“Demodystopias”: Prospects of Demographic Hell

Dystopian fiction, stories envisioning dire human futures, originated with the novels of H. G. Wells and others a century ago. “Demodystopias” are a subgenre of dystopias where the imagined futures derive from demographic change, taken perhaps to an extreme: the population explosion, aging and depopulation, mass migration, global epidemics, and the eugenic possibilities of new reproductive technologies. This essay traces the genealogy of demodystopias over the twentieth and early twenty‐first centuries. Their themes reflect the demographic issues of the day: fear of overpopulation in the “population bomb” era; later, threatened societal senescence or swamping by immigrants under ultra‐low fertility; new reproductive regimes under genetic engineering; and the geopolitics of demographic change. As with other dystopias, demodystopias seek to identify present‐day negative tendencies that might lead to a future theatrum diabolorum—and to pin responsibility for such an outcome on ourselves. Authors discussed include Margaret Atwood, Anthony Burgess, Günter Grass, Michel Houellebecq, José Saramago, Lionel Shriver, and Kurt Vonnegut.     

Reinstatement of the US “Mexico City Policy”

On 22 January 2001, the third day of the new US administration (the day that also marked the twenty‐eighth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the US Supreme Court decision that liberalized abortion). President Bush issued an executive order, taking the form of a memorandum addressed to the Administrator of the Agency for International Development on the subject of “Restoration of the Mexico City Policy.” The executive order reinstates the US policy promulgated at the International Conference on Population held in Mexico City in 1984 (see “Documents” in the September 1984 issue of this journal). The Mexico City policy was rescinded on 22 January 1993 when President Clinton took office (see “Documents” in the March 1993 issue of this journal). The full text of President Bush's memorandum as released by the White House is reproduced below.     

Explaining Asia's “Missing Women”: A New Look at the Data

The fact that millions of females are “missing” in East Asia and South Asia has been attributed to cultural factors that support strong son preference in these countries. A widely disseminated paper by Emily Oster argues that a large part of this phenomenon can be attributed to excessively masculine sex ratios at birth resulting from maternal infection with hepatitis B. If her thesis is true, current policies to address this problem would need to be reframed to include biological factors in addition to cultural factors. The data show, however, that whether or not females “go missing” is determined by the existing sex composition of the family into which they are conceived. Girls with no older sisters have similar chances of survival as boys. However, girls conceived in families that already have a daughter experience steeply higher probabilities of being aborted or of dying in early childhood. This indicates that cultural factors still provide the overwhelming explanation for the “missing” females.     

“Population Invasion” versus Urban Exclusion in the Tibetan Areas of Western China

This article examines the confluence of local population transitions (demographic transition and urbanization) with non‐local in‐migration in the Tibetan areas of western China. The objective is to assess the validity of Tibetan perceptions of “population invasion” by Han Chinese and Chinese Muslims. The article argues that migration to Tibet from other regions in China has been concentrated in urban areas and has been counterbalanced by more rapid rates of natural increase in the Tibetan rural areas—among the highest rates in China. Overall, it is not clear whether there is any risk of population invasion in the Tibetan areas. However, given that non‐Tibetan migration to Tibet has been concentrated in urban areas, Tibetans have probably become a minority in many of their strategic cities and towns, and non‐Tibetan migrants definitely dominate urban employment. Therefore, while the Tibetan notion of population invasion may be a misperception, it reflects a legitimate concern that in‐migration may be exacerbating the economic exclusion of Tibetan locals in the context of rapid urban‐centered development.     

Flaw of One Price; The International Comparison Program in Historical Perspective

This is an invited introduction to the S.I Poverty, Income and PRices: Comparisons at National and Local Level, edited by L. Biggeri and P. Rao.     

论单亲家庭

文章首先从单亲家庭的过去与现状出发 ,分析了单亲家庭所带来的社会问题 ,建议从社会工作角度出发 ,呼吁全社会来关心、理解、支持单家家庭     

北京市独生子女生育意愿调查

随着计划生育政策的全面贯彻,加上社会经济发展和社会竞争压力的增大,当代独生子女的生育意愿发生了哪些变化,已经成为人口学者关注的问题。文章通过对北京市18个区县1206个独生子女的抽样调查结果进行分析,得出当代独生子女的生育观念已经发生了改变,这将对其生育意愿产生较大影响。     

No Other Choice But This One

The Most Important Par of Painting Is Conveying Spiritual Connotation Du Juemin thinks that there has been a problem in Chinese figure painting- it is the issue of modeling. The figure paintings in     

One body,some genders: drag performances and technologies

This chapter examines the ways in which one body becomes the site for multiple and varied gender performances through Alana Kumbier's performances as drag king Red Rider and drag queen Red Pearl. Using theoretical frameworks provided by Judith Halberstam, Ira Livingston, and Teresa de Lauretis the essay also calls for a consideration of material technologies and artifacts as technologies of gender.     

One step back in understanding racial differences in birth weight

In recognition of the biological and social connections in demographic processes, demographers have integrated biological factors into their models of population variation. This new effort has tended to focus on the analysis of fertility and mortality. Edwin J.C.G. van den Oord and David C. Rowe's article, "Racial Differences in Birth Health Risk: A Quantitative Genetic Approach," published in the August 2000 issue of Demography, is part of this effort. These authors use race as a proxy for genetic variation, which subverts even the most positive attempts to understand the impact of genetic variation on demographic processes. The authors' statistical results restate their anachronistic theory of race using latent variables that are not open to empirical testing. Although new data increase the opportunities for the examination of the relationship between biology and demographic processes researchers must be vigilant not to commit the errors of the past by misusing race as a variable.     

Economic Insecurity and the Fertility Intentions of Italian Women with One Child

The present study addresses the issue of economic insecurity and its relationship with the reproductive plans of 5,358 Italian women in couples who have recently had their first child. Data were sourced from the ISTAT Sample Survey on Births, 2005 edition. This article’s originality lies in the conceptualization of economic insecurity and the investigation of its effects on fertility intentions. We propose to capture economic insecurity by considering both the insecurity associated to the two partners’ employment status and a variety of aspects that contribute to the household’s ability to cope with possible unpredictable future events. Then, we investigate whether and how economic insecurity shapes the fertility intentions of women over their entire reproductive life span. With specific respect to women who intend to have one additional child only, we also observe the effect of economic insecurity on their intention to give birth sooner (i.e., within the next 3 years) or later. Our data show the existence of a critical factor in the passage from the generic fertility intentions to the contingent plan to have a child in the next 3 years: only half of women with one child who intend to follow the two-child family model feel ready to plan to have a second child in the next 3 years. The study also reinforces an argument that is frequently made: fertility intentions over the entire lifetime are less conditioned upon contingent constraints, and are often more closely related to individual traits and/or preferences.