An Introduction to Population Geographies provides a foundation to the incredibly diverse, topical and interesting field of twenty-first-century population geography. It establishes the substantive concerns of the subdiscipline, acknowledges the sheer diversity of its approaches, key concepts and theories and engages with the resulting major areas of academic debate that stem from this richness. Written in an accessible style and assuming little prior knowledge of topics covered, yet drawing on a wide range of diverse academic literature, the book's particular originality comes from its extended definition of population geography that locates it firmly within the multiple geographies of the life course. Consequently, issues such as childhood and adulthood, family dynamics, ageing, everyday mobilities, morbidity and differential ability assume a prominent place alongside the classic population geography triumvirate of births, migrations and deaths. This broader framing of the field allows the book to address more holistically aspects of lives across space often provided little attention in current textbooks. Particular note is given to how these lives are shaped though hybrid social, biological and individual arenas of differential life course experience. By engaging with traditional quantitative perspectives and newer qualitative insights, the authors engage students from the quantitative macro scale of population to the micro individual scale. Aimed at higher-level undergraduate and graduate students, this introductory text provides a well-developed pedagogy, including case studies that illustrate theory, concepts and issues.

The subject of migration has traditionally been analysed through the lens of economic factors. The importance of adopting a gender sensitive perspective to academic work is now generally appreciated. This text contains chapters from a range of contributors who apply such a perspective to the study of migration in the countries of the developed world. Each chapter demonstrates how migration is highly gendered, with the experiences of women and men often varying markedly in different migration situations. This volume covers a range of migration issues and draws out the importance of gender issues in each area, including: dual career households; regional migration patterns; emigration from Ireland and Hong Kong; elderly migration; the migration decision-making process; and the costs and benefits attached to migration. Approaching the subject from a variety of academic traditions including geography, sociology and social policy, the volume combines both an analysis of factual data and qualitative analysis of interview material to show the importance of studying migration through gender sensitive eyes.

Contemporary processes of economic, social, political and cultural restructuring are having profound impacts on the form and function of rural areas within the countries of the European Union and beyond. Furthermore, rural development policies and programmes at EU and national levels have been critical in shaping the responses of different rural areas across Europe to these wider processes of restructuring. Contrasting empirical studies of ten European countries, this volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the restructuring processes and the various national, regional and local rural development programmes. Adopting a different national perspective in each chapter, it focuses particularly on issues of power and leadership in the evolution and administration of these programmes. Five broad issues are examined in each case: socio-economic changes in rural areas, the administrative context in which rural development and political activities take place, the sociological context, the political control of rural development, and the use of different discourses of rurality in shaping the development process.

Exploring Contemporary Migration provides the first comprehensive introduction to the various aspects of population migration in both the developed and the developing worlds. Some of the most important quantitative and qualitative methods used for the description and analysis of migration are presented in a clearly structured and accessible way. The various theoretical approaches used to explain the complex patterns of migration are also summarised. These patterns are then explored through the use of specific migration-related themes: employment, stage in the life course, quality of life, societal engineering, violence and persecution, and the role of culture. Exploring Contemporary Migration is written in a user-friendly, accessible style, appealing to undergraduate students of population geography and social science students taking a population module. This text will also be valuable reading to those researchers and academics concerned with gaining a broad understanding of the dynamics and patterns of contemporary population.

Contemporary processes of economic, social, political and cultural restructuring are having profound impacts on the form and function of rural areas within the countries of the European Union and beyond. Furthermore, rural development policies and programmes at EU and national levels have been critical in shaping the responses of different rural areas across Europe to these wider processes of restructuring. Contrasting empirical studies of ten European countries, this volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the restructuring processes and the various national, regional and local rural development programmes. Adopting a different national perspective in each chapter, it focuses particularly on issues of power and leadership in the evolution and administration of these programmes. Five broad issues are examined in each case: socio-economic changes in rural areas, the administrative context in which rural development and political activities take place, the sociological context, the political control of rural development, and the use of different discourses of rurality in shaping the development process.

An Introduction to Population Geographies provides a foundation to the incredibly diverse, topical and interesting field of twenty-first-century population geography. It establishes the substantive concerns of the subdiscipline, acknowledges the sheer diversity of its approaches, key concepts and theories and engages with the resulting major areas of academic debate that stem from this richness. Written in an accessible style and assuming little prior knowledge of topics covered, yet drawing on a wide range of diverse academic literature, the book's particular originality comes from its extended definition of population geography that locates it firmly within the multiple geographies of the life course. Consequently, issues such as childhood and adulthood, family dynamics, ageing, everyday mobilities, morbidity and differential ability assume a prominent place alongside the classic population geography triumvirate of births, migrations and deaths. This broader framing of the field allows the book to address more holistically aspects of lives across space often provided little attention in current textbooks. Particular note is given to how these lives are shaped though hybrid social, biological and individual arenas of differential life course experience. By engaging with traditional quantitative perspectives and newer qualitative insights, the authors engage students from the quantitative macro scale of population to the micro individual scale. Aimed at higher-level undergraduate and graduate students, this introductory text provides a well-developed pedagogy, including case studies that illustrate theory, concepts and issues.