290016 SE Bachelorseminar aus Humangeographie: Selected Topics in Population Geography and Demography (2016W)

Population geography can be considered as the study of the spatial variation and analysis of the demographic components of change: migration, fertility (births), and mortality (deaths and diseases). Demography is per se, the statistical analysis of parameters of these population changes.
The analysis of demographic structures and processes and their spatial differentiation appear as an essential prerequisite to understand the main worldwide social, economic and political developments and issues.
The seminar enables students to learn the basic knowledge of population geography: population distribution and migration, through the understanding and exploration of the situation in the Global South. At the end of the course, the students should be able to discuss critically a large range of global demographic topics in the Global South, to read and interpret documents, graphs and data acutely and to apply academic knowledge to real world events.
Key issues of global, regional and local population trends and specific case studies will be jointly discussed (i.e. how we count the population?, family policies in developing countries, population trends in the world: south vs. north?, the AIDS epidemic in southern Africa, declining sex ratio in Asia, epidemiology transition in Africa, migration and age pyramid in the Middle East, … among others topics).