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

This offer is part of the following study plans:
Bachelor of Philosophy and Moral Sciences: default (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Business Economics: Minor Sociology (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Geography: Default track (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Social Sciences: Sociology
Bachelor of Political Science and Sociology: - afstudeerrichting sociologie, minor politieke wetenschappen (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Political Science and Sociology: - afstudeerrichting sociologie, minor communicatiewetenschappen (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Political Science and Sociology: - afstudeerrichting sociologie, minor criminologische wetenschappen (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Political Science and Sociology: - afstudeerrichting sociologie, minor geschiedenis (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Political Science and Sociology: - afstudeerrichting sociologie, minor sociale geografie (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Political Science and Sociology: - afstudeerrichting sociologie, minor organisatie en beleid (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Political Science and Sociology: - afstudeerrichting sociologie, minor antropologie (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Political Science and Sociology: - afstudeerrichting sociologie, minor samenleving en cultuur (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Political Science and Sociology: - afstudeerrichting sociologie, minor management en beleid van de gezondheidszorg (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Political Science and Sociology: - afstudeerrichting sociologie, minor management, zorg en beleid in de gerontologie (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Political Science and Sociology: - afstudeerrichting sociologie, minor onderwijs (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Political Science and Sociology: Political Science Minor Minor Sociology (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Geography: Standard track
Master of Biology: Ecology and Biodiversity
Bridging Programme Master of Science in Sociology: Default track (only offered in Dutch)
Preparatory Programme Master of Science in Sociology: Ad hoc traject (only offered in Dutch)