Population: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues

Citation

Weeks, J. R. (2020). Population: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues (13th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Chapter Summary

The 13th edition has ten chapters in three parts, about 608 pages in all. The publisher describes the book as encompassing the entire field of demography, in principle and in practice, from fertility and mortality rates to agricultural production and urbanization, and as showing how population dynamics relate to socio-economic transitions and sustainable development. The edition adds contributions by David López-Carr to the chapters on population change and environmental sustainability.

Part I, Chapters 1–3: Introduction to Demography; Demographic Data and Applied Demography; Demographic Perspectives

"A Demographic Perspective" is the toolkit. It introduces the field, the sources and uses of demographic data, including applied demography, and the theoretical perspectives from which demographers approach population questions. Chapter 3 is the one to read before the process chapters if the course starts from theory.

Part II, Chapters 4–7: The Health and Mortality Transition; The Fertility Transition; The Migration Transition; The Urbanization Transition

"Population Processes" is the book's core. Each chapter treats one of the long-term shifts that populations go through: from high to lower mortality, from high to lower fertility, the changing patterns of movement between places, and the shift toward urban living. Migration and urbanization are treated as parts of the same demographic story as births and deaths.

Part III, Chapters 8–10: The Age Transition and the Life Course; Family Demography, Race/Ethnicity, and Life Chances; Population, the Environment, and Global Sustainability

"Using the Demographic Perspective" applies the earlier material. Chapter 8 treats the age transition, meaning the change in the age structure of a population, together with the life course. Chapter 9 turns to family demography, race and ethnicity and life chances. Chapter 10 links population to the environment and global sustainability. According to the publisher, López-Carr's contribution is to the chapters dealing with population change and environmental sustainability, which on the contents list means at least this chapter.

Key Concepts

Part I: A Demographic Perspective

• Demographic data and applied demography: the sources of information on populations and the use of demographic knowledge in practical decisions.
• Demographic perspectives: the theoretical frameworks used to explain population change.

Part II: Population Processes

• Health and mortality transition: the long-term change in patterns of death and illness.
• Fertility transition: the long-term change in the number of births.
• Migration transition: the changing patterns and volume of movement between places.
• Urbanization transition: the shift of population from rural to urban settings.

Part III: Using the Demographic Perspective

• Age transition and life course: change in a population's age structure and in the phases of individual lives.
• Family demography and life chances: how family structure, race and ethnicity relate to people's opportunities.
• Global sustainability: the relationship between population change and the environment.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A compact, process-based structure. Ten chapters in three parts, built around five transitions, give the subject a clear narrative rather than a topic list. Migration and urbanization are placed alongside mortality and fertility so that the spatial side of demography is not left to a single chapter.
• A geographer's text on demography. The author is a geographer and demographer, and the book includes both a subject index and a geographic index, a feature that suits courses in population geography.
• Study aids on every chapter. The publisher lists a short essay on a population concept with two discussion questions at each chapter, a list of ten main points following the summary, five review questions, boldface key terms with a glossary, and a list of websites for further exploration.
• Revised for this edition. The publisher says every chapter has been revised and the book streamlined, and the sustainability chapters draw on López-Carr's expertise in the interaction of population and environment.

Limitations

• Migration is one chapter. International migration is covered in a single process chapter, so a course centred on migration needs a dedicated text.
• Methods are introduced rather than developed. One chapter covers demographic data and applied demography. The contents list names no chapters on life tables, stable populations or projections, so formal demographic methods need another source.
• Much of the support is for instructors. The publisher's resources list slides, exam questions and an instructor's manual, and the interactive platform, MindTap, is sold separately. Students using the book alone have the in-text aids but not the platform.

Where It Fits in the Course

Within this course list, Weeks is the general introduction to population studies. Its closest neighbour is K. Bruce Newbold's Population Geography: Tools and Issues, which is described as pairing the basic tools of demographic measurement with the substantive issues of fertility, mortality, migration, urbanization and population policy; the two overlap in subject matter, so choose one as the main text and use the other for a second explanation.

For migration, The Age of Migration by de Haas, Castles and Miller is the full treatment that Weeks's single chapter cannot give, and Koser's International Migration: A Very Short Introduction is a brief, balanced starting point for readers who want a short overview first. Massey and colleagues' Worlds in Motion goes deeper into theories of international migration. For formal methods, Preston, Heuveline and Guillot's Demography: Measuring and Modeling Population Processes is a graduate-level text on life tables, stable populations and projections, and is the next step for anyone who needs to calculate rather than interpret.

How to Use This Book

The publisher names no prerequisites. The publisher describes the book as introducing students to population issues, concepts and theories for classes in population or demography, so it is written for readers new to the field. Because the chapters present data in tables and graphs, comfort in reading them will help.

• Core: Part I, then Chapters 4 and 5 (mortality and fertility), which supply the basic logic of population change. Read Chapters 6 and 7 next, because they extend the same logic to movement and settlement.
• Applications: Chapters 8 and 9 for population structure and social outcomes, and Chapter 10 for the link with the environment.
• Use the essays and review questions: read each chapter's population-concept essay, answer its two discussion questions, and use the main-points list to check your understanding before moving on.
• Make it concrete: follow each transition chapter with current figures for a country you know, comparing its stage with the pattern in the text.