POPULATION GEOGRAPHY
NATURE & SCOPE
In the expression
‘population geography’, the term ‘population’ signifies the subject matter and
‘geography’ refers to the perspective of investigation. Population geography
implies the investigation into human covering of the earth and its various
facets with reference to physical and cultural environment. Although population
geography is, in the early 21st century, a well-established subfield of human
geography, this was not always the case. Presidential address of
G. T. Trewartha in the American Association of Geographers- 'A case of population geography' (1953) is recognized as
the original call for the establishment of a population geography subfield
within the discipline. Since most of the world humanity lives in the less
developed parts of the world, a significantly larger proportion of the net
addition in world population during the first half of the twentieth century
came from this part. The need for a more detailed account of demographic
characteristics resulted in a switch over from macro to micro level studies,
which, in turn, facilitated population mapping. World population continued to
grow at increasing pace. The growing availability of population data after the
Second World War facilitated mapping of the other demographic attributes
pertaining to different regions of the world. There was a growing consciousness
among the people regarding population expansion and its effects on economic
development. The less developed countries had also begun experiencing
redistribution of population within their boundaries from rural to urban areas.
The emergence of large cities and their manifold problems became a compelling
focus for research by geographers.
DEFINITION
·
According to Trewartha, population geography is
concerned with the understanding of the regional differences in the earth’s
covering of people (Trewartha, 1969:87)
·
John I. Clarke, suggested that population
geography is mainly concerned with demonstrating how spatial variation in
population and its various attributes like composition, migration and growth
are related to the spatial variation in the nature of places (Clarke, 1972:2)
·
Wilbur Zelinsky defines it as “a science that
deals with the ways in which geographic character of places is formed by and,
in turn, reacts upon a set of population phenomena that vary within it through
both space and time interacting one with another, and with numerous non-
demographic phenomena” (Zelinsky, 1966).
·
R.J. Proyer suggested that population geography
deals with the analysis and explanation of interrelationship between population
phenomena and the geographical character of places as they both vary over space
and time (Proyer, 1984).
NATURE
Trewartha
proposed a very comprehensive outline of the content of the sub-discipline,
which many subsequent geographers seem to have adhered to.
Broadly
speaking, the concerns of population geography, according to Trewartha, can be
grouped into three categories:
(1)
A historical (pre-historic and post-historic) account of population: Trewartha
suggested that where direct statistical evidence is not available, geographers
should adopt indirect methods, and collaborate with anthropologists,
demographers and economic historians.
(2)
Dynamics of number, size, distribution and growth patterns: In Trewartha’s
opinion, an analysis of world population patterns, population dynamics in terms
of mortality and fertility, area aspect of over and under population,
distribution of population by world regions and settlement types and migration
of population (both international and inter-regional) form an important part of
analysis in population geography.
(3)
Qualities of population and their regional distribution: He suggested two broad
groups – physical qualities (e.g., race, sex, age, health etc.), and
socio-economic qualities (e.g., religion, education, occupation, marital status,
stages of economic development, customs, habits etc.)
Population geography studies the formation of the population in different territories in terms of structure, density, specific clustering (cities and rural communities), and the conditions that determine the particular forms of settlement.
The
main concern of population geography revolves round the following three aspects
of human population:
1.
Size and distribution, including the rural-urban distribution of population.
2.
Population dynamics – past and present trends in growth and its spatial
manifestation; components of population change, viz., fertility, mortality and
migration.
3. Population composition and structure. They include a set of demographic characteristics (such as age-sex structure, marital status and average age at marriage etc.), social characteristics (such as caste, racial/ethnic, religious and linguistic composition of population; literacy and levels of educational attainment etc.), and economic characteristics (such as workforce participation rate and workforce structure etc.) Population geography receives important primary data from demography, which reveals the geographic aspects of nature and land migration population change. Population geography also uses field teams for observation and investigation. It studies the physical forms of inhabitance (types of residences according to spatial differences, the nature of planning and engineering for populated points, and so on), because all of these features are reflected in the regional characteristics of the physical makeup of cities and rural settlements. The location of the population both throughout the country and within its regions and the territorial organization of the population are basically determined by the nature and geography of production. The population density of individual populated points is usually related to their national economic functions,and the population density of regions reflects the degree of their economic development. At the same time the established location of population exerts in its turn an influence on the geography of production. The natural environment’s influence on settlement occurs primarily through production. It can be seen that the study of population is multidisciplinary in nature, involving an understanding of biology, genetics, mathematics, statistics, economics, sociology, cultural anthropology, psychology, politics, geography, medicine, public health, ecology, etc.
SCOPE
The scope of population studies is quite
wide. The quantitative aspect is concerned with a quantitative study of the
size, structure characteristics and territorial distribution of human
populations and the changes occurring in them. Under the planned socialist economy, the practical tasks of population geography include quantitative and qualitative assessment of labor resources and a search for the forms of settlement most responsive to the requirements of production and the cultural and domestic needs of the population. A study of the conditions of habitation in different natural
geographic regions reveals the connections between population geography and medical geography. Research on ethnography and the economics of labor is closely associated, and sometimes intertwined, with population geography. The development of methods of making population maps is very important.
Hence, while
describing, comparing or explaining the determinants and consequences of
population phenomena, social phenomena have to be taken into consideration.
Population geography has a special place in economic geography because people, as the main productive force, are employed in all economic sectors and, up to a point, their location has an all encompassing significance. The population is at one and the same time the producer and consumer of material goods. Population geography studies, systems and structures- the forms of settlement in relation to the spatial nature of production, the characteristics of the geographical environment, the economic geographical condition of population employment, and population migrations.
Together with differences in the natural growth of population, migrations
determine the course of territorial redistribution of population. A prominent
place is given to the classification and typology of populated points.
One statement that can be made without reservation is that the boundary between population geography and demography, sociology, or economics can be difficult to locate. The consensus is that demographers focus more on fertility research, whereas population geographers tend to focus on migration. With the advent of more-sophisticated methods, in particular those related to geographical information systems (GIS) or remote sensing, and the ever-increasing availability of data at multiple spatial scales, the fundamental importance of space and geography has become more mainstream in population studies across the social sciences. This evolution is apparent in the development of a multidisciplinary subfield called spatial demography that is neither traditional population geography nor pure demography.
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