UCL - Introduction to Demography

[SPED1211]

[30h] 5 credits

This course is taught in the 1st semester.

Teacher(s): Godelieve Stroobant

Language: French

Level: First

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods
Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Aims

This course aims to equip students with the basic concepts and tools for analyzing the continuous process of population renewal throughout time, and to make them aware of interrelations of demographic dynamics (fertility, mortality, migration) and a range of contextual factors (social, economic, political and ideological).

Main themes

The course opens with a short history of how the world came to be populated. This is followed by a multi-disciplinary approach to "demographic issues", the interrelations of statistical population structures and the process of their continuous renewal throughout time. A major part of the course is devoted to the presentation of basic methods of describing and analyzing these structures and demographic processes, through population pyramids, mortality, fertility and migrations. The rest of the course deals with the major theories and demographic doctrines (such as Malthusianism, and transition), the causes and consequences (social, economic and political) of demographic development and the prospects for world populations.

Content and teaching methods

The course covers the following topics:
?Awareness-raising (rather than definition) of demographic problems, through a swift overview of the history of world populations.
?The components of demographic dynamics.
?Sources of demographic data.
?The dimensions of time, a key variable in demographic analysis.
?The state of the population: volume and structures, population pyramids.
?Population movement: mortality, fertility, migration (measures and analysis).
?Causes and effects of evolutions in demographic structures and phenomena.
?Overview of the key demographic doctrines and theories
Method:
Lectures, on the basis of a course handout and some complementary reading.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Course materials: course handout