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Demography for the Public: Literary Representations of Population Research and Policy

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  • Amrita Chhachhi
  • Alaka M. Basu

Abstract

type="main"> This article explores the idea of what may be called Public Demography, wherein the practitioners and interpreters of the discipline of population studies inform (and sometimes inflame) the popular discourse on population-related matters. It looks at the representation of demographic research and policies in one form of public engagement, namely fiction — literature being an important way of transmitting the substance of a technical field of study to a lay public. Reviewing a sample of fictional writing that is clearly derived from a specialized knowledge of the subject of demography, the article finds it useful to classify this genre into two groups. The works in the first group tend to reproduce or reiterate the mainstream assumptions underlying the academic discipline, while those in the second group seem to take on board more recent criticisms of these assumptions, sometimes in unexpected ways. Readers, however, seem to react much more readily to those works that repeat some of the ‘bad’ habits of the discipline.

Suggested Citation

  • Amrita Chhachhi & Alaka M. Basu, 2014. "Demography for the Public: Literary Representations of Population Research and Policy," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(5), pages 813-837, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:45:y:2014:i:5:p:813-837
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. David Lewis & Dennis Rodgers & Michael Woolcock, 2008. "The Fiction of Development: Literary Representation as a Source of Authoritative Knowledge," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(2), pages 198-216.
    2. Alaka Malwade Basu, 2006. "The Emotions and Reproductive Health," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 32(1), pages 107-121, March.
    3. Lionel Shriver, 2003. "Population in Literature," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 29(2), pages 153-162, June.
    4. Borooah, V. & Iyer, S., 2004. "‘Religion and Fertility in India: The role of son preference and daughter aversion’," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0436, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    5. Susan Watkins, 1993. "If all we knew about women was what we read in Demography, what would we know?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 30(4), pages 551-577, November.
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