Conceptualising Irish rural youth migration: a biographical approach

This paper explores the usefulness of a biographical approach in studying Irish rural youth migration. There have been calls recently for an approach to migration study that involves conceptualizing migration as part of individual biographies as well as social structures. However, there is little research that explicitly adopts a biographical approach. This paper presents the theoretical underpinnings, methodological issues and findings of a recent study that was guided by the principles of a biographical approach to migration. The study was an exploration of life-path formation among Irish rural youth from the 1970s to the 1990s. The paper focuses on the three key elements of a biographical approach to migration, and relates them to Irish rural youth migration. Firstly, migration is considered as part of an individual's biography, and the methodological implications of this are explored. Secondly, it is argued, drawing on the research in Ireland, that migration decision-making is a multilayered process. In the case of Irish rural youth migration, a biographical approach highlights the complexity of migration decision-making, revealing the tensions and struggles that lie behind each move, and thus raises questions over the tendency towards simplification of the migration process. Finally, it is argued that migration is a cultural phenomenon, but that this assertion needs careful qualification. This paper problematizes the role of culture in migration processes by untangling the systems of competing discourses of migration that underlie societal norms regarding migration, thereby challenging the view of migration as "normal" for particular societies or cultures.     

Development and population growth: the Indian experience

This paper analyzes the prevailing demographic trends and development processes in India. Data were taken from the World Development Report and the Human Development Reports of South Asia and India, Census of India, and Government of India's Economic Survey. A much slower economic progress and human development was observed in South Asia as compared to those in East Asia. At present, the income levels in East Asia are 27 times higher and have a human development index twice that of South Asia. India had a better economic performance as compared to other countries in South Asia. However, the human deprivations within India continue to hinder the country's emergence as a politico-economic power on the international scene. Investigation of the diversity in population growth and development in India was presented in this paper using indicators such as: average annual population growth; couple protection rate; female literacy; mean age at marriage for females; infrastructural facilities; proportion below poverty line; and the per capita income. Finally, specific suggestions on how to accelerate the fertility transition in the country were enumerated.     

Living situation and integration in a rural area in southern Sri Lanka

Results from field work in Sri Lanka are presented. The main issues covered are aspects of people's living situation, economic and social interaction, and degree of integration on a number of indicators. Living situation implies material well-being, access to resources, education and health, and attitudes towards development. By interaction is meant economic circulation in the study area and between this area and the outside world, geographical mobility of people, and lastly, channels of information. To obtain an easily intelligible measure for comparison over time, the concept integration is used.     

Possibilities of land use change analysis in a mountainous rural area: a methodological approach

Decreasing population density is a current trend in the European Union, and causes a lower environmental impact on the landscape. However, besides the desirable effect on the regeneration processes of semi-natural forest ecosystems, the lack of traditional management techniques can also lead to detrimental ecological processes. In this study we investigated the land use pattern changes in a micro-region (in North-Eastern Hungary) between 1952 and 2005, based on vectorised land use data from archive aerial photos. We also evaluated the methodology of comparisons using GIS methods, fuzzy sets and landscape metrics. We found that both GIS methods and statistical analysis of landscape metrics resulted in more or less the same findings. Differences were not as relevant as was expected considering the general tendencies of the past 60 years in Hungary. The change in the annual rate of forest recovery was 0.12%; settlements extended their area by an annual rate of 3.04%, while grasslands and arable lands had a net loss in their area within the studied period (0.60% and 0.89%, respectively). The kappa index showed a smaller similarity (~60%) between these dates but the fuzzy kappa and the aggregation index, taking into account both spatial and thematic errors, gave a more reliable result (~70–80% similarity). Landscape metrics on patch and class level ensured the possibility of a detailed analysis. We arrived at a similar outcome but were able to verify all the calculations through statistical tests. With this approach we were able to reveal significant (p < 0.05) changes; however, effect sizes did not show large magnitudes. Comparing the methods of revealing landscape change, the approach of landscape metrics was the most effective approach, as it was independent of spatial errors and ensuring a multiple way of interpretation.     

Growth of rural population: a case study of Patiala district,Punjab

"Based on the census data, the present paper focuses on patterns of rural population growth in the Patiala district [India] during 1951-81. The striking spatial variations in growth rate were associated largely with migration differentials in the study area. Similarly, there were wide differentials in the population growth rates between scheduled castes and non-scheduled castes and among different religious communities. The proportion of different castes and communities to the total population changed due to their uneven growth rates."     

Demographic development in an Indian state: a case study of Rajasthan

"The paper attempts to analyse the patterns of and trends in demographic development in Rajasthan state [India] by employing the indices of urbanization, literacy and occupational diversification.... An effort has also been made to define the concept of demographic development...." Demographic development is defined as improvement in the quality of the population in a given area.     

Traditional horticultural knowledge change in a rural population of the Patagonian steppe

We investigated traditional horticultural knowledge related to plant species cultivated in homegardens in an arid rural population of North-western Patagonia, Argentina. By means of semi-structured interviews and field visits to the cultivated areas we analyzed floristic composition and structure of: vegetable-gardens, greenhouses and gardens. We evaluated species richness, cover and biogeographical origin in each cultivated area and analyzed the influence of socio-cultural factors, such as age and gender, on informants’ cultivation practice. A total of 124 species was found: 75 species in vegetable-gardens, 63 in greenhouses and 68 in gardens. In all cultivated areas, most plant species (91%) were exotic and mainly used for edible purposes. Plant richness in homegardens increased with informants’ age and both men and women play a relevant role in the maintenance of cultivated areas. Traditional knowledge in this community has been suffering an erosion process, which is in part influenced by the intervention of extension agents. However, their presence creates the possibility of integrating new and ancestral practices, favoring development of knowledge of a hybrid, syncretic nature. Alongside these changes, Pilcaniyeu inhabitants still maintain traditional homegardens cultivation, through which we can appreciate the intricate relationship between people and their physical, historical, cultural and spiritual contexts.     

Dynamic mechanism and present situation of rural settlement evolution in China

This paper provides a detailed analysis of the factors influencing the evolution of rural settlements, including natural environmental constraints, infrastructure, regional cultural inheritance and integration, urbanization and rural industrial transformation, land use reformation and innovation, rural household behavior conversion, macro-control policy factors, and so on. Based on differences between the ways and degree of effect on rural settlement evolution, these factors are classified into basic factors, new-type factors and mutation factors. The drive of basic factors mainly focuses on the traditional inheritance of rural settlements, the new-type factors mainly affect rural settlement transition, and the mutation factors may bring about sudden changes. All these factors constitute a “three-wheel” driving mechanism for the evolution of rural settlements, and shape three typical driver paths: slow smooth path under the basic factors, new path to rapid development under the new-type factors, and the sudden change path under the mutation factors. The paper also investigates the overall situation of rural settlement evolution in the aspects of settlement system, settlement scale, settlement morphology, settlement function, settlement culture, settlement environment, etc. The general process of rural settlement evolution is divided into four stages: initial, transitional, developmental, and mature stages.     

Growth of rural population in Punjab, 1971-81

Except for the decade 1941-1951, in which Punjab's population declined because of a huge exchange of population between India and Pakistan and a large loss of life, the decade 1971-1981 was the 1st decade since 1911 to experience a deceleration in the growth rate of the rural population of Punjab, India. The deceleration was due to out-migration to urban areas. The scheduled caste population increased 28.37% between 1971 and 1981, while the nonscheduled caste population increased by only 13.32%, which was considerably below the rate of natural increase. Nonscheduled castes had experienced substantial out-migration because of 1) improved transport and communication facilities which enabled them to move to urban centers; 2) mechanization of main farming operations and easy availability of migrant laborers which lessened the need for family labor; 3) the rise of a relatively mobile younger generation with a high literacy rate; 4) rapidly decreasing land holdings which strengthened the push factor in the countryside; and 5) rising aspirations, especially among the younger generation. In 1981, Sikhs constituted 71.3% of the rural population in Punjab, followed by Hindus (26.51%), Christians (1.25%), and Muslims (.89%). From 1971-1981, Muslims experienced the greatest increase (49.29%). Sikhs grew by 20.74% and Hindus by 9.02%. The Sikhs high growth rate was due to 1) a new technique for counting religious affiliation in which all members of a household are considered the same religion as the head of household and 2) conversion of Hindus to Sikhism. Hindus had a low growth rate because 1) the new method of counting religious affiliation and 2) rural-urban migration. The area with the lowest population increase resulted from industrialists and other nonagriculturists buying farmland, causing the agriculturists to move away to less desirable land. Conclusions are 1) the sharp rural-urban division along religious lines should be lessened, 2) Sikhs' lag in urbanization and upward mobility should be decreased, and 3) nonagriculturalists should be prevented from buying farm land from peasants along main roads and around urban centers.     

Fusing remote sensing with sparse demographic data for synthetic population generation: an algorithm and application to rural Afghanistan

We develop a new algorithm for population synthesis that fuses remote-sensing data with partial and sparse demographic surveys. The algorithm addresses non-binding constraints and complex sampling designs by translating population synthesis into a computationally efficient procedure for constrained network growth. As a case, we synthesize the rural population of Afghanistan, validate the algorithm with in-sample and out-of-sample tests, examine the variability of algorithm outputs over k-nearest neighbor manifolds, and show the responsiveness of our algorithm to additional data as a constraint on marginal population counts.     

The exploitation of an arid landscape by a pastoral society: the contemporary eastern Badia of Jordan

The paper reconsiders the use of arid landscapes as a resource by pastoral societies in the light of recent socioeconomic developments, using Bedouin livestock herding in the Jordanian Badia as a case study of a pastoral system in transition. The paper argues that in the contemporary Badia context, landscape is exploited by users in a wide variety of ways, and for the acquisition of both tangible and non-tangible resources. The study concludes that the modernization and commercialization of livestock production in the Badia does not necessarily imply a diminishing of ties between herder and land resources, and suggests instead that the process of modernization in livestock production may in fact generate a wider spectrum of options for its exploitation.     

Re‐enlivening the Indian Ocean through contemporary trade: East African traders searching for new markets in Jakarta

While much has been written about the history of mobility and trade in the Indian Ocean, recent trading connections between Eastern Africa and Asia have so far only gained very little attention. However, in Zanzibar alone, hundreds of traders regularly embark on journeys reviving old routes and further develop them, in order to take advantage of the way the global economy works today. By providing an ethnographic account of such a journey undertaken by four Zanzibari traders to Jakarta, this article gives an insight into the organization, calculations and imaginations involved in contemporary Indian Ocean trading networks. Although this trade journey clearly marks a new form of translocal mobility among Zanzibari traders, this mobile ethnography highlights how the journey is at the same time closely linked to, evokes and enlivens very old processes of mobility across the Indian Ocean, thus highlighting the dialectics between old and new mobilities, and between familiarity and strangeness.     

China's population: an alternative perspective

The author presents a selection of cartograms designed to illustrate aspects of the demography of China. Topics covered include population growth, density, regional variations in fertility, and age distribution. A discussion of the advantages of using cartograms (maps drawn proportional to a given variable) as opposed to conventional, area-based maps, is included.     

Developing Contradictions: Women's Participation as a Site of Struggle Within an Indian NGO*

Women are being hired in increasing numbers by development projects to facilitate women's participation components. Once employed, however, women often find themselves marginalized within their organizations. In this paper, I find that the women's participation component of an Indian drinking water project has enabled the exclusion of women fieldworkers employed by the project. Drawing on the work of Bakhtin, I show participatory approaches as multiple, partial, and contentious. Moves to thwart women fieldworkers and women's participation give rise to struggles over development geography. Analysis of project records, interviews with staff, and observation of staff activities provide evidence for results.     

Reflectance spectroscopy: a new approach for reconstructing penguin population size from Antarctic ornithogenic sediments

Reflectance spectroscopy has several advantages compared to traditional chemical methods in paleolimnology. It requires little cost, involves minimal or no sample preparation and is rapid. There has, however, been limited use of reflectance spectroscopy in polar paleolimnological studies. This paper explores the application of reflectance spectroscopy to reconstruct historical changes in penguin population size in the maritime Antarctic. Two ornithogenic sediment cores on Ardley Island, Antarctica were analyzed. Penguin droppings and weathered soils were analyzed as reference materials. Principal component analysis and linear mixing modeling were performed on the spectral data to estimate the proportion of penguin guano in the sediments and these values were used to infer historical penguin population numbers. Historical penguin population size versus time, reconstructed from reflectance spectra, and population numbers inferred from previous geochemical analysis of bio-elements, were quite similar. Our results illustrate the feasibility of rapidly inferring historical changes in penguin population size using reflectance spectroscopy on Antarctic ornithogenic sediments. Our findings suggest that this technique has potential for reconstructing past population numbers of other seabirds and mammals using lake sediments influenced by animal excrement.     

Migration of scheduled caste population in rural Bist Doab (Punjab)

Using primary data collected from 5 villages in the Bist Doab, this study analyzes migration patterns of the scheduled caste population in rural areas of this region of Punjab. During 1971-1981, the rural scheduled caste population recorded a growth rate of 28.37% as compared to the corresponding growth rate of 13.32% among the rural nonscheduled castes. The proportion of the scheduled caste population showed striking intervillage variations from 52.85% in Khark Balhra to 87.45% in Bhoyapur. It was found that the rate of in-migration of the general population was quite low; the scheduled castes were no exception. Male in-migration has been primarily due to economic reasons; female in-migration was due largely to the change of marital status. It is only in Bhoyapur that about 44% of male in-migrants came as a result of rehabilitation programs undertaken by the state government after 1947. In all the villages, the scheduled caste males have out-migrated at a far slower pace than their nonscheduled caste counterparts. Economic reasons for males and marriage for females are almost the only 2 determinants of out-migration. Scheduled caste males and females differ from each other not only in terms of their motives for migration, but also with respect to the distance of the move; compared to the short distance migration among females, males experience relatively long range migration. Scheduled caste and nonscheduled caste difference is widest in terms of gross emigration; emigration among the scheduled castes is small in volume and more recent in origin. This is directly related to their meager incomes, low literacy rates, and lack of awareness of opportunities.     

The ethics of population control in rural China, 1979-92

This article identifies some issues of importance in understanding China's policy of population control. This article presents evidence of trends in fertility, population policy, family planning, and socioeconomic change; and then discusses the conflict between fertility preferences and policy that is evident from studies of ideal family size and sex ratios. Some issues that are identified as "uncertain" include the extent of spread of family planning service delivery and its associated insurance schemes, local family planning policies and cadre responsibility systems, the demand for children, the demand for female children, the economic and environmental consequences of population growth, the fairness of reproductive restrictions and their application, and the extent of coercion in the later-longer-fewer policy era. It is argued that an ethical framework for analyzing China's population policy should include answers to questions about the harm to welfare from population growth, the government's right to demand voluntary reproductive sacrifice or to impose demographic or reproductive restrictions and punishment, and the government's right to impose coercion. If it is accepted that population growth in China has adverse consequences and its control would be beneficial to all, then it must be determined what the nature of the relationship should be between the state and the individual. The author refers to Walzer's (1983) position that the legitimacy of Chinese state power depends in part on whether political leaders at all levels are competent and not corrupt. The rights and duties of the government and individuals must be understood not just in terms of political legitimacy but also in terms of social justice. Social justice is dependent upon the degree of horizontal and vertical consultation and accountability, utilitarian consequences, and protected spheres of individual judgement. Utilitarian theories justify the one-child policy, while deontological theories support reproductive freedom as an absolute right.     

The Soviet Far East: a report on urban and rural settlement and population change, 1966-1989

"This article provides a general overview of trends in urban-rural population change and evolution of the settlement system in the Soviet Far East since 1966, incorporating data published in the recent national statistical yearbooks and the preliminary 1989 census report....Total population in the Soviet Far East increased from 5,435,000 in 1966 to 7,941,000 by January 12, 1989, with the share of the urban population now comprising over three-quarters of the total. Migration patterns into and out of the region are discussed and cities planned for expansion are identified."     

A micro-level approach to rural development planning: the case of piped water in Sierra Leone

This study addresses the need to incorporate analysis of the target area and the target population at the micro level as part of plan implementation strategies in less developed countries, especially in Africa. Such micro-level studies have several benefits, amongst which are the ease and low costs of data compilation and the potential for local input. To demonstrate these points, the proposed government distribution of water supply facilities in two villages in Sierra Leone, West Africa, is compared with an alternative distribution. While the government strategy attempts to maximize areal coverage, the alternative distribution attempts to minimize walking distance. It is shown that accessibility to the water supply facilities can be improved under the alternative approach.