1. SOCIOLOGY: A Brief Introduction
Richard T. Schaefer
SOCIOLOGY: A Brief Introduction
Sixth Edition
McGraw-Hill
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. POPULATION, COMMUNITIES, AND HEALTH15
POPULATION, COMMUNITIES, AND HEALTH
Demography: The Study of Population
World Population Patterns
How Did Communities Originate?
Urbanization
Types of Communities

3. POPULATION, COMMUNITIES, AND HEALTH15
POPULATION, COMMUNITIES, AND HEALTH
Sociological Perspectives on Health and Illness
Social Epidemiology and Health
Social Policy and Population: Financing Health Care Worldwide

4. Demography: The Study of Population
Fertility: level of reproduction in a society
Demography: scientific study of population
Sociologists focus on social factors that influence population rates and trends.

5. Demography: The Study of Population
Malthus’s Thesis and Marx’s Response
Malthus held that world’s population was growing more rapidly than the available food supply
Argued food supply increases in an arithmetic progression, whereas population expands by geometric progression
Malthus advocated population control

6. Demography: The Study of Population
Malthus’s Thesis and Marx’s Response
Marx saw no special relationship between world population and the supply of resources
If society were well ordered, increases should lead to greater wealth, not hunger and misery
Linked overpopulation to unequal distribution of resources

7. Demography: The Study of Population
Studying Population Today
Census: enumeration, or counting of a population
Vital Statistics: records of births, deaths, marriages, and divorces gathered through a registration system maintained by government

8. Demography: The Study of Population
Elements of Demography
Death Rate: number of deaths per 1,000 population in a given year
Infant Mortality Rate: number of deaths of infants under one year of age per 1,000 live births in a given year.

9. Demography: The Study of Population
Elements of Demography
Life Expectancy: median number of years a person can be expected to live under current mortality conditions
Growth Rate: difference between birth and deaths, plus the difference between immigrants and emigrants.

10. World Population Patterns
Demographic Transition
Change from high birthrates and death rates to relatively low birth rates and death rates
Typically viewed as a three-stage process:
Pre-transition stage
Transition stage
Post-transition stage

11. World Population Patterns
The Population Explosion
Momentum toward growing world population well-established
Developing nations face prospect of continued population growth, since substantial proportion of their population is approaching child bearing years
Population Pyramid: special type of bar chart that shows distribution of population by gender and age

12. World Population Patterns

13. World Population Patterns
Figure 15.1: Demographic Transition

14. World Population Patterns
Figure 15.2: Population Structure of Afghanistan and the United
States, 2005

15. Fertility Patterns in the United States
The Baby Boom
The baby boom was not a return to large families, but rather decrease in number of childless marriages and one-child families
The baby boom represents the most recent period of high fertility in the United States

16. Fertility Patterns in the United States
Stable Population Growth
Fertility rate of the U.S. remained low over the last two decades
Still experiencing population growth
Momentum built into our age structure by the postwar population boom
Continued high rates of immigration

17. Fertility Patterns in the United States
Stable Population Growth
Zero Population Growth (ZPG): state of a population in which the number of births plus immigrants equals the number of deaths plus emigrants

18. Population and Migration
Migration: relatively permanent movement of people with the purpose of changing their place of residence.
Migration usually describes movement over a sizable distance, rather than from one side of a city to another.

19. How Did Communities Originate?
Early Communities
Early communities were very dependent on physical environment for their food supply
Horticultural societies, where people cultivated food rather than merely gathering fruits and vegetables, led to dramatic changes in human social organization

20. How Did Communities Originate?
Preindustrial Cities
Had only a few thousand people living within their borders
Characterized by relatively closed class systems and limited mobility
Status based on ascribed characteristics, and education limited to elite

21. How Did Communities Originate?
Preindustrial Cities
Remained small due to:
Reliance on animal power
Modest levels of surplus
Problems in transportation and storage of food
Hardships of migration to the city
Dangers of city life

22. How Did Communities Originate?
Industrial and Postindustrial Cities
Industrial City: Based on very different principles of social organization than preindustrial cities
More open class system and social mobility

23. How Did Communities Originate?
Industrial and Postindustrial Cities
Postindustrial City: Global finance and electronic flow of information dominate the economy
Urbanism: relatively large and permanent settlement leads to distinctive patterns of behavior

24. Urbanization Functionalist View: Urban Ecology
Human Ecology: interrelationships between people and their spatial settings and physical environments
Urban Ecology: focuses on relationships as they emerge in urban areas

25. Urbanization Functionalist View: Urban Ecology
Concentric-Zone Theory: center, or nucleus, of a city is the most highly valued land and each succeeding zone surrounding the center contains other types of land which are valued differently
Zones illustrate or define growth of urban area over time

26. Urbanization Functionalist View: Urban Ecology
Multiple-nuclei theory: all urban growth does not radiate out from a central district
Metropolitan area may have several centers of development reflecting urban need or activity

27. Urbanization
Figure 15.3: Ecological Theories of Urban Growth

28. Urbanization Conflict View: New Urban Sociology
New urban sociology: considers the interplay of local, national, and worldwide forces and their effects on local space
World Systems Analysis: certain industrialized nations hold a dominant position at the core of global economic system

29. Urbanization Conflict View: New Urban Sociology
Poorer developing countries are on periphery of global economy
Peripheral countries tend to be exploited by core nations

30. Urbanization

31. Types of Communities Central Cities Urban Dwellers
Gans distinguishes five types of people found in our cities:
Cosmopolites
Unmarried and childless people
Ethnic villagers
The deprived
The trapped

32. Types of Communities Central Cities Urban Dwellers
Defended neighborhood refers to people’s definitions of their community boundaries
Issues Facing Cities
Crime
Pollution
Schools
Inadequate transportation

33. Types of Communities Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD Approach)
Leaders, policymakers and advocates first identify community’s strengths and then seek to mobilize those assets
Helps communities recognize human resources they might otherwise overlook

34. Types of Communities Suburbs Any community near a large city
Three social factors differentiate suburbs from cities:
Less dense than cities
Private space
More exacting building codes

35. Types of Communities Suburbs Suburban Expansion
Suburbanization most dramatic population trend in the United States during 20th century
Diversity in the suburbs
The suburbs contain significant number of low-income people from all backgrounds

36. Types of Communities Rural Communities
21% of U.S. population live in rural areas
Farm residents now represent less than 1% of U.S. population
Shift to single, large business also creates problems

37. Culture and Health
Culture contributes to differences in medical care as well as how health is defined
Culture can also influence the relative incidence of a disease or disorder.

38. Sociological Perspectives on Health and Illness
State of complete physical, mental, and social well-being
Not merely the absence of disease and infirmity
Represents ideal rather than precise condition

39. Sociological Perspectives on Health and Illness
Functionalist Approach
Being sick must be controlled so that not too many people are released from their societal responsibilities at any one time
Sick role: Societal expectations about attitudes and behavior of a person viewed as being ill
Physicians function as “gatekeepers” for the sick role.

40. Sociological Perspectives on Health and Illness
Conflict Approach
Critical of growing role of medicine as major institution of social control
Argues that medicine is a regulating mechanism and manifests social control by:
Expanding its domain of expertise
Retaining jurisdiction over many health care procedures

41. Sociological Perspectives on Health and Illness
Conflict Approach
Inequities of Health Care
Poor areas tend to be underserved
Brain drain: immigration to U.S. and other industrialized nations of skilled workers, professionals, and technicians desperately needed in home countries

42. Sociological Perspectives on Health and Illness
Interactionist Approach
Studies the roles played by health care professionals and patients
Asserts that patients may play an active role in the positive or negative outcomes of their health

43. Sociological Perspectives on Health and Illness
Labeling Approach
The designations healthy and ill generally involve social definition by others
Disagreements continue in the medical community over whether a variety of life experiences are illnesses or not

44. Culture and Health
Figure 15.4: Infant Mortality Rates, 2002

45. Social Epidemiology and Health
Social Epidemiology: study of distribution of disease, impairment, and general health status across a population
Incidence: number of new cases of specific disorder occurring within given population during stated period of time, usually a year
Prevalence: total number of cases of specific disorder that exist at given time

46. Social Epidemiology and Health
Social Class
Clearly associated with differences in morbidity and mortality rates
Class linked to health by:
Crowded living conditions
Substandard housing
Poor diet
Stress
Lack of health insurance

47. Social Epidemiology and Health
Race and Ethnicity
Health profiles of racial and ethnic groups reflect social inequality evident in United States
Poor economic and environmental conditions manifested in high morbidity and mortality rates for these groups

48. Social Epidemiology and Health
Figure 15.5: Percent of People without Health Insurance, 2003

49. Social Epidemiology and Health
Gender
When compared with men, women live longer, but as a group appear to be in poorer health than men
Women live longer due to:
Lower rate of cigarette smoking
Lower consumption of alcohol
Lower rates of employment in certain occupations

50. Social Epidemiology and Health
Age
Most older people in the United States have at least one chronic illness
Older people vulnerable to certain types of mental health problems
Older people use more health services than younger people

51. Social Policy and Health
Financing Health Care Worldwide
The Issue
In many developing nations, health care issues center on very basic needs of primary care
Industrialized nations face issues related to the accessibility and affordability of health care

52. Social Policy and Health
Financing Health Care Worldwide
The Setting
The U.S. is only Western industrial democracy that does not treat health care as basic right
National Health Insurance: general term for legislative proposals that focus on ways to provide the entire population with health care services
Opponents of national health insurance insist it would be costly and lead to significant tax increases.

53. Social Policy and Health
Financing Health Care Worldwide
Sociological Insights
Conflict theorists suggest that health care system resists basic change
Those who receive substantial wealth and power through the workings of an existing institution have strong incentive to keep things as they are
The health care system undergoing “corporatization”

54. Social Policy and Health
Financing Health Care Worldwide
Policy Initiatives
Major changes occurring
More people enrolled in managed care plans, which limit patient’s choice of physicians and treatments but cover most medical costs
There are growing concerns about the quality of health care provided by managed care plans
Many industrial countries paying greater attention to unequal health care delivery