This book uses political and socio-anthropological theory to examine the relationship between power, interest, and agency within population and family planning discourse across Africa, with particular emphasis on case studies from Tanzania.

Analyzes scale effects across a range of political dimensions, encompassing different political levels using a multi-method approach.

The field of political demography - the politics of population change - is dramatically underrepresented in political science. At a time when demographic changes - aging in the rich world, youth bulges in the developing world, ethnic and religious shifts, migration, and urbanization - are waxing as never before, this neglect is especially glaring and starkly contrasts with the enormous interest coming from policymakers and the media. "Ten years ago, [demography] was hardly on the radar screen," remarks Richard Jackson and Neil Howe of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, two contributors to this volume. "Today," they continue, "it dominates almost any discussion of America's long-term fiscal, economic, or foreign-policy direction." Demography is the most predictable of the social sciences: children born in the last five years will be the new workers, voters, soldiers, and potential insurgents of 2025 and the political elites of the 2050s. Whether in the West or the developing world, political scientists urgently need to understand the tectonics of demography in order to grasp the full context of today's political developments. This book begins to fill the gap from a global and historical perspective and with the hope that scholars and policymakers will take its insights on board to develop enlightened policies for our collective future.

International efforts to regulate fertility rates so that populations do not grow beyond the earth's capacity have included technical assistance and capital; improved health care conditions to lower the risk of infant mortality; increased opportunities to develop literacy; the democratization of governments; and several decades of liberal immigration and refugee policies favoring third world nations. The persistence of high fertility despite international efforts confounds demographers. "Population Politics" brilliantly dissects the paradigm responsible for the counterproductive efforts of nations and international agencies. Abernethy, a renowned anthropologist, shows why policies hamper the shift to lower fertility. Ireland, Indonesia, Cuba, China, Turkey and Egypt are but a few of the countries Abernethy examines, showing how economic, sociocultural, and agricultural factors that have caused population growth can be harnessed to stabilize population size. "Population Politics" is a provocative examination of the influence of aid and liberal immigration policies on world population growth, and often counterproductive to the role of the United States as an industrial power. This volume's uniquely interdisciplinary perspective will enlighten the lay reader, as well as demographers and epidemiologists, conservationists, reproduction and family specialists, agricultural economists, and public health personnel. "Addresses one of the most vexing issues of our time--why after five or more decades of helping' poor countries improve their standard of living, is poverty still the rule? In light of Abernethy's facts, leaders in the United States cannot be excused from rethinking policies with respect to immigration and foreign aid. This book provides a fresh look at classic and neoclassic views of overpopulation."--Kingsley Davis, The Hoover Institution, Stanford, California "A splendid critique of how U.S. foreign aid and liberal immigration [policy] result in population growth here and abroad."--Donald L. Huddle, Rice University, Houston, Texas "Virginia D. Abernethy" is professor emeritus of psychiatry (anthropology) at Vanderbilt Medical School and was for 11 years the editor of the scholarly journal "Population and Environment. "Garrett Hardin" is emeritus professor of human ecology in the Department of Biological Sciences and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

This book addresses nine relevant questions: Will population growth reduce the growth rate of per capita income because it reduces the per capita availability of exhaustible resources? How about for renewable resources? Will population growth aggravate degradation of the natural environment? Does more rapid growth reduce worker output and consumption? Do rapid growth and greater density lead to productivity gains through scale economies and thereby raise per capita income? Will rapid population growth reduce per capita levels of education and health? Will it increase inequality of income distribution? Is it an important source of labor problems and city population absorption? And, finally, do the economic effects of population growth justify government programs to reduce fertility that go beyond the provision of family planning services?

This book identifies population as a central issue of polity and examines its links to ideas of state and citizenship. It explores the relationship between the state, citizenship and polity by reexamining processes related to census enumeration, population and citizen registers, and the politics of classificatory governmentality. Religion, ethnicity, caste and political class play a key role in determining community identities and the relationship between an individual and the state. Contextualizing the arguments and controversies around the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 (CAA 2019) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the book examines the processes of inclusion or exclusion of minorities and migrants as citizens in India. It focusses on the classification of irregular and refugee migration since independence in India, especially in the state of Assam. The book highlights how political imagination, as a theoretical framework, shapes the processes and strategies for enumeration and classification and thereby the idea of citizenship. Underlining the relationship between instruments of government, political mobilization and the resurgence of communal polarization, it also offers suggestions for alternative constructions of citizenship and an inclusive state. This book will be useful for students and researchers of population studies, population geography, migration studies, sociology, political science, social anthropology, law and journalism. It will also be of interest to policy makers, journalists, as well as NGOs and CSOs.

Population growth, reproductive health and reproductive rights are amongst the most pressing issues facing governments and the international community. Since the world's governments agreed for the first time on far-reaching and enlightened population policies at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, a good deal of progress has been made on these issues, but major challenges remain. This fully updated edition of Creating a New Consensus on Population charts international progress on efforts to address population and development, reproductive health, reproductive rights, religion, contraception and the empowerment of women. Historical coverage includes the lead up process to the ICPD, the conference itself and the global consensus and the ICPD Programme of Action that resulted. The book then turns to how population issues have developed over the past decade and a half including follow-up and implementation at the international level by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and other UN agencies and organizations. Key international events are covered including the 1999 ICPD+5, Millennium Summit 2000, ICPD+10 and the 2005 MDG+5 as well as relevant regional events. The book also examines the reorientation of policies and programmes and implementation at national levels across the world. Crucially, it looks at emerging issues and partnerships including the increasing role of NGOs, women's groups, youth groups, foundations, public-private partnerships and other non-state stakeholders. Written by Jyoti Shankar Singh, former ICPD Executive Coordinator, this is the definitive account of how the international community has engaged with population issues and policies and it offers insight into both the ongoing challenges as well as how an international consensus can be forged on crucial global issues. It is essential reading for all those involved in population, health and development issues and policies world-wide.