Full Citation

Title: Demography as a Spatial Social Science

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2007

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI:

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: Scholars in many social science disciplines have taken note of the reemerging interest in issues concerning social processes embedded within a spatial context. While some argue that this awakening is refreshing and new and, in fact, long overdue, I demonstrate that spatially focused demographic theories andresearch agendas clearly predate contemporary interest in these topics. I assert that recent methodological advancements have merely encouraged and brought refinement to the expanding body of spatially oriented population researchresearchstrongly rooted in demographic tradition and practice. Indeed, I make the claim that, until roughly the mid-20th century, virtually all demography in the United States (and elsewhere, but not specifically examined here) was spatial demography. Then, shortly after mid-century, a paradigm shift occurred, and the scientific study of population quickly came to be dominated by attention to the individual as the agent of demographic action. Traditional spatial demographymacro-demography gave way to micro-demography, and, I argue, most demographers simply abandoned the data and approach of spatial demography. In closing the paper I include a brief discussion of the recent awakening that has come to spatial demographers from developments in other disciplines, principally geography, regional science, and spatial econometrics.

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Voss, Paul R.

Periodical (Full): Population Research and Policy Review

Issue: 5

Volume: 26

Pages: 457-476

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Methodology and Data Collection

Countries: