Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Economics. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Demographic transition, population growth, demographic ageing - interrelations and development contexts at the regional level Abstract This thesis aims to examine how the timing and pace of the demographic transition correlated with the timing and pace of ageing at the regional level in Czechia and also to contribute to understanding the determinants and evolution of demographic transition, specifically mortality and fertility decline, and connect it with the population ageing. It is a common belief that ageing is the result of demographic transition, but there is a limited number of studies that investigate the interrelations between these two processes. The greatest challenge was the difficulty in comparing historical and current data caused by changes in the administrative division during 1868-2017. Thus, the recalculation of data was needed to analyse trends in mortality and fertility. 2011 statistical units at the level of districts were chosen as basic units for analysis. The data recalculation was preceded by the reconstruction of historical districts maps and population data estimation for intercensal periods. Data were recalculated using spatial overlays in GIS software and database processing operations both for population and vital statistics. This step was followed by the data analysis....

Having largely achieved the goal of "controlling population quantity," and faced with slowing economic growth, serious demographic problems, and the changes brought about by the deepening marketization of Chinese society, China's central-level leaders have, in recent years, turned their attention to the lesser known twin objective of their population policy, "improving population quality." To this end, they have introduced program reform aimed at improving the quality of services. They have adopted an eclectic approach to program reform, drawing selectively on global discourses and practices on sexual and reproductive health and rights and at the same time relying on their own model of experimental governance, namely, conducting "pilot experiments" in carefully selected sites. Developments at the central-level have been a subject of scholarly attention, but until now, relatively little attention has been paid to grassroots implementation, making it difficult to assess the degree to which practice has in fact changed. This dissertation examines how global discourses and practices on sexual and reproductive health and rights, articulated in global forums and consensus documents, have been taken on, interpreted, and experienced by people at the grassroots level in China. It is based principally on six months of fieldwork, July - December 2009, in Deqing, a rural county, located in the northern part of Zhejiang Province, in the Jiangnan region of China. Deqing is a pilot site for the introduction of "client-centered" approaches to implement the population program. Data were derived from participant observation, analysis of documents, semi-structured interviews with 17 local-level providers working at the county, township, and village-levels in clinical and administrative capacities, and 17 married women of reproductive age residing in three townships. I documented many innovative approaches that the local program developed to promote "quality service" and its various components, such as "information," "choice," and "rights," as they understood them. I also found that the range of services that the program now provides extends well beyond birth planning and that in addition to its core demographic, married women of reproductive age, the program now targets new populations including those that have been a focus of global attention in recent years such as migrants and adolescents. For the populations that the program targets, migrants being a notable exception, the mode of governance has begun to shift from direct to more indirect means, the latter being considered a more efficient way to implement the program in the current environment. Unlike earlier efforts to "control population quantity," which were often forcefully implemented and fiercely resisted, efforts to "improve population quality," have received a warm reception by providers and clients alike in Deqing. While there are some continuities, overall, the changes that have been introduced are an explicit departure from past practice. Taken together, these findings contribute to ongoing debates regarding the dynamics and effects of globalization.

Mass demographic changes in the ethnic and racial composition of the United States since the 1960s are commonly considered a force driving major transformations in contemporary American politics. In political science, there are longstanding research traditions that examine the political implications of demographic change: how demographic change leads to growing intergroup political contestation over political power and public policies; how demographic changes lead to shifts in the group bases of partisan support; how demographic changes are associated with changes in the demographic composition of politicians and elected officials; and how the changing face of America affects the political responsiveness of elected officials to historically underrepresented but increasingly prominent segments of the population. Despite the proliferation of empirical studies on these topics, numerous causal claims central to broader arguments about the political implications of demographic change deserve greater theoretical and empirical scrutiny. In this dissertation, I make use of novel datasets and methods for descriptive and causal inference to contribute more credible evidence that test these claims and develop new avenues of research.

This study focuses on the difference between northern and southern Italy concering the correlation between total fertility rate (TFR) and female employment rate (FER) using pronvicial-level data. Theories demonstrate that the correlation can either be negative or positive, although it has been showed in the past decades that this correlation between nations is positive throughout the developed countries. This phenomenon has been descripted by van de Kaa (2002) and Lesthaeghe (2010) as the second demographic transition. With regards of Italy, previous studies focusing on the country’s 20 regions have also found a positive correlation (Rondinelli and Zizza 2010). Furthermore, the Italian context is explained with special regards towards the deep cultural and socio-economical differences between northern and southern Italy. The divide is confirmed by statistical data. Furthermore, a regression analysis controls the correlation between TFR and FER against relevant variables and finds surprisingly a positive correlation in the north and a negative correlation in the south, where a fertility postponement mechanism is present. Conservative gender roles and economic underdevelopment can be seen as the cause of this divide, although there are signs of change.

During the period of 1992-1998, Russia underwent a transition from a centralized economy to a market economy with devastating socioeconomic consequences, and industrial decline, which has resulted in demographic crises. The central argument driving this thesis is that during its transition to a market economy, through shock therapy from 1992-1998, Russia’s social and economic infrastructure went through a regression in the form of refeudalization, which is empirically revealed through health and demographic indicators. Remarkably, the effects of this socioeconomic regression was buffered from further devastation through a set of social compromises between workers, unions and industrial managers, which stabilized the brunt of shock therapy, but still resulted in the refeudalization of Russian society. The objective of this study is to construct a comprehensive model to conceptualize Russia’s socioeconomic regression during the period of transition from 1992-1998, and to explain the causes for the regression within the model. / This thesis conceptualizes socioeconomic regression as a feature of political economy within a mode of production model, and applies the model to explain Russia's socioeconomic transition during the period from 1992 to 1998.

Migration, which is becoming the most important branch of demography is the central theme of this thesis. The introduction covers the sources and methods employed and surveys the political and economic milieu in which Southampton developed between 1400 and 1600. The demographic fluctuations in the town at the period are charted and set in the context of other towns. Southampton did not grow in the early modern period by natural increase but through immigration. Study of mid-19th-century censuses has been undertaken in England but pre-industrial migration remains largely uncharted although scholars have studied individual sources such as consistory court deposition books or freemen's rolls. The originality of this thesis lies in its multi-source approach to the study of migration. The investigation of a single town enables the careers of the immigrants to be traced to see how they progressed. The two central sections of the thesis examines the origins and mobility of various groups in Southampton during the 15th and 16th centuries - royal officials, mayors, HPs, burgesses, non-burgesses and the poor. Three lists, for 1454, 1524 and 1585, have been analysed by nominal record linkage. These lists provide 'snapshots' of society and provide a basis for discussion of topics not mentioned elsewhere such as the origins and connections of property owners in 1454. The 1524 discussion examines Southampton society by wealth group and the 1585 muster provides an opportunity for discussion of apprenticeship and occupational patronage, the passing of skills from masters to servants, who were often immigrants. The fourth section deals with overseas immigrants to the town. An Italian became mayor in the 15th century and foreigners penetrated town society at all levels, bringing new skills to the town such as glazing and the manufacture of the 'new draperies'. Channel Islanders also migrated to Southampton, being identified in all walks of life from mayors to paupers. The study concludes that immigration and emigration were of great importance to the life of the town between 1400 and 1600, and that with patronage, or money, outsiders were welcomed into town society: indeed town dynasties were rare. An estimated 50% of the population of renaissance Southampton were immigrants who not only swelled its numbers but also provided new capital and ideas. This novel attempt to tackle the formerly intractable problem of migration within an urban community provides a methodological framework for future studies.

Theoretical work indicates that HIV-1 epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa will cause major demographic changes. The current study assesses the extent to which these changes can already be seen in two rural areas of Manicaland, Zimbabwe and investigates the determinants of the epidemic and its demographic impact. The study utilizes demographic survey methods and qualitative sociological techniques. Data analysis is conducted using statistical packages and is guided by insights generated from mathematical models of the epidemiology and demographic impact of HIV-1 infections. HIV-1 prevalence is high in both areas. Among women, HIV-1 infection is associated with age and marital status. Indirect evidence indicates that religion, education, migration and socio-economic characteristics of husband may also be important determinants. Each of these factors influences the pattern of sexual behaviour. Rates of sexual partner change are heterogeneous for women but appear more homogeneous for men. Mixing patterns are disassortative: men form partnerships with women with high and low rates of partner change. Mortality has undergone a recent upturn, almost certainly associated with HIV-1 infections. Adults aged 20-45 years and men, in particular, are most affected at this (early) stage of the epidemic. Religion is an important local determinant of demographic patterns, whose influence on mortality appears to be changing vua its effect on sexual behaviour and the spread of HIV-1. Orphanhood has increased, but, as yet, there is little change in population structure. Fertility has declined since the late 1970s. It is too early in the AIDS epidemic to see an impact of HIV-1 at the population level. However, some signs of behaviour changes which affect the proximate determinants of fertility were detected. These changes may accelerate the decline in birth rates, especially at younger ages. New demographic projections for Zimbabwe are developed, based on observed trends in HIV- 1 infection and fertility, and underlying behaviour patterns. These indicate substantial further increases in mortality, particularly among women and young children, greatly reduced population growth, relative shortages of young children and older adults, and further increases in orphanhood. Families and communities will require support in facing this slowly unfolding disaster.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

D.Phil. / Civil society organisations have and will be mentioned as partners, agents and autochthonous actors of social security. This has come about through advances in insurance products, through the kinds of social action engaged in by civil society organisations, and through the devolution of state power to citizens and civil society organisations. Rights to social security are decisively affected by the use of civil society organisations in the social policy field, and the implications of this use are investigated. This reality of the changing nature of social action needs to be brought to bear on human rights, if rights are to respond adequately to the concerns of injustice, inequality and poverty today. The thesis develops a framework within which civil society-based action could be made rights-based and justiciable, and which could guard against the retrogressive substitution of state action by civil society-based activity. Civil society-based action can be seen as upholding rights if it conforms to the fundamental requirements of human rights. These fundamental requirements derive from a performative conception of rights that sees the individual as subject of rights and as the fundamental actor of rights. This view of rights sees rights as dependent on the abilities and volition of all in society, and is presented as an alternative to a realist view of rights, as well as a view of rights as derived from basic human functionings. The intersection of this view of rights, the reality of non-state action for rights, and the legal discourse around socio-economic rights is the central problem that this thesis addresses. The legal discourse has only partially recognised this form of social action, and this thesis proposes a framework within which we may interpret and assess whether civil society action is indeed conducive to the realisation of rights. This framework includes democratic norms for conduct inside civil society organisations, for the interaction between civil society organisations and other actors, like the state and market, and also delineates the role of the court in this performative conception of rights. These interactions will shape the content, and nature of socio-economic rights, and here these insights are made applicable to the right to have access to social security in South Africa. The thesis discusses the suitability of South African civil society for this normative programme developed here. I analyse South African civil society, its historical role in transformation, in the current context, and its place in social and economic policy. There are ample opportunities for participation by civil society organisations in the further reform of the social security system. The realisation of novel ways to realise the right to have access to social security through civil society organisations for South Africans would depend on clarity on how civil society organisations could contribute to the enjoyment, realisation and performance of this right. The framework of accountability developed here has precedents and roots in law, civil society theory and in the discourse of social security. I analyse each, and I show how the social security discourse has incorporated civil society organisations in its historical development. Currently, it is a leading avenue for the further development of this discourse. However, this possibility – which intersects with the discourse of civil society – would depend on civil society being able to realise normative ends in its interaction with wider society. To gain clarity on this I analyse the civil society discourse, and critically point out problems that could stand in the way of this normative project. However, theorists of civil society have emphasised how this problem can be overcome; I draw on these writings to substantiate and legitimate the framework of accountability developed earlier. The realisation of this framework of accountability and action would enable civil society organisations to realise normative ends in society, and thus contribute to the realisation of rights. This vision of how rights could be realised is also discussed from a legal point of view, and I point out the features of the legal discourse that would support my thesis. The central objective of the thesis is to show that the South African constitution can support this reading of rights and the place of civil society action in its realisation.