Scope and content of population geography

Scope and Content of Population Geography

1. Scope and Content of Population Geography Mithun Ray Department of Geography Malda College (University of Gour Banga) E-mail: [email protected]

2. Geography has traditionally ben concerned with man-environment relationship. Man and his activities on the earth surface have occupied an important place in the discipline for a very long time. It was Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904), who established the new subdiscipline, i.e., human geography for which he coined the term Anthropogeographie He had keen interest in the mode of life of different tribes, races and nations. Alfred Hettener , another German geographer and a contemporary of Ratzel , regarded the study of population as an integral part of the general field of human geography. Introduction

3. Roots of Population Geography In the year 1951, Pierre George, a French Geographer, for the first time, presented a very comprehensive treatment of the facts of population geography. However, the emergence and recognition of population geography as a new sub-branch of human geography is largely attributed to the influential statement of Trewartha in the early 1950s. Since geography is fundamentally anthropocentric in nature, number, densities and qualities of population provide the essential background to all geography. Population is the point of reference from which all other elements are observed, and from which they all, singly or collectively, derive significance and meaning. It is population which furnishes focus. Trewartha, G.T. (1953)

4. Definition of Population Geography The term ‘Population’ signifies the subject matter and ‘geography’ refers to the perspective of investigation. Study of population in spatial perspective

5. Pioneer books on Population Geography Population Geography by John I. Clarke (1965) A Prologue to Population Geography by Wilbur Zelinsky (1966) A Geography of Population: World Patterns by G.T. Trewartha (1969) Geographie de la population by Daniel Noin (1979)

6. Scope of Population Geography According to G.T. Trewartha: A historical (pre-historic and post- historic) account of population Dynamics of number, size, distribution and growth patterns; and Qualities of population and their regional distribution. Quality of Population: Physical (race, sex, age, health etc.) Socio-economic (religion, education, occupation, marital status, stages of economic development, customs, habits etc.)

7. According to John I. Clarke 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.

8. According to W. Zelinsky Population geography is a science that deals with the ways in which geographic character of a place if formed by and in turn, react on a set of population phenomena which vary within it through both space and time interacting one with another. According to Daniel Noin Distribution of population, components of its growth and characteristics are the main concerns of population geography.

9. Content of Population Geography Population-Geographic Area: Density and Distribution Trend of Birth Rate/ fertility Trend of Death Rate/ Mortality Age Structure Cultural Dimension of Population Environment of Population Types of Population and Related Physical and Cultural Factors

10. The main concern of population geography revolves around the following three aspects of human population: • size and distribution including the rural-urban distribution of population. • population dynamics – past and present trends in growth and its spatial manifestation; components of population change viz. fertility, mortality and migration. • 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.).

11. Relationship with Demography and Population Studies Demography: Statistical analysis of the components of population change mainly migration, births and deaths Population Studies: is concerned with not only the components of population change but also their interrelations with various social, economic, political and biological variables

12. Demography is concerned with the statistical analysis of population size, distribution and composition and with the components of variation and change, whereas population studies involve the interrelations of demographic variables with other systems of variables. Philip M. Hauser (1975)

13. Irrespective of the distinction between the two, demography and population studies stand clearly different from population geography in terms of their approaches . In practice while demography, as also population studies, is concerned with number, size and demographic processes for political units as a whole, population geography is concerned with aerial variation in these attributes. Population geography is aimed at demonstrating how spatial variation in the distribution, composition, migration and growth of population are related to the spatial variation in the nature of places. A population geographer is also concerned with the dynamic aspects of spatial variations over time or how spatial relations or interaction between phenomena occur This emphasis on space is the distinguishing feature of population geography

14. The spatial approach has, however, become equally popular among researchers in demography and population studies with increasing availability of micro-level data during the last few decades. The contributions of demographers to recent advances in population studies includes many examples where regional and national levels of mortality or fertility have been the subject of discussion; or where migration, fertility or mortality were combined to create interregional population growth models. It has, thus, become increasingly difficult to distinguish the works of geographers from that of other disciplines

15. Population geography in India The origin of population geography as a separate topical study in human geography in India can be traced back to the late 1950s. Geographers associated with Panjab University, Chandigarh, played a pioneering role in the development of the subdiscipline in the country Though some studies on population distribution and density by geographers did appear earlier, G.S. Gosal’s doctoral work entitled A Geographical Analysis of India’s Population in 1956, under the supervision of G. T. Trewartha, was the first systematic and comprehensive analysis of India’s population in a geographical perspective

16. The first textbook on population geography An Introduction to Population Geography, was brought out by Chandna and Sidhu, both associated with Panjab University, in 1980. The subsequent additions to the list of textbooks on population geography in the country include Chandna (1986, 1987), Lal (1988), Ojha (1989) and Hassan (2005). A general review of research reveals that population studies in geography in the country have essentially been empirical in nature with a major thrust on ‘from facts-to-theory’ approach. The theoretical approach – from theory to facts – has by and large remained neglected.

17. Suggested Readings: Population Geography: A Systematic Exposition by Mohammad Izhar Hassan (2020); Routledge (Manohar Publishers & Distributors) Download Link Geography of Population- Concepts, determinants and patterns by Rc Chandna (2019); Kalyani Publisher Population Geography: Tools and Issues  by K. Bruce Newbold (2010); Pergamon Oxford Geographies Download Link The More Developed Realm. A Geography of Its Population by Glenn T. Trewartha (1978); Pergamon Press Download Link Population geography progress and prospect by Pacione, Michael (2013); Croom Helm Progress in geography series Download Link

18. This Power Point Presentation (PPT) has been prepared only to deliver the lecture. The materials (Maps, Diagrams and Images) used in this presentation have been collected and compiled by the presenter from various academic blogs, research papers, books etc.

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