Social Demography

6 ECTS credits
179 h study time

Offer 2 with catalog number 1019191BER for all students in the 1st semester at a (B) Bachelor - advanced level.

Semester

1st semester

Enrollment based on exam contract

Possible

Grading method

Grading (scale from 0 to 20)

Can retake in second session

Yes

Enrollment Requirements

Students Social Sciences must have taken ‘Statistics for Social Sciences’, before they can enroll in this course.

Taught in

English

Partnership Agreement

Under agreement for exchange of courses

Faculty

Faculty of Social Sciences & SolvayBusinessSchool

Department

Sociology

Educational team

Sylvie Gadeyne (course titular)

Activities and contact hours

33 contact hours Lecture
20 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
126 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study

Course Content

The course aims at teaching the basic principles of social demography. Social demography is a field of study concerned with the analysis of how population characteristics and socio-economic/cultural factors are related to one another. Whereas demography itself is primarily concerned with determining and measuring population characteristics and the interrelationship between demographic variables, social demographers seek to understand and explain these demographic patterns. In so doing they draw on the expertise of sociology as well as of demography.
The three main variables underlying population change are fertility, mortality, and migration, variables themselves associated with factors such as age at marriage, the proportions marrying, contraceptive use, levels and types of morbidity, rural-urban migration, and so forth. All receive attention from social demographers, who seek to understand these processes in terms of a range of standard social factors such as levels of education, the position of women, religion, and economic development...

During the course, students will be able to make a substantial judgement about:

Demography as an interdisciplinary study field
The evolution of population size at a global, European and national scale
The structure of populations and the issue of ageing
Fertility and reproduction:
- Basic concepts and indicators
- The decline of fertility
Mortality and life expectancy:
- Basic concepts and indicators
- The decline of mortality
- Social inequality in mortality
Migration:
- Basic indicators and issues

Course material

Digital course material (Required) : Slides + Reader, S. Gadeyne, Canvas
Handbook (Recommended) : Demographic Methods and Concepts, D. Rowland, Oxford University Press, 9780198752639, 2003

Additional info

For more information about the concrete organisation of the course: see Canvas.

Learning Outcomes

General Competencies

Students are able to define and understand the basic concepts and to apply techniques of social demographic analysis
Students are able to calculate themselves basic demographic measures and to interpret them correctly
Students understand population issues as complex, interwoven and important phenomena, closely linked to socio-economic and cultural characteristics
Students understand the reciprocal relationship between demography and society
Students acquire insights into mutual connections between societal and demographic structures and processes
Students acquire insight into a number of topical population issues (population ageing, lost women, ultimate inequalities, population 'explosion')
Students can draw up a demographic paper, describing the main characteristics of a population

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 100% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Written Exam with a relative weight of 60 which comprises 60% of the final mark.
Individual Paper with a relative weight of 40 which comprises 40% of the final mark.

Note:
Comparison of the population structure of two countries

Additional info regarding evaluation

The written exam determines 60% of the final mark.
The paper determines 40% of the final mark.

Students need to pass for both exam components separately (obtain a minimum of 10/20 in both components).
Only after passing both components, will the student pass this course unit. The end result will consist in this case of a weighted average of both components.
In case the student did not pass both components, the result of the unsuccessful exam part is the final result. The partial result of the exam component for which the student obtained at least 10/20, will be transferred to the second examination period. The exam component for which the student passed cannot be retaken in the second exam period.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark

The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context