Critical Demography: A Paradigmatic Shift in the Study of Population

Suny At Albany, Albany NY

Investigators

Abstract

ABSTRACT Critical Demography: A Paradigmatic Shift in the Study of Population SGER Proposal. SES 9911491 PI: Hayward Derrick Horton Critical Demography is an emerging approach to the study of populations that introduces new theories and methods. Some are novel, others are borrowed from other areas in sociology. The aim in critical demography is to focus on ways that social structures, especially relations of power and domination, affect demographic phenomena such as migration and mortality. PI first used the term in a paper presented at the 1998 meetings of the American Sociological Association, in which structural constraints involving race were used to analyze demography of African Americans. It has since been applied to the study of women and of other ethic groups. This SGER will support developing a database at SUNY Albany that will be usable by other scholars in this developing approach. Data will be classified and re-coded from a large existing data set, the Integrated Public Use Microdata Samples (IPUMS) for the U.S. population from 1850 to 1900. PI will place the new database on a web site for scholarly public access.