Professor Tim Dyson

This course is for students taking MSc Population and Development, MSc Development Studies, MSc Development Management, MSc Environment and Development, MSc Health, Population and Society, MSc Human Rights, MSc Social Policy (Research), MSc Biomedicine, Bioscience and Society, MSc Political Economy of Late Development and MSc Social Research Methods only. It is also available to all other MSc students where regulations permit.

The course critically examines the different analytic approaches to the main interrelationships between population changes and socio-economic development. It draws on a variety of theoretical and historical experiences to address and explore these interconnections and the principal debates concerning them. In so doing, it aims to provide balance between theoretical understanding, knowledge of empirical processes, basic causal processes and implications for policy.

The course begins by providing an overview of the world’s current demographic situation at both the global and regional levels. It then addresses Malthusian and anti-Malthusian perspectives on the basic relationships linking population and economic growth. These contrasting perspectives are considered in the context of both historical and contemporary experience. The course then proceeds to assess demographic transition theories and their relationships to theories and processes of economic development, urbanisation and socio-structural change. Urban growth, migration, and urbanization receive special attention. The implications of population change for issues of employment, savings and investment are considered, as are issues relating to energy, food production, and climate change. Contemporary neo-Malthusian arguments, with their environmental components are also considered. Further details will be provided at the start of the session.

10 x one-and-a-half hour lectures and 9 x one-and-a-half hour seminars, MT. Professor Tim Dyson will give the lectures. The seminars and all other arrangements for this course will be provided by other staff.

Students will be given the opportunity to undertake a 'mock examination' essay. This will be graded and accompanied by written feedback within two weeks of its submission.

A detailed reading list will be provided. Some key sources are: T Dyson 'A Partial Theory of World Development' in International Journal of Population Geography, 7, 2001; T Dyson, Population and Food: global trends and future prospects, Routledge, 1996; R H Cassen (Ed), Population and Development: Old Debates, New Conclusions, Overseas Development Council, Washington DC, 1994; World Bank, Population Change and Economic Development, Washington DC, 1985; and Population and Development Review, a Journal published quarterly by the Population Council, New York.

A two-hour written examination in the ST (100%).