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69008-01 - Seminar: Demography - History, Theory and Politics of Population (3 CP)
| Semester | fall semester 2023 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Axel Paul (axel.paul@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | Now there are roughly 8 billion people living on earth. In 2050 ‘we’ shall be 10 billion. Yet, the first billion was reached only around 1800. This spectacular rise cannot be reduced to, but definitely has to do with the Industrial Revolution. Today, after widespread fears of a global overpopulation not too long ago, many demographers are rather confident that the so-called second demographic transition, meaning that rising living standards reduce not only the death but also the birth rates, will bring the exponential development of the last centuries to a halt soon. Meanwhile, many industrialized countries (including China) are struggling with an overaging population, while many countries of in the global south still suffer from surging birth rates “eating up” their economic growth. Migration and redistribution of wealth might buffer these trends but also face opposition and obstacles and create new problems. In any case, global and national population dynamics are an important, yet politically sensitive and not easily controllable factor of social prosperity and welfare and even long-term societal trajectories. A society of few million people allows for different mechanisms of governance than one containing a population that is magnitudes higher. Democratic procedures, e.g., do not only depend on the equal rights of citizens, but also on the size of the community. The seminar aims at introducing basic demographic concepts and theories, at studying selected cases of historical and contemporary population dynamics more closely and at discussing and evaluating the political possibilities and implications of, as well as occasionally utopian hopes related to, population control. |
| Bibliography | Charles Hirschman: Population and Society: Historical Trends and Future Prospects. In: Craig Calhoun et al. (eds.): The Sage Handbook of Sociology. London 2005, pp. 381-402; alternatively Michaela Kreyenfeld, Dirk Konietzka: Bevölkerung. In: Hans Joas, Steffen Mau (eds.): Lehrbuch der Soziologie. Frankfurt/M. 2020, pp. 757-787. |
| Comments | The seminar can be taken by students of the Freiburg/Br.-based MA "Interdisziplinäre Anthropologie". Participation in the seminar itself values 3 ETCS-credits. 5 ETCs-credits can be obtained by writing a seminar paper. The, for the MA IA, still missing 2 ETCS-credits can be obtained via individual learnig contracts. |
| Admission requirements | Serious preparation of the weekly sessions, regular and active participation. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Thursday | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
Dates
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday 21.09.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Thursday 28.09.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Thursday 05.10.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Thursday 12.10.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Thursday 19.10.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Thursday 26.10.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Thursday 02.11.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Thursday 09.11.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Thursday 16.11.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Thursday 23.11.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Thursday 30.11.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Thursday 07.12.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Thursday 14.12.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Thursday 21.12.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Modules |
Modul: Erweiterung Gesellschaftswissenschaften M.A. (Master's degree subject: Political Science) Modul: Soziologische Theorie MA (Master's degree subject: Sociology) Modul: Ungleichheit, Konflikt, Kultur (Master's degree subject: Sociology) Vertiefungsmodul Global Europe: Arbeit, Migration und Gesellschaft (Master's Studies: European Global Studies) Vertiefungsmodul Global Europe: Global Ageing and Health (Master's Studies: European Global Studies) Vertiefungsmodul Global Europe: Staatlichkeit, Entwicklung und Globalisierung (Master's Studies: European Global Studies) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | Oral presentations and short seminar papers - specifics depending on the number of participants. |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Soziologie |