Population in the Human Sciences: Concepts, Models, Evidence

The Human Sciences address problems in nature and society that often require coordinated approaches of several scientific disciplines and scholarly research, embracing the social and biological sciences, and history. When we wish, for example, to understand how some sub-populations and not others come to be vulnerable, why a disease spreads in one part of a population and not another, or which gene variants are transmitted across generations, then a remarkable range of disciplinary perspectives need to be brought together, from the study of institutional structures, cultural boundaries, and social networks down to the micro-biology of cellular pathways, and gene expression. The need to explain and address differential impacts of pressing contemporary issues like AIDS, ageing, social and economic inequalities, and environmental change, are well-known cases in point. Population concepts, models, and evidence lie at the core of approaches to all of these problems, if only because accurate differentiation and identification of groups, their structures, constituents, and relations between sub-populations, are necessary to specify their nature and extent. The study of population thus draws both on statistical methodologies of demography and population genetics and sustained observation of the ways in which populations and sub-populations are formed, maintained, or broken up in nature, in the laboratory, and in society. In an era in which research needs to operate on multiple levels, population thinking thus provides a common ground for communication and critical thought across disciplines. Population in the Human Sciences addresses the need for review and assessment of the framework of interdisciplinary population studies. Limitations to prevailing postwar paradigms like the Evolutionary Synthesis and Demographic Transition were becoming evident by the 1970s. Subsequent decades have witnessed an immense expansion of population modelling and related empirical inquiry, with new genetic developments that have reshaped evolutionary, population, and developmental biology. The rise of anthropological and historical demography, and social network analysis, are playing major roles in rethinking modern and earlier population history. More recently, the emergence of sub-disciplines like biodemography and evolutionary anthropology, and growing links between evolutionary and developmental biology, indicate a growing convergence of biological and social approaches to population. Contributors to this volume - Jere R. Behrman, W. R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Economics and Sociology, University of Pennsylvania Walter Bodmer, Head, Cancer and Immunogenetics Laboratory, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford Melissa J. Brown, Frieda L. Miller Fellow in Anthropology, Minnesota Population Center Francesc Calafell, Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain Cristian Capelli, RCUK Academic Fellow in Human Evolution, Department of Zoology, Oxford University David Comas, Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain Jason Dunn, Centre for Anatomical and Human Sciences, Hull York Medical School, University of Hull Sarah Elton, Reader, Department of Anthropology, Durham University Mark Elvin, St Antony's College, Oxford University Simon Gregson, Professor in Demography and Behavioural Science, Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health, Imperial College, London Michael Gurven, Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara Tim Hallett, Professor of Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health, Imperial College, London Stephane Helleringer, Assistant Professor of Population and Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Paul L. Hooper, Omidyar Fellow, Santa Fe Institute, Sante Fe, New Mexico Graeme Hugo, ARC Professorial Fellow and Professor of Geography; Director, Australian Population and Migration Research Centre, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia Hillard Kaplan, Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico Hans-Peter Kohler, Frederick J. Warren Professor of Demography, Department of Sociology and Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania Philip Kreager, Senior Research Fellow in Human Sciences, Somerville College; Lecturer and Tutor in Demography, Institute of Human Sciences; Director, Fertility and Reproductive Studies Group, School of Anthropology, Oxford University Stephen Kunitz, Professor Emeritus, Division of Social and Behavioral Medicine, Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York Jennifer A. Johnson-Hanks, Associate Professor, Departments of Demography and Sociology, University of California, Berkeley Daniel John Lawson, Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research, University of Bristol Klim McPherson, Visiting Professor in Epidemiology, Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Oxford University John Odling-Smee, Mansfield College and School of Anthropology, Oxford University Elisabeth Schroder-Butterfill, Lecturer in Social Gerontology, Centre for Research on Ageing, Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, Southampton University Chris Spencer, Fellow, Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Nuffield Department of Medicine, Oxford University Jonathan Stieglitz, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico Mikolaj Szoltysek, Research Scientist/ Deputy Head, Laboratory of Historical Demography, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research Simon Szreter, Professor of History and Public Policy, St John's College, Cambridge University Stanley Ulijaszek, Professor of Human Ecology, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Oxford University Kenneth W. Wachter, Professor, Departments of Demography and Sociology, University of California, Berkeley Susan C. Watkins, Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology and Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania Bruce Winney, Senior Post-Doctoral Researcher, Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Oxford University