

Answer 13

• Laws : banning child labour, introducing compulsory education and raising school leaving age means children remain economically dependent on their parents for longer
• Changing norms about what children have a right to expect from their parents in material items mean that cost of bringing up children has risen

As a result of financial pressures, parents now feel less willing/able to have a large family

Question 14

How has child centredness lead to a decline in birth rate and total fertility rate?

Answer 14

Childhood is now socially constructed as a uniquely important period in the individual’s life, encouraging a shift from ‘quantity to quality’ where parents have fewer children and spend more money and resources on the ones they do have.

Question 15

Why has there been a slight increase in births since 2001?

Answer 15

• Immigration : on average, mothers from outside the UK have a higher fertility rate than those born in the UK

Question 16

What is affected by changes in fertility?

Answer 16

The family
The dependency ratio
Public services and policies

Question 17

How is the family affected?

Answer 17

Smaller families means women are more likely to work which creates the dual earner couple

Question 18

What is the dependency ratio?

Answer 18

The relationship between the size of the working /productive part of the population and the size of the non-working/dependent part of the population

Question 19

How is the dependency ratio affected?

Answer 19

The earnings, savings and taxes of the working population must support the dependency population (mainly made up of children). So, a fall in the number of children reduces the ‘burden of dependency’ on the working population.

However, in the long term, fewer babies being born will mean fewer younger adults and a smaller working population = means the burden of dependency may rise again

Question 20

How are public services affected?

Answer 20

Fewer schools and maternity and child health services will be needed.

Also, has implications for the cost of paternity+maternity leave.

Question 21

What is death rate?

Answer 21

The number of deaths per thousand of the population per year

Question 22

What is the trend of the deaths?

Answer 22

Decline in death rates

Question 23

Why has there been a decline in death rates?

Answer 23

Improved nutrition

Medical improvements (antibiotics, vaccines, NHS)

Public health measures+environmental improvements (housing, purer drinking water etc.)

Other social changes (decline in dangerous manual jobs, smaller rate of transmission due to smaller families, greater public knowledge of the causes of illness, higher income = healthy lifestyle)

Question 24

What is life expectancy?

Answer 24

How long on average a person born in a given year can expect to live.

Question 25

What is the life expectancy trend?

Answer 25

It has increased

Question 26

What are the class, gender and regional differences in life expectancy?

Answer 26

- women generally live longer than men - those living in the North and Scotland have a lower life expectancy than those in the South - working class men in unskilled or routine jobs are nearly 3x as likely to die before they are 65 compared with men in managerial or professional jobs

Question 27

What is the ageing population a result of?

Answer 27

Increasing life expectancy Declining infants mortality Declining fertility

Question 28

What are the effects of an ageing population?

Answer 28

One-person pensioner households (these have increased and tend to be female/live longer) The dependency ratio The social construction of ageing as a 'problem' Policy implications

Question 29

Describe how the dependency ratio is affected by an ageing population

Answer 29

The non-working old are an economically dependent group who need to be provided for by those of the working age. As the number of retired people rises, this increases the dependency ratio and the burden on the working population.

Question 30

Why has society constructed a negative view of old people?

Answer 30

Old age has been socially constructed as a period of dependency by creating a statutory retirement age at which most people are expected or required to stop working and are forced to rely on inadequate benefits that push many into poverty.

Question 31

How does Hirsch argue policies should change to tackle the new problems posed by an ageing population?

Answer 31

- how to finance a longer period of old age = either by paying more from savings and taxes or working for longer - redistributing educational resources towards older people so they can improve their skills and continue earning - changes in housing policy to encourage older people to 'trade down' into smaller houses or retirement homes

Question 32

What is migration?

Answer 32

Refers to the movement of people from place to place . It can be internal, within a society, or international.

Question 33

What is immigration?

Answer 33

Movement into an area or society

Question 34

What is emigration?

Answer 34

Movement out of an area or society

Question 35

What is net migration?

Answer 35

The difference between the numbers of immigrating and the numbers emigrating.

Question 36

For most of the 20th century, what caused the UK population to grow?

Answer 36

The result of natural increase (more births than deaths)

Question 37

What was the pattern up until the 1980s?

Answer 37

Population increased because of immigration

Question 38

From the mid 16th century until the 1980s,the UK has been a net exporter of people. Why do people emigrate?

Answer 38

Pull - higher wages, better opportunities abroad | Push - economic recession, unemployment at home

Question 39

What is internal migration?

Answer 39

Move around own country (cities)

Question 40

What inequalities among the old does Pilcher describe?

Answer 40

Class - MC have better occupational pensions and greater savings. Poor old people have shorter life expectancy and have more difficulty maintaining a youthful self-identity Gender - Women have lower pensions due to lower earnings and career breaks. They are also subject to sexist as well as ageist stereotyping e.g. old hag

Question 41

What features of postmodern society undermine old age as a stigmatised life stage?

Answer 41

The centrality of the media - media portrays positive aspects of elderly life The emphasis on surface features - anti aging products enable the old to write different identities for themselves

Question 42

What does migration affect?

Answer 42

Population size Age structure The dependency ratio

Question 43

How is population size affected by migration?

Answer 43

Population is growing : net migration is high+there is a natural increase (births exceeding deaths)

Question 44

How is age structure affected by migration?

Answer 44

Directly : immigrants are generally younger | Indirectly : being younger, immigrants are more fertile and produce more babies

Question 45

How is the dependency ratio affected by migration?

Answer 45

- Immigrants are more likely to be of working age which lowers the dependency ratio and older migrants return to their origin country to retire - Because they are younger, they have more children = increasing the ratio but overtime these children will join the labour force and help to lower the ratio once again

Question 46

What is globalisation?

Answer 46

The idea that barriers between societies are disappearing and people are becoming increasingly interconnected across national boundaries

Question 47

Why has globalisation happened?

Answer 47

The growth of communication systems and global media The creation of global markets The fall of communism in Eastern Europe The expansion of the European Union

Question 48

Globalisation leads to rapid social change such as increased international migration(the movement of people across borders). Name 3 trends in global migration.

Answer 48

Acceleration (there has been a speeding up of the rate of migration) Differentiation (different types of migrant) The feminisation of migration

Question 49

Name the different types of migrants identified by Cohen

Answer 49

Citizens - with full citizenship rights (e.g. voting rights and access to benefits) Denizens - privileged foreign nationals welcomed by the state e.g. highly paid employees of multinational companies Helots - the most exploited group. They are found in unskilled, poorly paid work and include illegally trafficked workers, and those legally tied to particular employees, such as domestic servants

Question 50

What does super diversity mean?

Answer 50

Migrants now come from a much wider range of countries. Even within a single ethnic group, individuals differ in terms of their legal status e.g. citizens or spouses.

Question 51

What is meant by the feminisation of migration?

Answer 51

The globalisation of the gender division of labour, where female migrants find that they are fitted into patriarchal stereotypes about women's roles as carers or providers of sexual services.

Question 52

Why is care work, domestic work and sex work in the UK increasingly done by women from poor countries?

Answer 52

1. The expansion of service occupations in western countries has led to an increasing demand for female labour 2. Western men have joined the labour force and are less willing to or able to perform domestic labour 3. Western men remain unwilling to perform domestic labour 4. The failure of the state to provide adequate childcare

Question 53

What might migrants develop?

Answer 53

Hybrid identities - made up of 2 or more different sources e.g. Muslim first, then Bengali, then British

Question 54

What is a transnational identity?

Answer 54

When migrants are less likely to see themselves as belonging completely to one culture or country. Instead they may develop transnational identities

Question 55

Why is migration a political issue?

Answer 55

There has been an increase in migrants - states now have policies that seek to control immigration, absorb migrants into society and deal with increased ethnic and cultural diversity.

Question 56

What is the difference between Assimilationism and Multiculturalism?

Answer 56

Assimilationism = the 1st state policy approach to immigration. It aimed to encourage immigrants to adopt the language, values and customs of the host culture to make them 'like us' Multiculturalism = accepts that migrants may wish to retain a separate cultural identity. However this acceptance may be limited to more superficial aspects of cultural diversity e.g. shallow diversity = regarding chicken tikka masala as Britain's national dish, is acceptable to the state deep diversity = e.g. arranged marriages or the veiling of women, isn't acceptable to the state

Question 57

What was the trend from the 1960s?

Answer 57

There was a move towards multiculturalism but since the 9/11 Islamist terror attack in 2011, many politicians have demanded that migrants assimilate culturally. E.g. in france the veiling of the face in public was made illegal in 2010.

Question 58

Why might assimilationist policies be counter productive?

Answer 58

They mark out minority groups as culturally backward. This can lead to minorities emphasising their differences which increases the host's suspicion of them and may promote anti-terrorism policies that target them. This breeds further marginalisation, defeating the goal of assimilation.

Question 59

What is a 'divided working class'?

Answer 59

Assimilationist ideas also encourage workers to blame migrants for social problems (e.g. unemployment), resulting in racist scapegoating. This benefits capitalism by creating a racially divided working class and preventing united action in defence of their interests.