Review by Choice Review
Oxford University's Martin School asked resident gerontologist Harper to look back from a successful research career at the fundamental demographic changes affecting the contemporary world. This result, as might be expected, concentrates chiefly on how the demographic transition (falling birth and death rates) has shifted the balance of most populations from a population pyramid shape with lots of children, to what Harper calls a population "vase" dominated by large and growing older populations and steadily contracting young age groups. Harper ably surveys global variations in the timing and extent of this transformation and presents an excellent summary drawn from wide-ranging research of both its causes and its consequences in a wider social, political, and economic context. The weak link in this survey of contemporary population studies, as so often is the case, concerns migration--both population movements within countries (hardly discussed at all) and international migration (discussed only in a "rational choice" framework of labor migration). As the poor stepchild of demography, migration often receives this treatment. Neglect of massive contemporary refugee movements and other dramatic population shifts can be excused in this study concentrating mainly on the consequences of the demographic transition, since migration usually has little effect on age structure. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. --Elwood Carlson, Florida State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
