Most people value to have children still highly. But what is the optimal moment to have the first? The decision on having children or not and if yes on the timing of the first is one of the most difficult ones to make, also because it more or less coincides with various other heavy decisions on shaping the life course (like on union formation, labour market career, housing accommodation, etc.). People realise that having children will fundamentally change their life and in order to fit this unknown and irreversible adventure perfectly into their life course postponement of the first birth is an easy way out as long as doubts continue and partners try to make up their mind. Modern methods of birth control are of course a very effective help in that period. What is the best moment to have the first child? And to what moment is postponement justified? There are no easy answers to these questions. Best solutions vary per person as they depend on personal circumstances and considerations (the partner may have conflicting ideas; housing accommodation; job; income; free time activities). Existing parental leave and child care arrangements are weighted as well. Unfortunately the biological clock ticks further. And, also unfortunately, assisted reproductive technology (IVF etc.) is unable to guarantee a successful outcome. Several couples end up without children involuntarily and that may lead to sorrow and grief. This interdisciplinary book overviews the process of postponement and its backgrounds in modern Western societies holistically, both at the personal and the societal level. Contributions come from reproductive, evolutionary biological and neurological sciences, as well as from demography, economy, sociology and psychology. It holds not only at women but also at men becoming first time fathers. The discussion boils down to a new policy approach for motherhood and emancipation on how to shape work and family life? It is argued that a public window where one can compose a cafeteria -like set of supportive arrangements according to personal preferences could lead to a break in the rising age at first motherhood."

Demography drives religious change. High-fertility societies, like most of contemporary Africa, tend to be fervent and devout. The lower a population's fertility rates, the greater the tendency for people to detach from organized or institutional religion. Thus, fertility rates supply an effective gauge of secularization trends. In Fertility and Faith , Philip Jenkins maps the demographic revolution that has taken hold of many countries around the globe in recent decades and explores the implications for the future development of the world's religions. Demographic change has driven the secularization of contemporary Western Europe, where the revolution began. Jenkins shows how the European trajectory of rapid declines in fertility is now affecting much of the globe. The implications are clear: the religious character of many non-European areas is highly likely to move in the direction of sweeping secularization. And this is now reshaping the United States itself. This demographic revolution is reshaping Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism. In order to accommodate the new social trends, these religions must adapt to situations where large families are no longer the norm. Each religious tradition will develop distinctive emphases concerning morality, gender, and sexuality, as well as the roles of clergy and laity in the faith's institutional structures. Radical change follows great upheaval. The tidal shift is well underway. With Fertility and Faith , Philip Jenkins describes this ongoing phenomenon and envisions our collective religious future.

This thought-provoking study measures and critically examines the effects that an averageA population growth rate of 2.8% could have on the development of the Arab Gulf States.A ItA questions the ability of Gulf governments toA continue providing relatively high standards ofA education, health and employment under conditions of rapid population growth, an undiversified economic base, and a tribal political framework.A A Within this context, population growth is identified as one important variable that hinders long-term development. The book will appeal to all those interested in the Middle East, demography, development and sociology.

This book investigates and documents multidimensional poverty in the United States and identifies patterns and relationships that contribute to the development of a more complete understanding of the incidence and intensity of deprivation. The first part introduces multidimensional poverty and provides a rationale for viewing poverty through a lens of multiple deprivations. It discusses how the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) compares to more narrowly-focused, income-based poverty measures and emphasizes its usefulness and applicability for the formulation of related, welfare-enhancing public policies. The second part documents multidimensional poverty incidence, intensity, and corresponding MPI values at the aggregate level of detail, for various demographic cohorts, and across geographic locales. The book then presents results from an empirical analysis that identifies the determinants of multidimensional poverty incidence and of individual deprivation scores. The third part consists of three studies of multidimensional poverty, examining the effect of the Affordable Care Act on multidimensional poverty incidence and intensity, variation in multidimensional poverty across native- and foreign-born residents (and across immigrants' home countries) of the US, and variation in the respective indicators that contribute to multidimensional poverty across the life cycle. The book closes with two chapters. The first relays the findings of counterfactual exercises where certain deprivations are assumed to have been eliminated. The final chapter summarizes the work, draws inferences and arrives at conclusions, and discusses the corresponding public policy implications.

The rural Midwest is undergoing fundamental changes with increased competition from foreign agriculture; employment shifts from higher-paying manufacturing to lower-paying service industries; the displacement of local small town business by large discount stores and shopping malls; overall population declines that threaten the viability of schools, hospitals, and other public institutions, along with an influx of minority groups that has led to strife in some communities. Using data from the 2000 Census, this collection examines the major demographic and employment trends in the rural Midwestern states with special attention to the issues that state and local policy makers must address in the near future. The contributors are well known experts in their fields, and in these original, previously unpublished materials they offer suggestions on how the Internet and other technological advances offer new opportunities for rural economies that local leaders can build on.

The rural Midwest is undergoing fundamental changes with increased competition from foreign agriculture; employment shifts from higher-paying manufacturing to lower-paying service industries; the displacement of local small town business by large discount stores and shopping malls; overall population declines that threaten the viability of schools, hospitals, and other public institutions, along with an influx of minority groups that has led to strife in some communities. Using data from the 2000 Census, this collection examines the major demographic and employment trends in the rural Midwestern states with special attention to the issues that state and local policy makers must address in the near future. The contributors are well known experts in their fields, and in these original, previously unpublished materials they offer suggestions on how the Internet and other technological advances offer new opportunities for rural economies that local leaders can build on.

Reproductive biologists, evolutionary biologists, demographers and social scientists all have a common interest in the business of human reproduction. Their perspectives, however, are very different and have traditionally prevented them from having much to do with each other. The conference on which this book is based brought together contributors from each of these disciplines in an attempt to explore the common ground that they share and so generate a better understanding of the factors that influence human fertility.

This book is a collection of papers by leading scholars whose research concerns economic transfers between generations. The issues addressed have great relevance to demographic issues, particularly the determination of fertility, to economic issues, including equity and growth, and to public policy, especially social security reform. Part I focuses on intergenerational features of the macroeconomy. Advances in the construct ion of generational accounts are described and used to examine how the magnitude and direction of intergenerational transfers influences demographic behaviour, the distribution of income and the accumulation of wealth. Studies presented in Part II consider the role of the state as a provider of economic security for the elderly. The authors draw on international experience and discuss many of the issues that must be confronted if efforts to reform public pension programs are to be successful. Part III considers the intergenerational behaviour of the family. The authors examine competing theories in both industrialized and developing country settings to consider how demographic change, the development of financial institutions, public policy and other economic forces influence the amount, form and timing of intergenerational transfers.

This unique reference traces the changing borders and ethnic balances that characterized the history of Eastern Europe during the twentieth century. After a preliminary overview, the book divides Eastern Europe into five regions, from the Baltic to the Balkans, and closely analyzes the ethnic structure of each region's constituent units over time. Summary chapters at the end of the volume present a comprehensive ethno-demographic portrait of the region at the start of the century, between the two world wars, and from the post-World War II period to the century's end. The volume is richly illustrated with more than sixty figures, hundreds of tables, and multi-lingual indexes of place-names and ethnic groups.

This book is an empirical study of a central European city focused on the political process. The authors use the example of the city of Wroclaw to present a condition of the urban public sphere in the context of local governance. Contemporary specificity of the public sphere is a result of a long process of system transformation in this part of Europe as well as of the impact new global challenges have had on the political process in self-governmental institutions. The book presents the practice of governance as a form of the political in both institutional and civic spheres of the city. The cases provided (related to politics of memory, the symbolic, sports, subcultures and urban movements) show how circulations of governance practices are created and how they influence the institutional borders of the political.

Cities affect every person's life, yet across the traditional divides of class, age, gender and political affiliation, armies of people are united in their dislike of the transformations that cities have undergone in recent times. The physical form of the urban environment is not a designer add-on to 'real' social issues; it is a central aspect of the social world. Yet in many people's experience, the cumulative impacts of recent urban development have created widely un-loved urban places. To work towards better-loved urban environments, we need to understand how current problems have arisen and identify practical action to address them.
Urban Transformations examines the crucial issues relating to how cities are formed, how people use these urban environments and how cities can be transformed into better places. Exploring the links between the concrete physicality of the built environment and the complex social, economic, political and cultural processes through which the physical urban form is produced and consumed, Ian Bentley proposes a framework of ideas to provoke and develop current debate and new forms of practice.

This publication aims to assist the United Nations system to mainstream and integrate indigenous peoples' issues in processes for operational activities and programmes at the country level. It sets out the broad normative, policy and operational framework for implementing a human rights-based and culturally sensitive approach to development for and with indigenous peoples, provide lines of action for planning, implementation and evaluation of programmes involving indigenous peoples and duly integrating the principles of cultural diversity into United Nations country programmes. It 1) provides an overview of the situation of indigenous peoples and the existing international norms and standards adopted to ensure the realization of their rights and resolve some of the crucial issues that they face; 2) presents a practical table and checklist of key issues and related rights; and 3) discusses specific programmatic implications for UNCTs for addressing and mainstreaming indigenous peoples' issues.

In current intellectual and public discourse, the entire modern world-from the affluent United States to the poorest low-income regions-is beset today by a broad and alarming array of "population problems." Around the globe, leading scientists, academics, and political figures attribute poverty, hunger, social tension, and even political conflict to contemporary demographic trends. These authorities assert that the size, composition, and growth rate of population routinely pose direct and major threats to human well-being. They argue for interventions aimed specifically at altering society's demographic rhythms. In this wide-ranging and carefully reasoned book, renowned demographer and social scientist Nicholas Eberstadt challenges these ideas and exposes their glaring intellectual -shortcomings.
Eberstadt makes the case that the very conception of "population problems" is inherently ambiguous and arbitrary, lending itself to faulty analysis and inappropriate diagnoses. Careless thinking about population is typically a result of inattention to, or indifference toward, the fundamental unit in all populations: the individual human being. In our time, Eberstadt writes, problems attributed to demographic trends are actually rooted in political and ethical situations. The brave new world of economic reform, far from bringing about the good society, serves only to postpone that society by a cavalier disregard of social and culture factors in human evolution. Eberstadt warns against a melodramatic approach to issues such as hunger and malnutrition. Material advances in the economy and cultural advances in the polity are safeguards against the worst outcomes of current problems in population. His reversal of cause and effect marks this as a volume apart, provocative, controversial, but surefooted in its scholarly sensibility and methods. In an academic world in which demographers are now speaking of the peaking of population rather than its infinite expansion, Eberstadt moves the discussion to family ties and common bonds. Demographers and family planners alike have much to learn from an approach that takes seriously the pitfalls as well as blessings of so-called zero-growth in the world -population.
Nicholas Eberstadt is visiting fellow at the Harvard University Center for Population Studies and visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. He is the author of The Poverty of Communism and Poverty in China, both available from Transaction. He is also the editor of Fertility Decline in the Less Developed Countries.

This book examines the challenges for the life insurance sector in Europe arising from new technologies, socio-cultural and demographic trends, and the financial crisis. It presents theoretical and applied research in all areas related to life insurance products and markets, and explores future determinants of the insurance industry's development by highlighting novel solutions in insurance supervision and trends in consumer protection. Drawing on their academic and practical expertise, the contributors identify problems relating to risk analysis and evaluation, demographic challenges, consumer protection, product distribution, mortality risk modeling, applications of life insurance in contemporary pension systems, financial stability and solvency of life insurers. They also examine the impact of population aging on life insurance markets and the role of digitalization. Lastly, based on an analysis of early experiences with the implementation of the Solvency II system, the book provides policy recommendations for the development of life insurance in Europe.

Russia is divided into seven federal districts encompassing 89 units -- regions (oblasts), territories (krais), and republics. As central power has weakened, the importance of these units and their local leadership has increased commensurately.

This work brings together in one volume all basic political, economic, and demographic data on every territorial unit of the Russian Federation, its local government structure, and electoral history current through the spring 2000 elections and the summer 2000 reorganization. Each entry includes an extensive profile of the president, governor, or prime minister, and an overview of local political trends, policies, economy, and business conditions.

Livelihoods in rural Africa are changing in response to disappearing job prospects, falling agricultural output and collapsing infrastructure. This book explains why the responses to these challenges are so different in different parts of Africa. Making a Living uses case studies from commercial farming regions in Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe and from much poorer areas within eastern and southern Africa.to give a broad comparative study of rural livelihoods. These case studies reveal how household relations, poverty and gender all play a part in the changing political economy of rural Africa.

This open access book attends to the co-creation of digital public services for ageing societies. Increasingly public services are provided in digital form; their uptake however remains well below expectations. In particular, amongst older adults the need for public services is high, while at the same time the uptake of digital services is lower than the population average. One of the reasons is that many digital public services (or e-services) do not respond well to the life worlds, use contexts and use practices of its target audiences. This book argues that when older adults are involved in the process of identifying, conceptualising, and designing digital public services, these services become more relevant and meaningful. The book describes and compares three co-creation projects that were conducted in two European cities, Bremen and Zaragoza, as part of a larger EU-funded innovation project. The first part of the book traces the origins of co-creation to three distinct domains, in which co-creation has become an equally important approach with different understandings of what it is and entails: (1) the co-production of public services, (2) the co-design of information systems and (3) the civic use of open data. The second part of the book analyses how decisions about a co-creation project's governance structure, its scope of action, its choice of methods, its alignment with strategic policies and its embedding in existing public information infrastructures impact on the process and its results. The final part of the book identifies key challenges to co-creation and provides a more general assessment of what co-creation may achieve, where the most promising areas of application may be and where it probably does not match with the contingent requirements of digital public services. Contributing to current discourses on digital citizenship in ageing societies and user-centric design, this book is useful for researchers and practitioners interested in co-creation, public sector innovation, open government, ageing and digital technologies, citizen engagement and civic participation in socio-technical innovation.

This book explores the population development challenges in China. It started by analyzing two of the major challenges: designing a suitable family planning policy and dealing with the serious provincial population difference. It then proposes effective measures to address these challenges by adopting various quantitative methods, such as system dynamics, nonlinear programming and spatial econometrics in evaluating the effects of different policy scenarios, which made the results more scientific and reliable, thus the final policy suggestions effective and evidence based. The book includes a number of mathematical models and is suitable for graduate students and researchers in population modeling and relevant research areas.

This book focuses on the role of the indigenous system of medicine or traditional medicines in gender selection in India. Issues such as the harmful effects of traditional practices on the health of the woman and the foetus during early pregnancy are explored in this book. It analyses the social and cultural practices and establishes linkages with modern methods of scientific investigations. It discusses how systematic exploration lends evidence of harmful traditional practices. The book is an important read for researchers, healthcare professionals and students in the field of medicine, public health and social sciences. It is an extremely valuable resource for all those engaged in research of traditional and modern systems of medicine.

Recent years have witnessed an explosion of academic and popular interest in the issue of social identity. Yet the subject areas of regional and sub-regional identities, and historical engagements between 'the regional', 'the local' and 'the national', remain very neglected. Seeking to make a contribution towards redressing these areas of neglect and to further advancing our knowledge and understanding of the general issue of social identity, this volume of essays offers the reader an exploration of some of the rich and varied, historical interpretations of 'the North' and 'Northernness'. The focus rests mainly, but not exclusively, upon the North of England. Taken as a whole, the essays highlight the contingent, fluid, and ambiguous nature of 'Northenness', its complex and shifting interplay with feelings of localism and nationalism, and the profound, if varying, influences of class, race, gender, sport, tourism, music and political and economic structures and concerns upon 'northern' identities. This book will hold a general appeal to readers interested in the issue of social identity, especially in its regional and local manifestations and engagements. It will find a wide readership across the humanities and social sciences. It should be compulsory reading for those in New Labour addressing the issue of the 'North-South divide'.

With the upsurge of nationalist sentiment in post-communist societies, the problem of political rights for ethnic minorities became a dangerous flashpoint. The introduction of electoral competition, the rewriting of constitutions, the breakup of federations, the weakness of civic institutions, and the social and economic dislocations associated with marketization have all contributed to the salience of majority-minority relations. This collection systematically analyzes different models of minority politics in Eastern Europe, in an effort to understand why tensions are manageable in some contexts, uncontainable in others. Anchoring the volume are essays by Carlos Flores Juberias on electoral systems, and Janusz Bugajski on national minority parties. Six case studies examine the interaction of different types of institutional arrangements (which structure political participation) and different demographic conditions (ethnic balances and territorial concentrations) in Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, and Romania. Framing these studies are overviews by the editors and by Jack Snyder.

This open access book collects the major discussions in divorce research in Europe. It starts with an understanding of divorce trends. Why was divorce increasing so rapidly throughout the US and Europe and do we see signs of a turn? Do cohabitation breakups influence divorce trends or is there a renewed stability on the partner market?In terms of divorce risks, the book contains new insights on Eastern European countries. These post socialist countries have evolved dramatically since the fall of the Wall and at present they show the highest divorce figures in Europe. Also the influence of gender, and more specifically women's education as a risk in divorce is examined cross nationally. The book also provides explanations for the negative gradient in female education effects on divorce. It devotes three separate parts to new insights in the post-divorce effects of the life course event by among others looking at consequences for adults and children but also taking the larger family network into account. As such the book is of interest to demographers, sociologists, psychologists, family therapists, NGOs, and politicians. "This wide-ranging volume details important trends in divorce in Europe that hold implications for understanding family dissolution causes and consequences throughout the world. Highly recommended for researchers and students everywhere."

This book introduces demographic applications which employ current demographic concepts and theories and cutting-edge methods and findings, all of which have and will continue to have an impact in the broad area of social demography. Through providing an introduction to new and current developments in demography, methodological and statistical issues, data issues, issues of health, aging and mortality, and issues in social demography, this book gives new insights into data, substantive issues, and methodological approaches that will assist readers in their use of demography in their research. At the same time it shows demographers, sociologists, economists, statisticians, methodologists, planners, and marketers how they may learn and improve upon the quality and relevance of their demographic investigations now and in the future.

The State and Metropolitan Area Data Book is the continuation of the U.S. Census Bureau's discontinued publication. It is a convenient summary of statistics on the social and economic structure of the states, metropolitan areas, and micropolitan areas in the United States. It is designed to serve as a statistical reference and guide to other data publications and sources. This new edition features more than 1,500 data items from a variety of sources. It covers many key topical areas including population, birth and death rates, health coverage, school enrollment, crime rates, income and housing, employment, transportation, and government. The metropolitan area information is based on the latest set of definitions of metropolitan and micropolitan areas including: a complete listing and data for all states, metropolitan areas, including micropolitan areas, and their component counties 2010 census counts and more recent population estimates for all areas results of the 2016 national and state elections expanded vital statistics, communication, and criminal justice data data on migration and commuting habits American Community Survey 1- and 3-year estimates data on health insurance and housing and finance matters accurate and helpful citations to allow the user to directly consult the source source notes and explanations A guide to state statistical abstracts and state information Economic development officials, regional planners, urban researchers, college students, and data users can easily see the trends and changes affecting the nation today.

In the first analytical study of where the American upper-class lives and vacations, Stephen R. Higley explores the ways in which upper-class residential places are created and maintained. Drawing on the Social Register as a main source of data, Higley examines the intersection of class, status, and geography, and demonstrates the ways in which physical proximity solidifies upper-class consciousness.