Over the decades, the lines separating young- middle-aged-, and older adults have blurred, as indicated by a broadening of the appropriate years for making life decisions. Not only are many people marrying later, but some are marrying earlier than ever. Overall, women giving birth later, but some are having children earlier in their lives. Older people are retiring later, but some are retiring at a younger age. The spread or variability (standard deviation) of age-based decisions has increased substantially, giving adults greater freedom from the traditional constraints of age. With these relaxed age norms has come a host of related social problems. The relaxation of age norms for adult decision-making has inadvertently blurred the boundaries between adults and teenagers, between teenagers and children. This generalization of the phenomenon throughout the life cycle is responsible for the adultification of childhood. Eight year old girls are, to an increasing extent, being treated as sexual objects; bullying peaks in the 6th grade; larger numbers of girls are having oral sex or sexual intercourse by the age of 15; the pregnancy rate for girls 13-15 is on the rise; we are in the process of dismantling the juvenile justice system in favor of adult forms of punishment; and more and more children are left without adult supervision in the afternoons, as though they were miniature adults who are capable of raising themselves. Jack Levin is the American Sociological Association's 2009 Winner of the "Public Understanding of Sociology" Award. This short book communicates the power and importance of sociological thinking to major, worldwide social trends. Ideal for use in undergraduate courses such as introductory sociology, social problems, and social change as well as more advanced courses in population, or sociology of aging.

School Sucks! is designed to complement the dominant discourse of school reform by presenting a compendium of critical pedagogical writings that analyze the current issues in urban education and demonstrate alternative praxis for failing schools. The two editors of this volume also serve as the series editors for Peter Lang Publishing's Educational Psychology and Black Studies and Critical Thinking series, giving them remarkable resources from which to draw this selection of writings that represent the very best concepts of pedagogy and praxis. School Sucks! furthers the reader's knowledge of the pretext of urban educational problems and promotes a positive praxis of urban educational reform. Inspired by mentors Mary McLeod Bethune and Paulo Freire, School Sucks! employs a critical pedagogy and praxis in calling for wholesale changes within our urban schools.

This is a fascinating insight into the work of one of our greatest thinkers. Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) is best remembered today for his theories on the menace of over-population; this first ever full-length biography shows him also in his role as one of the founders of classical political economy, still a controversial figure in the history of economic thought. Based on exhaustive research among contemporary sources, it gives an account of Malthus's two careers, as an economist and as a professor at the East India College. Patricia James describes how, at the East India College, Malthus was influential in the establishment of an incorruptible Civil Service and the modern system of written examinations, in circumstances which seem almost farcical today. She gives an account of his family and social life, which was full of warmth and variety, with an abundance of 'characters' as well as many famous men. People nowadays are inclined to argue in a vacuum whether Malthus is 'right' or 'wrong' about population outrunning subsistence, and about the adequacy of aggregate demand in a capitalist society. Patricia James shows him in his historical setting, so that the book is a study both of the man and of the age in which he lived. She believes that, paradoxically, if we view Malthus's works as the period pieces they are, it becomes more and not less easy to see their relevance to our own problems. Although Malthus's search for basic principles in a changing world was confused and erratic, his ideas are still illuminating to those who prefer investigation and reappraisal to the mere reiteration of dogma. This text was first published in 1975.

School Sucks! is designed to complement the dominant discourse of school reform by presenting a compendium of critical pedagogical writings that analyze the current issues in urban education and demonstrate alternative praxis for failing schools. The two editors of this volume also serve as the series editors for Peter Lang Publishing's Educational Psychology and Black Studies and Critical Thinking series, giving them remarkable resources from which to draw this selection of writings that represent the very best concepts of pedagogy and praxis. School Sucks! furthers the reader's knowledge of the pretext of urban educational problems and promotes a positive praxis of urban educational reform. Inspired by mentors Mary McLeod Bethune and Paulo Freire, School Sucks! employs a critical pedagogy and praxis in calling for wholesale changes within our urban schools.

This book presents the reader with a fascinating history of the inter-relationships between population, land, resources, and disease in Europe. Professor Livi Bacci integrates the key component of culture to provide a vivid social and narrative history from the first peopling of Europe through centuries of famine, hunger and premature death, up to present-day low mortality, negligible hunger and population stability.

The author focuses on the determinants of epidemics and disease and also on the factors of climate, space and land and their impacts on food and energy supply. The book is accessibly written and translated for the student and general reader. Throughout the book, Professor Livi Bacci brings the human element to the forefront of population history creating an appealing narrative for all interested readers of this subject.

This exciting new book presents the field of social demography, animating the study of population with a vibrant sociological imagination. Gregg Lee Carter provides multiple demonstrations of how taking a demographic perspective can give us a better understanding of social phenomena once thought to be largely the products of culture, politics, or the economy. Five key chapters concentrate on (1) the social and individual determinants of fertility, mortality, and migration; (2) the social and individual impacts of changing levels of fertility, mortality, and migration; and (3) the impacts of overpopulation on the environment, and how changes in the environment, in turn, impact the human condition, especially regarding migration. What gives these analyses coherence is how each emphasizes the ways in which demographic forces both reflect and limit individual choices. Written in a straightforward and engaging style, and without getting bogged down in academic debates, this concise book is the ideal introduction and primer for courses in social demography and population and society.

The United States labor force is examined in detail in this comprehensive study. The history and current makeup of the workforce is revealed and issues and trends are investigated. Theory and analysis are blended with demographics to provide the reader with a solid overview of the current state of the American worker and his or her environment. Competing views are offered on diverse issues such as unions, welfare, and health care. Where helpful, economic and labor theory is explained and applied to give the book scholarly rigor along with readability and practical information. The viewpoint remains focused on a broad view of manpower. As such, emphasis is not on theoretical analysis but on description, historical trends, statistics on present conditions, and explanations.

The book begins with a discussion of the development of the workforce, the impact of immigration, the rise of nontraditional work arrangements, the underground economy, and demographics. Basic vocabulary and concepts are presented and explained to give the reader the tools necessary to analyze the topics presented in the latter parts of the book. Education is examined in part two. Competing views on the U.S. educational system and the value of education in an economic sense are discussed as are the choices open to non-college graduates. Career choices, unions, wage determination, and women and minority issues are considered in later chapters. Aspects of unemployment are explored in part seven. The book concludes with a look at the government's role in the workforce, including welfare, social insurance, and health care and shows how these programs impact both employer and worker behavior. This book is a great resource for executives, human resource professionals, researchers, policy makers, and students.

Homelessness is now a much greater problem than twenty years ago. In Britain today around half a million homeless people form a regrettable permanent 'underclass'. This study spells out their similarities with the spurned vagrant of bygone days. It traces how for centuries emergent laws have combated alleged threats from unruly vagrants while largely ignoring causal factors like economic fluctuation, bad harvests, disease and war. It is argued that only educational and social reform will alleviate the homeless plight.

The Pacific region is in the final stage of the demographic transition with declining fertility and expanding life expectancy, where significant changes in population size and age distribution, i.e. "aging" have been and will be witnessed. They are unprecedented and going to affect economic growth in various ways. This book focuses on the Pacific region, one of the most rapidly aging regions, and examines the possible risk aspects. Particularly, the book takes into account of possible adjustments both endogenous and exogenous (including policy responses) to the new reality of aging population. It also assesses their quantitative influences on the growth impact of aging population, which might be very different from those in the past experience. The book highlights the doubts on the steadiness across periods and similarities across economies of parameters relevant to labor market participation, saving and investment of private sectors, and productivity growth, which a bulk of prior studies were crucially based on. Policy measures to enhance labor supply, domestic savings and productivity have been scrutinized. The book discusses the policy alternatives in practice and their implementations and/or planning of each category across regional economies.

The past hundred years of Europe are distilled in the experiences of the citizens of Strasbourg. From the turn of the twentieth century until 1945, Europe's ruling idea of nationalism rendered Strasbourg/StraAYburg the prize in a tug-of-war between the two greatest continental powers, France and Germany. Then, in the immediate post-war period, ideals for European unity set up various European institutions, some headquartered in Strasbourg, which have gradually created a partially supranational Europe. At the end of the 1950s, a third theme arises: the large-scale settling in Strasbourg and other such richer, western European cities of persons from poorer lands, frequently ex-colonial territories, whose appearance and cultural practices render them essentially "different" to local eyes: expressions of racism thereby jostle with professions of multiculturalism. Now in the globalisation era, the issue of "immigration" has broadened yet further into transnationalism: the experience of persons who are embedded in varying manner in both Strasbourg and in their land of origin. Based on in-depth, lively interviews with 80 men and 80 women ranging from 101 to 20 years, and from all over the world (France, Germany, Alsace-Lorraine, Portugal, Italy, ex-Yugoslavia, Albania, Algeria, Morocco, Turkey, Cameroon, and Afghanistan amongst other countries), the author draws out of these compelling testimonies all sorts of compelling insights into issues of identity, race, nationality, culture, politics, heritage and representation, giving a unique and valuable view of what it means (and has meant over the past century) to be a European.

The 1990 United States Census was the most exhaustive in history. The vast majority of census users seek information about local areas, yet they lack examples or methodology texts prepared by experts in the field. This book is dedicated to the needs of these local census data users. It provides a comprehensive introduction to the data and teaches useful methods of analysis, focusing on four major themes: mastering access to the full range of census data, measuring changes over time, comparing places, and demonstrating how different aspects of change fit together. More than a reference book or how-to-manual, the emphasis throughout is on developing a sophisticated, critical understanding of the census.
Key Features
* Provides a comprehensive introduction to the scope of local census data and carefully explains the different variables and sources of data
* Emphasizes how analysis can be conducted to extract maximum use from local data
* Written to coincide with the publication of the 1990 United States Census data

One in every 31 U.S. adults is in the penal system. This mass incarceration is by far the largest in the world. African Americans are disproportionately imprisoned and challenged by the consequences of incarceration in education, jobs, voting, and other aspects of life. Since 96 percent of those imprisoned are released, there is an urgent need for resources and research that can improve reentry outcomes. Reconstructing Rage analyzes how - and how well - one company, Reconstruction, Inc. of Philadelphia, has organized returning prisoners, their families, and communities for 24 years. It looks at Reconstruction's programs, strategies, and patterns of change over time; holistic (i.e., mind-body-spirit) and principled transformations in the people and families it has touched; and at the company's collaborations and contributions to criminal justice and public policy best practices. Reconstructing Rage explores challenges of improving community capacity and quality of life outcomes within and beyond reentry and reintegration, for former felons, their families, and a growing number of others interested in a broader social justice.

This provocative and groundbreaking book is the first of its kind to propose the concept of Eco-ability: the intersectionality of the ecological world, persons with disabilities, and nonhuman animals. Rooted in disability studies and rights, environmentalism, and animal advocacy, this book calls for a social justice theory and movement that dismantles constructed "normalcy", ableism, speciesism, and ecological destruction while promoting mutual interdependence, collaboration, respect for difference, and inclusivity of our world. Eco-ability provides a positive, liberating, and empowering philosophy for educators and activists alike.

Activist and scholar Kitty Kelly Epstein tells the unique story of a city that recruits a progressive mayoral candidate, defeats a political machine, mobilizes a thousand residents to make policy, and then implements many of the policies created by this participatory process. Violence, jobs, education, and gentrification are all addressed by the ongoing social justice movement and its victories, including a 40% drop in the homicide rate, 8,000 likely new jobs, and a program that produces diverse and effective teachers. This very accessible book will be useful in urban studies, sociology, education, ethnic studies, civic engagement, political science, and policy studies classes and to those who are studying protest movements. The author explains the history of modern urban inequity and the racial wealth gap and then proposes on-going strategy and tactics for social activists in every city. Her co-authors, Lynch and Allen-Taylor, add their own intimate perspectives on these dynamic developments.

One in every 31 U.S. adults is in the penal system. This mass incarceration is by far the largest in the world. African Americans are disproportionately imprisoned and challenged by the consequences of incarceration in education, jobs, voting, and other aspects of life. Since 96 percent of those imprisoned are released, there is an urgent need for resources and research that can improve reentry outcomes. Reconstructing Rage analyzes how - and how well - one company, Reconstruction, Inc. of Philadelphia, has organized returning prisoners, their families, and communities for 24 years. It looks at Reconstruction's programs, strategies, and patterns of change over time; holistic (i.e., mind-body-spirit) and principled transformations in the people and families it has touched; and at the company's collaborations and contributions to criminal justice and public policy best practices. Reconstructing Rage explores challenges of improving community capacity and quality of life outcomes within and beyond reentry and reintegration, for former felons, their families, and a growing number of others interested in a broader social justice.

Activist and scholar Kitty Kelly Epstein tells the unique story of a city that recruits a progressive mayoral candidate, defeats a political machine, mobilizes a thousand residents to make policy, and then implements many of the policies created by this participatory process. Violence, jobs, education, and gentrification are all addressed by the ongoing social justice movement and its victories, including a 40% drop in the homicide rate, 8,000 likely new jobs, and a program that produces diverse and effective teachers. This very accessible book will be useful in urban studies, sociology, education, ethnic studies, civic engagement, political science, and policy studies classes and to those who are studying protest movements. The author explains the history of modern urban inequity and the racial wealth gap and then proposes on-going strategy and tactics for social activists in every city. Her co-authors, Lynch and Allen-Taylor, add their own intimate perspectives on these dynamic developments.

This book explores eugenics in its wider social context and in literary representations in post-war Britain. Drawing on a wide range of sources in medicine, social and educational policy, genetics, popular science, science fiction, and literary texts, Hanson tracks the dynamic interactions between eugenic ideas across diverse cultural fields, demonstrating the strength of the eugenic imagination. Challenging assumptions that eugenics was fatally compromised by its association with Nazi atrocities, or that it petered out in the context of changed social attitudes in an egalitarian post-war society, the book demonstrates that eugenic thought not only persisted after 1945, but became more prominent. Throughout, eugenics is defined as a cultural movement, rather than more narrowly as a science, and the study is focused on its border-crossing capacity as a 'style of thought.' By tracing the expression of eugenic ideas across disciplinary boundaries and in both high and low culture, this book demonstrates the powerful and pervasive influence of eugenics in the post-war years. Authors visited include Raymond Williams, John Braine, Agatha Christie, Muriel Spark, Anthony Burgess, Doris Lessing, and J.G. Ballard.

In this comprehensive analysis of thirty-five years of population change in the People's Republic of China, the author highlights China's shifting population policies and pieces together the available data, assessing and adjusting them as necessary in order to discover the actual population changes.

A challenge, a mission, a hope for a better life for all in an embattled country. This was the author's vision in The Other's Other. The challenge turned out to be greater and different than imagined; the mission more exasperating; the hope, more complicated. The book offers a new perspective on the problematic encounter between Jewish and Arab Israelis through the experience of a Jewish lecturer at an Arab college in an Arab city in Israel. The author's unique insights into Arab Israeli culture gleaned from conversations with staff and students, students' work, and everyday contact offer a window on the often conflicting feelings; the ambiguities, ambivalent identities, and layers of reality; the questions, doubts and dilemmas that mark the struggle of Arabs and Jews living in one country. It is also a meditation on the rewards and difficulties of discovering and accepting the other - and oneself as the other's other. Of coexistence.

Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong SAR are among the very lowest-fertility countries in the whole world, and even China has reached fertility levels lower than those in many European countries. If these levels continue over long periods East Asia will soon face accelerating population decline in addition the changes in age distributions in such populations raise major new questions for planning of economic and social welfare. This book brings together work by noted experts on the low fertility countries of East Asia with an up-to-date analysis of trends in fertility, what we know about their determinants and consequences, the policy issues and how these are being addressed in the various countries. Its role in bringing together information on policy trends and initiatives of a pro-natalist kind adopted over recent years in these countries is extremely important, as is the fact that the discussion of these pro-natalist policies is set in the context of a thorough analysis of what has driven fertility so low in these countries. Ultra-Low Fertility in Pacific Asia is invaluable to students and scholars of East Asian public and social policy, as well as fertility studies more generally.

In South Asian urban landscapes, men are everywhere. And yet we do not seem to know very much about precisely what men do in the city as men. How do men experience gender in city spaces? What are the interactional dynamics between different groups of men on city streets? How do men adjudicate between good and bad conduct in urban spaces? Through ethnographic descriptions of copresence on public transport in Kolkata, India, this book brings into sight the gendered logics of cooperation and everyday morality through which masculinities take up space in cities. It follows the labor geographies of auto-rickshaw and taxi operators and their interactions with traffic police and commuters to argue that the gendered fabric of urban life needs to be understood as a product of situational forms of cooperation between different social groups. Such an orientation sheds light on the part played by everyday morality and provisional support in upholding male privilege in the city.

First published in 1979, European Demography and Economic Growth presents a collection of essays on the demographic development of individual European economies like Austria, Hungary, Germany, France, Italy, Norway, Portugal etc. It provides a comparative analysis to clarify many crucial issues connected with the growth in European population from mid-eighteenth century. It looks at the suitable criteria for assessing the applicability of general theory to the experience of individual nations. It showcases the over-riding contrast between substantial economic variations on a national and regional level and the existence of common underlying demographic trends. This book will be useful for scholars and researchers of economic history, political economy, European history, population geography and economics in general.

This book paints a picture of poor older people's life-worlds in Beijing, China. Instead of viewing them as pitiful recipients of vulnerabilities and deprivations, this book sheds light on how poor older people exert their active agency to live through their life difficulties - i.e. how they negotiate resources within and outside of family to pursue the kind of lives they have reason to value. Based on a prolonged period of ethnographic fieldwork in Beijing, the researcher highlights the experiences, perspectives, and strategies of these people developed in the context of their economic hardships against the background of massive social reform and demographic ageing in China.

Part of the New Approaches to Sociology series, Social Inequalities is a relevant and valuable exploration of how we see the world, through a decolonised lens. Aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students of sociology, this textbook offers a critical re-reading of traditional approaches to understanding social inequalities and responds to the call from university administrations, academics and students to decolonise the curriculum and challenge its lack of diversity. It presents an intersectional approach to understanding diversity and social inequalities and, in so doing, allows for alternative knowledge sources and voices to be heard. From looking at social groups such as race, age, sexuality and class alongside a nuanced evaluation of traditional sociological theories such as Marxism, functionalism and feminism - this book is an expert guide to the debates central to understanding the challenges individuals face in society. Including personal stories and case studies, students will be exposed to an authentic and real-world view of how individuals have encountered discrimination. Social Inequalities is an essential resource for anyone working and studying across sociology, and anyone interested in challenging established ways of looking at the world. Professor Anya Ahmed, Dr Deirdre Duffy and Dr Lorna Chesterton work in the faculty of health and education at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.

During the 1990s, Europe became the first continent with a 'mature society', where people aged 60 years and older outnumber children and as this trend continues, the resulting 'ageing societies' will differ from previous societies in their make-up, in their needs, and in their resource allocation. Population ageing poses an even greater challenge to the post-communist societies of Central and Eastern Europe. While still struggling to cope with the aftermath of the economic and social transition process following the breakdown of communism, they are now facing even more rapid demographic change than Western Europe. This book brings together leading scholars to present an understanding of the processes underlying the very rapid population ageing in Central and Eastern Europe. In addition to discussing the main demographic drivers behind this development in each of the countries examined, this volume also discusses its implications for policy, healthcare provision, workforces, intergenerational family relations, the social cohesion of future Central and Eastern European societies, and the quality of life experienced by their citizens. Organised around broad geographical regions with final sections analysing the book's findings and their future implications, Population Ageing in Central and Eastern Europe will be of interest to gerontologists, policy makers, students and scholars of population change