Module overview
During the module you will develop your key skills in:
1. Assessing the nature of the evidence base on population, poverty and policy issues from a variety of sources;
2. Improved analysis, debate, reading and writing
The skills will be developed through writing a briefing paper and group presentations in student-led seminars.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Learning Outcomes
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Understand micro level effects such as the adverse effect of poor health on the chances of individuals and households escaping poverty.
- Grasp key policy issues and proposed strategies related to poverty, development and population growth
- Comment on inequalities and wealth and their relationship with demographic processes.
- Describe the debates about the impacts of population growth on economic growth, both in its historical context and in the present day.
- Understand poverty concepts and measurement, and its characteristics and trends over time in all parts of the world – in poor countries, but also within rich countries.
- Understand macro–level concerns about rapid population growth and its economic consequences, and the short-lived economic advantages of a youthful population structure – the ‘demographic dividend'
Syllabus
The module content may vary to an extent from year to year according to the research interests of the module lecturers. However, indicative content includes:
- Poverty - concepts and measurement;
- Population growth and economic wellbeing;
- Demographic dividend
- COVID19, global inequality and poverty
- Population aging and depopulation Case study: Population change and policy in China
- Workshop—writing policy briefs
- Migration, immigration, race/ethnicity, and poverty
- Young adults, welfare support, and inequalities in transition to adulthood
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching and learning is through a mixture of a) lectures and b) student-led seminars. Reading distributed in advance of the seminars provides the basis for learning through student-led discussion.
Type | Hours |
---|---|
Independent Study | 80 |
Teaching | 20 |
Total study time | 100 |
Resources & Reading list
General Resources
Text books, web sites, other sources of related information..
Internet Resources
Journal Articles
Merrick, T. (2002). Population and policy: New views on an old controversy.. International Family Planning Perspectives, 28(1), pp. 41-46.
Ahlburg, D. (2002). Does population matter? A review essay. Population and Development Review, 28(2), pp. 329-350.
Textbooks
Birdsall, N., Kelley, A., & Sinding, S. (2001). Population matters: Demographic change, economic growth and poverty in the developing world.
Collier, P. (2007). The bottom billion: Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it.
Bloom, D.E., Canning, D., & Sevilla, J. (2003). The demographic dividend. A new perspective on the economic consequences of population change, Population Matters.. Santa Monica, U.S.
Yeates, N. (eds) (2008). Understanding Global Social Policy. Bristol.
Yeates, N. and Holden, C. (2009). The Global Social Policy Reader. Bristol.
Chen, S. and Ravallion, M (2008). The developing world is poorer than we thought, but no less successful in the fight against poverty. Washington.
Assessment
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Briefing document | 85% |
Group presentation | 15% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Coursework assignment(s) | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External