Sociology - Chapter 14 - Population and Urbanization

Demography

The study of the size, composition, growth and ditribution of human populations.

Malthus Theorum

An observation by Thomas Malthus that although the food supply increases arithmetically from 1-2-3-4, the population grows geometrically from 2-4-8-16.

New Malthusians

They believe the world's population is following an exponential growth curve. They project continued world growth and are alarmed. They believe there will be more people than food.

exponential growth curve

A pattern of growth in which numbers double during approx. equal intervals, showing a steep acceleration in the later stages. (Ex. a penny first day doubled)

Anti Malthusians

They project stage 3 of the democratic transition onto the least industrialized nations. They believe there will be too few children in the world and that there will be a population shrinkage.

Demographic Transition

A three stage historical process of population growth; first high birth rates and high death rates; second high birth rates and low death rates; and third low birth rates and low death rates; a forth stage in which deaths outnumber births has made its app

population shrinkage

the process by which a country's population becomes smaller because its birth rate and immigration are too low to replace those who die and emigrate

Why are children starving?

1. places lack food. 2. droughts. 3. wars 4. maldistribution of food

Why do the least industrialized nations have so many children?

Symbolic Interactionist - 1. Status of parenthood. Motherhood is the most prized status a woman can achieve. 2. Community support 3. Children are economic assets i.e. they work and provide for their parents. Conflict Theorist - 1. Male Dominance - Macho a

Gemeinschaft

a type of society in which life is intimate; a community in which everyone knows everyone else and people share a sense of togetherness

Population Pyramids

Visual representations of the age and sex composition of a population whereby the percentage of each age group is represented by a horizontal bar the length of which represents its relationship to the total population. The males in each age group are repr

Demographic Variables

The 3 factors that influence population growth: fertility, mortality, and net migration

Fertility Rate

the average number of children a woman of childbearing years would have in her lifetime, if she had children at the current rate for her country

Fecundity

the number of children that women are capable of bearing

Crude birth rate

the number of live births yearly per thousand people in a population

Crude death rate

The number of deaths per year per 1,000 people.

Net Migration Rate

the difference between the number of immigrants and emigrants per 1,000 population

Why do people migrate?

1. Push Factor - people escape poverty or persecution for their religious or political ideas. 2. Pull Factors - opportunities for education, higher wages, better jobs, freedom to worship or more promise for children.

Growth Rate

The amout by which the population's size changes in a given time.

Basic demographic equation

Growth rate = Births - Deaths + net migration

zero population growth

Women bearing only enough children to reproduce the population

City

A place in which a large number of people are permanently based and do not produce their own food.

Urbanization

the process by which an increasing proportion of a population lives in cities rather than in rural areas and those cities attain a growing influence on the culture.

Metropolis

a central city surrounded by smaller cities and their suburbs

Megalopolis

an urban area consisting of at least two metropolises and their many suburbs

Megacity

City with more than 10 million people. 1950, New York City only megacity in the world. Today there are 19 cities.

Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs)

A central city & the urbanized counties adjacent to it

Edge Cities

a large clustering of service facilities and residential areas near highway intersections that provides a sense of place to people who live, shop, and work there

Gentrification

the restoration and upgrading of deteriorated urban property by middle-class or affluent people, often resulting in displacement of lower-income people

Suburbanization

the movement from the city to the suburbs. Automobile played a large role.

Suburbs

A community ajacent to a city (just outside the city)

Micropolitan area

An urbanized area of between 10,000 and 50,000 inhabitants, the county in which it is found, and adjacent counties tied to the city

Micropolis

a city of 10,000 to 50,000 residents that is not a suburb

Human Ecology

Robert Parks term for the relationship between people and their environment (natural resources, such as land); also called urban ecology.

Urban Growth Models

Study of Urban Growth - 4 models 1. Concentric Zone Model 2. Sector Model 3. Multiple Nuclei Model and 4. Peripheral Model

Concentric Zone Model

model created by EW Burgess in 1923, which explains that a city grows outward from a central area in a series of concentric rings, like the growth rings on a tree., 1.Central Business District/ 2.Wholesale and Light Manufacturing/ 3.Low-Class Residential/

Sector Model

theory developed by land economist Homer Hoyt in 1939, which explains that a city develops in a series of sectors rather than rings., a description of urban land uses as wedge-shaped sectors radiating outward from the CBD along transportation corridors. T

Invasion Succession Cycle

An example of dynamic competition. The process of one group of people displacing a group whose racial-ethnic or social class characteristics differ from their own.

Multiple Nuclei Model

An ecological model put forth by Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman in the 1945 article "The Nature of Cities." The model describes the layout of a city. It notes that while a city may have started with a central business district, similar industries with c

Peripheral Model

Created by Chauncey Harris, which describes how an urban area consists of an inner city surrounded by large suburban residential and business areas tied together by a beltway or ring road.

Alienation in the City

Impersonality and self interest ate ordinary characteristics of the city.

Herbert Gans - Community

Community - people who identified with the area and with one another. Residents enjoy networks of friends and acquaintances.

Who lives in the city according to Gans study?

1. Cosmopolites (intellectuals, artists, professionals) 2. Singles (usually in 20's or 30's) 3. Ethnic Villagers 4. Deprived (emotionally disturbed, poor, low education and work skills.) 5. Trapped (elderly)

norm of noninvolvement

Avoiding intrusions from strangers. People going about their everyday lives in the city.

Diffusion of Responsibility

theory for why bystander effect occurs - each individual bystander thinks someone else will get involved

Why have US Cities declined - Urban problems.

1.Suburbanization - people and businesses continue to move out of the city. Left behind were people who lacked training and skills and were unemployed and trapped in poverty. 2. Disinvestment - withdraw of investments by financial institutions. 3. Deindus

Disinvestment

the withdrawal of investments by financial institutions, which seals the fate of an urban area

Deindustrialization

process by which companies move industrial jobs to other regions with cheaper labor, leaving the newly deindustrialized region to switch to a service economy and to work through a period of high unemployment

Urban renewal

the rehabilitation of a rundown area, which usually results in the displacement of the poor who are living in that area

enterprise zone

Specifically designated areas of a community that provide tax benefits to new businesses locating there & grants for new product development

Willian Flanagan - 3 principles for building community

1. Scale - planning to understand area and resources. 2. Livability - appealing and meet human needs. 3. Social Justice - social policies.