TRENDS AND ISSUES IN SOCIAL

STUDIES
A. SOCIAL VAUES AND SOCIAL CONSCIENCE

Values are individual beliefs that motivate people to act one way or another. They serve
as a guide for human behavior.

Generally, people are predisposed to adopt the values that they are raised with. People
also tend to believe that those values are “right” because they are the values of their
particular culture.

Ethical decision-making often involves weighing values against each other and
choosing which values to elevate. Conflicts can result when people have different
values, leading to a clash of preferences and priorities.

Some values have intrinsic worth, such as love, truth, and freedom. Other values, such
as ambition, responsibility, and courage, describe traits or behaviors that are
instrumental as means to an end.

Still other values are considered sacred and are moral imperatives for those who
believe in them. Sacred values will seldom be compromised because they are
perceived as duties rather than as factors to be weighed in decision-making. For
example, for some people, their nation’s flag may represent a sacred value. But for
others, the flag may just be a piece of cloth.

So, whether values are sacred, have intrinsic worth, or are a means to an end, values
vary among individuals and across cultures and time. However values are universally
recognized as a driving force in ethical decision-making.

A few examples are:

 Personal. Individual values may include empathy, honesty, kindness or generosity.
 Relationships. Interpersonal values may include trust, friendship, loyalty or intimacy.
 Work. Values in your working life may include professionalism, leadership or
teamwork.
 Society. Values related to wider society may include environmentalism, social justice
or charity.
Why are Values Important?
Values are the baseline of the ethical compass and regulate people's daily behavior.
Values establish the ultimate goals one has to achieve and how to get them. Values
guide every decision-making process. Values help someone define what is proper,
correct, important, beautiful, worthwhile, or desirable. A perfect example is someone
who values family and would always make decisions that ensure that its interests are
met.
Values at the societal level ensure that members interact harmoniously, making it easier
to meet the goals that would have been impossible to attain individually. Hence, values
help people to have a dream and establish ways of attaining such dreams. Values equip
people with a purpose to live. They are major motivating factors. People with well-
defined values always live satisfying lives as they know they are doing something
meaningful.

TYPES OF VALUES
Classifying values has always been a complicated task since there is no hard and fast
rule to classify values as they are closely interlinked. Some of the important values are
as follows.

 Personal Values – It is personal to an individual both in terms of their

possession and their use. It is a desire and cherished by the individual
irrespective of his social relationship. These values make a person good for
himself. Examples being ambition, cleanliness, discipline etc.
 Family Values – Family as a social institution is based on certain
universally defined value system which are nurtured and cultivated within a
family system. Mainly, these values comes from the lead of the family
mostly father who transfer these values to their children, who further impart
these values to future generation.
 Social Values – It refers to certain behaviours and beliefs that are shared
within specific cultures and social groups. These values are good for the
society and form the basis of the relationship of an individual with other
people in society. Examples being courtesy, charity, civic duty etc.
 Moral Values – These values constitute attitude and behaviour that a
society consider essential for co-existence, order and general well-being. It
enables an individual in making a distinction between right and wrong and
good and bad etc. Example being fairness, justice, human dignity etc.
 Ethical Values – Ethical values are a set of moral principles that apply to a
specific group of people, professional field or form of human conduct.
These values presuppose moral courage and the power to act according to
one’s moral convictions even at the risk of financial, emotional or social
security. These relate to our personal behaviour with our fellow beings. All
moral values are also covered under ethical values.
 Spiritual Values – it refers to the process of reflecting on non-material
dimensions of life and acquiring insights into personal experiences. They
affect the individual in his relations with himself and concerned with the
realisation of the ‘Self’ and being one with ‘Divinity’. Examples being truth,
beauty, goodness etc.
 Cultural Values – Cultural values are the standards of what is acceptable
or unacceptable, important or unimportant, right or wrong in a society. It
gives importance to preserve cultural practices, ceremonies, traditions etc.
which might be threatened by the materialistic culture of modern times.
Examples being hospitality, social order, tolerance etc.
 Trans-cultural values – Values that are similar in practice among different
cultures throughout the whole world. These can be categorized as universal
values since these values are followed across the cultures.
 Intrinsic Values – They are the ends in themselves, not the means for
achieving some other end. In the hierarchy of human values, these values
 stand at the highest place and are superior to all other values of life.
Examples being goodness, beauty, happiness, bliss etc.
 Instrumental Values – These are such values that are useful in deriving
some other benefit through them such as economic gain or an increase in
status. A subject is said to have instrumental value when it is pursued, not
for its own sake but for some ends beyond itself. Example being education
for success in life, political power to do public service etc.
 Aesthetic Values – It seeks to emulate the beauty of the Divine through
the arts. Things and activities which gives joys of beauty are aesthetic
values. Example being beauty, taste, architecture etc.
 Democratic Values – These values are characterized by the respect for
individuality, equal treatment to all, ensuring equal social, political and
religious rights to all, impartiality and social justice and respect for the
democratic institutions.
 Dis-Value – Values which demoralize and undermine the human growth
and development can be termed as dis-value. This includes jealousy, envy,
revenge etc.

Four Basic Filipino Values

1. Emotional closeness and security in a family. It is in this value where the family,
including the extended family like uncles, aunts, ninong, ninang, give support to
members of the family. In return, Filipino children are loving to their parents.
2. Approval from authority and of society. This value brings about the Filipino image
as amiable, personable, and the like. Filipinos have the desire to please and be
accepted by the authority.
3. Economic and social betterment. This refers to the Filipino values of uplifting
one’s state in life.
4. Patience, endurance, and suffering. This value shows the matiisin attitude among
the Filipinos. It enables us to bounce back easily when tragedy strikes.
B. SOCIAL PROBLEM AND ISSUES
This definition has both an objective component and a subjective component.

The objective component is this: For any condition or behavior to be considered a

social problem, it must have negative consequences for large numbers of people, as
each chapter of this book discusses. How do we know if a social problem has negative
consequences? Reasonable people can and do disagree on whether such
consequences exist and, if so, on their extent and seriousness, but ordinarily a body of
data accumulates—from work by academic researchers, government agencies, and
other sources—that strongly points to extensive and serious consequences. The
reasons for these consequences are often hotly debated, and sometimes, as we shall
see in certain chapters in this book, sometimes the very existence of these
consequences is disputed. A current example is climate change: Although the
overwhelming majority of climate scientists say that climate change (changes in the
earth’s climate due to the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere) is real and
serious, fewer than two-thirds of Americans (64 percent) in a 2011 poll said they “think
that global warming is happening” (Leiserowitz, Maibach, Roser-Renouf, & Smith,
2011).Leiserowitz, A., Maibach, E., Roser-Renouf, C., & Smith, N. (2011). Climate
change in the American mind: Americans’ global warming beliefs and attitudes in May
2011. New Haven, CT: Yale Project on Climate Change Communication.

This type of dispute points to the subjective component of the definition of social
problems: There must be a perception that a condition or behavior needs to be
addressed for it to be considered a social problem. This component lies at the heart of
the social constructionist view of social problems (Rubington & Weinberg, 2010).
Rubington, E., & Weinberg, M. S. (2010). The study of social problems: Seven
perspectives (7th ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. In this view, many types
of negative conditions and behaviors exist. Many of these are considered sufficiently
negative to acquire the status of a social problem; some do not receive this
consideration and thus do not become a social problem; and some become considered
a social problem only if citizens, policymakers, or other parties call attention to the
condition or behavior.

The social constructionist view raises an interesting question: When is a social problem
a social problem? According to some sociologists who adopt this view, negative
conditions and behaviors are not a social problem unless they are recognized as such
by policymakers, large numbers of lay citizens, or other segments of our society; these
sociologists would thus say that rape and sexual assault before the 1970s were not a
social problem because our society as a whole paid them little attention. Other
sociologists say that negative conditions and behaviors should be considered a social
problem even if they receive little or no attention; these sociologists would thus say that
rape and sexual assault before the 1970s were a social problem.
A social issue is a problem that affects many people within a society. It is a group of
common problems in present-day society and ones that many people strive to solve. It
is often the consequence of factors extending beyond an individual's control. Social
issues are the source of conflicting opinions on the grounds of what is perceived as
morally correct or incorrect personal life or interpersonal social life decisions. Social
issues are distinguished from economic issues; however, some issues (such as
immigration) have both social and economic aspects. Some issues do not fall into either
category, such as warfare.

Functionalism
Functionalism, also known as the functionalist theory or perspective, arose out of two
great revolutions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The first was the French
Revolution of 1789, whose intense violence and bloody terror shook Europe to its core.
The aristocracy throughout Europe feared that revolution would spread to their own
lands, and intellectuals feared that social order was crumbling.

The Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century reinforced these concerns. Starting
first in Europe and then in the United States, the Industrial Revolution led to many
changes, including the rise and growth of cities as people left their farms to live near
factories. As the cities grew, people lived in increasingly poor, crowded, and decrepit
conditions, and crime was rampant. Here was additional evidence, if European
intellectuals needed it, of the breakdown of social order.

In response, the intellectuals began to write that a strong society, as exemplified by

strong social bonds and rules and effective socialization, was needed to prevent social
order from disintegrating. Without a strong society and effective socialization, they
warned, social order breaks down, and violence and other signs of social disorder
result.

This general framework reached fruition in the writings of Émile Durkheim (1858–1917),
a French scholar largely responsible for the sociological perspective, as we now know it.
Adopting the conservative intellectuals’ view of the need for a strong society, Durkheim
felt that human beings have desires that result in chaos unless society limits them
(Durkheim, 1952). It does so, he wrote, through two related social mechanisms:
socialization and social integration. Socialization helps us learn society’s rules and the
need to cooperate, as people end up generally agreeing on important norms and
values, while social integration, or our ties to other people and to social institutions such
as religion and the family, helps socialize us and integrate us into society and reinforce
our respect for its rules.

Today’s functionalist perspective arises out of Durkheim’s work and that of other
conservative intellectuals of the nineteenth century. It uses the human body as a model
for understanding society. In the human body, our various organs and other body parts
serve important functions for the ongoing health and stability of our body. Our eyes help
us see, our ears help us hear, our heart circulates our blood, and so forth. Just as we
can understand the body by describing and understanding the functions that its parts
serve for its health and stability, so can we understand society by describing and
understanding the functions that its parts—or, more accurately, its social institutions—
serve for the ongoing health and stability of society. Thus functionalism emphasizes the
importance of social institutions such as the family, religion, and education for producing
a stable society.
 Émile Durkheim was a founder of sociology and is largely credited with developing the
functionalist perspective.
Marxists.org – public domain.

Similar to the view of the conservative intellectuals from which it grew, functionalism is
skeptical of rapid social change and other major social upheaval. The analogy to the
human body helps us understand this skepticism. In our bodies, any sudden, rapid
change is a sign of danger to our health. If we break a bone in one of our legs, we have
trouble walking; if we lose sight in both our eyes, we can no longer see. Slow changes,
such as the growth of our hair and our nails, are fine and even normal, but sudden
changes like those just described are obviously troublesome. By analogy, sudden and
rapid changes in society and its social institutions are troublesome according to the
functionalist perspective. If the human body evolved to its present form and functions
because these made sense from an evolutionary perspective, so did society evolve to
its present form and functions because these made sense. Any sudden change in
society thus threatens its stability and future.

As these comments might suggest, functionalism views social problems as arising from
society’s natural evolution. When a social problem does occur, it might threaten a
society’s stability, but it does not mean that fundamental flaws in the society exist.
Accordingly, gradual social reform should be all that is needed to address the social
problem.

Functionalism even suggests that social problems must be functional in some ways for
society, because otherwise these problems would not continue. This is certainly a
controversial suggestion, but it is true that many social problems do serve important
functions for our society. For example, crime is a major social problem, but it is also
good for the economy because it creates hundreds of thousands of jobs in law
enforcement, courts and corrections, home security, and other sectors of the economy
whose major role is to deal with crime. If crime disappeared, many people would be out
of work! Similarly, poverty is also a major social problem, but one function that poverty
serves is that poor people do jobs that otherwise might not get done because other
people would not want to do them (Gans, 1972). Like crime, poverty also provides
employment for people across the nation, such as those who work in social service
agencies that help poor people.

Conflict Theory
In many ways, conflict theory is the opposite of functionalism but ironically also grew out
of the Industrial Revolution, thanks largely to Karl Marx (1818–1883) and his
collaborator, Friedrich Engels (1820–1895). Whereas conservative intellectuals feared
the mass violence resulting from industrialization, Marx and Engels deplored the
conditions they felt were responsible for the mass violence and the capitalist society
they felt was responsible for these conditions. Instead of fearing the breakdown of social
order that mass violence represented, they felt that revolutionary violence was needed
to eliminate capitalism and the poverty and misery they saw as its inevitable results
(Marx, 1906; Marx & Engels, 1962).

According to Marx and Engels, every society is divided into two classes based on the
ownership of the means of production (tools, factories, and the like). In a capitalist
society, the bourgeoisie, or ruling class, owns the means of production, while
the proletariat, or working class, does not own the means of production and instead is
oppressed and exploited by the bourgeoisie. This difference creates an automatic
conflict of interests between the two groups. Simply put, the bourgeoisie is interested in
maintaining its position at the top of society, while the proletariat’s interest lies in rising
up from the bottom and overthrowing the bourgeoisie to create an egalitarian society.

In a capitalist society, Marx and Engels wrote, revolution is inevitable because of

structural contradictions arising from the very nature of capitalism. Because profit is the
main goal of capitalism, the bourgeoisie’s interest lies in maximizing profit. To do so,
capitalists try to keep wages as low as possible and to spend as little money as possible
on working conditions. This central fact of capitalism, said Marx and Engels, eventually
prompts the rise of class consciousness, or an awareness of the reasons for their
oppression, among workers. Their class consciousness in turn leads them to revolt
against the bourgeoisie to eliminate the oppression and exploitation they suffer.

Marx and Engels’ view of conflict arising from unequal positions held by members of
society lies at the heart of today’s conflict theory. This theory emphasizes that different
groups in society have different interests stemming from their different social positions.
These different interests in turn lead to different views on important social issues. Some
versions of the theory root conflict in divisions based on race and ethnicity, gender, and
other such differences, while other versions follow Marx and Engels in seeing conflict
arising out of different positions in the economic structure. In general, however, conflict
theory emphasizes that the various parts of society contribute to ongoing inequality,
whereas functionalist theory, as we have seen, stresses that they contribute to the
ongoing stability of society. Thus while functionalist theory emphasizes the benefits of
the various parts of society for ongoing social stability, conflict theory favors social
change to reduce inequality.
Karl Marx and his collaborator Friedrich Engels were intense critics of capitalism. Their
work inspired the later development of conflict theory in sociology.
Wikimedia Commons – public domain.

Feminist theory has developed in sociology and other disciplines since the 1970s and
for our purposes will be considered a specific application of conflict theory. In this case,
the conflict concerns gender inequality rather than the class inequality emphasized by
Marx and Engels. Although many variations of feminist theory exist, they all emphasize
that society is filled with gender inequality such that women are the subordinate sex in
many dimensions of social, political, and economic life (Lorber, 2010). Liberal feminists
view gender inequality as arising out of gender differences in socialization, while Marxist
feminists say that this inequality is a result of the rise of capitalism, which made women
dependent on men for economic support. On the other hand, radical feminists view
gender inequality as present in all societies, not just capitalist ones. Several chapters in
this book emphasize the perspectives of feminist sociologists and other social scientists.

Conflict theory in its various forms views social problems as arising from society’s
inherent inequality. Depending on which version of conflict theory is being considered,
the inequality contributing to social problems is based on social class, race and
ethnicity, gender, or some other dimension of society’s hierarchy. Because any of these
inequalities represents a fundamental flaw in society, conflict theory assumes that
fundamental social change is needed to address society’s many social problems.

Symbolic Interactionism
Symbolic interactionism focuses on the interaction of individuals and on how they
interpret their interaction. Its roots lie in the work of early 1900s American sociologists,
social psychologists, and philosophers who were interested in human consciousness
and action. Herbert Blumer (1969) (Blumer, 1969), a sociologist at the University of
Chicago, built on their writings to develop symbolic interactionism, a term he coined.
Drawing on Blumer’s work, symbolic interactionists feel that people do not merely learn
the roles that society has set out for them; instead they construct these roles as they
interact. As they interact, they negotiate their definitions of the situations in which they
find themselves and socially construct the reality of these situations. In doing so, they
rely heavily on symbols such as words and gestures to reach a shared understanding of
their interaction.

Symbolic interactionism focuses on individuals, such as the people conversing here. Sociologists favoring this approach examine
how and why individuals interact and interpret the meanings of their interaction.
Wikimedia Commons – public domain.
An example is the familiar symbol of shaking hands. In the United States and many
other societies, shaking hands is a symbol of greeting and friendship. This simple act
indicates that you are a nice, polite person with whom someone should feel
comfortable. To reinforce this symbol’s importance for understanding a bit of interaction,
consider a situation where someone refuses to shake hands. This action is usually
intended as a sign of dislike or as an insult, and the other person interprets it as such.
Their understanding of the situation and subsequent interaction will be very different
from those arising from the more typical shaking of hands. As the term symbolic
interactionism implies, their understanding of this encounter arises from what they do
when they interact and from their use and interpretation of the various symbols included
in their interaction. According to symbolic interactionists, social order is possible
because people learn what various symbols (such as shaking hands) mean and apply
these meanings to different kinds of situations. If you visited a society where sticking
your right hand out to greet someone was interpreted as a threatening gesture, you
would quickly learn the value of common understandings of symbols.

Symbolic interactionism views social problems as arising from the interaction of

individuals. This interaction matters in two important respects. First, socially problematic
behaviors such as crime and drug use are often learned from our interaction with people
who engage in these behaviors; we adopt their attitudes that justify committing these
behaviors, and we learn any special techniques that might be needed to commit these
behaviors. Second, we also learn our perceptions of a social problem from our
interaction with other people, whose perceptions and beliefs influence our own
perceptions and beliefs.

Because symbolic interactionism emphasizes the perception of social problems, it is

closely aligned with the social constructionist view discussed earlier. Both perspectives
emphasize the subjective nature of social problems. By doing so, they remind us that
perceptions often matter at least as much as objective reality in determining whether a
given condition or behavior rises to the level of a social problem and in the types of
possible solutions that various parties might favor for a particular social problem.

Applying the Three Perspectives

To explain armed robbery, symbolic interactionists focus on how armed robbers decide when and where to rob a victim and on
how their interactions with other criminals reinforce their own criminal tendencies.
Geoffrey Fairchild – The Robbery – CC BY 2.0.

To help you further understand the different views of these three theoretical
perspectives, let’s see what they would probably say about armed robbery, a very
serious form of crime, while recognizing that the three perspectives together provide a
more comprehensive understanding of armed robbery than any one perspective
provides by itself.

A functionalist approach might suggest that armed robbery actually serves positive
functions for society, such as the job-creating function mentioned earlier for crime in
general. It would still think that efforts should be made to reduce armed robbery, but it
would also assume that far-reaching changes in our society would be neither wise nor
necessary as part of the effort to reduce crime.

Conflict theory would take a very different approach to understanding armed robbery. It
might note that most street criminals are poor and thus emphasize that armed robbery
is the result of the despair and frustration of living in poverty and facing a lack of jobs
and other opportunities for economic and social success. The roots of street crime, from
the perspective of conflict theory, thus lie in society at least as much as they lie in the
individuals committing such crime. To reduce armed robbery and other street crime,
conflict theory would advocate far-reaching changes in the economic structure of
society.

For its part, symbolic interactionism would focus on how armed robbers make such
decisions as when and where to rob someone and on how their interactions with other
criminals reinforce their own criminal tendencies. It would also investigate how victims
of armed robbery behave when confronted by a robber. To reduce armed robbery, it
would advocate programs that reduce the opportunities for interaction among potential
criminal offenders, for example, after-school programs that keep at-risk youths busy in
“conventional” activities so that they have less time to spend with youths who might help
them get into trouble.

C. Population and Related Issues

WHAT IS POPULATION?
■ Population refers to a group of organisms of the same kind or species living in
the same place at the same time. A population may increase or decrease due to
birth, death, immigration, and migration.
Population change often has weighty consequences throughout a society. As we
think about population change, we usually think about and worry about population
growth, but population decline is also a concern.
This population growth also has consequences. For example, schools become more
crowded, pressuring communities to hire more teachers and either enlarge existing
schools or build new ones. The population growth also strains hospitals, social services,
and many other sectors of society.

The Study of Population

We have commented that population change is an important source of other
changes in society. The study of population is so significant that it occupies a special
subfield within sociology called demography. To be more precise, demography is the
study of changes in the size and composition of population. It encompasses several
concepts: fertility and birth rates, mortality and death rates, and migration. Let’s look at
each of these briefly.
Fertility and Birth Rates
Fertility refers to the number of live births. Demographers use several measures of
fertility. One measure is the crude birth rate, or the number of live births for every
1,000 people in a population in a given year. We call this a “crude” birth rate
because the population component consists of the total population, not just the
number of women or even the number of women of childbearing age (commonly
considered 15–44 years).

A second measure is the general fertility rate (also just called the fertility
rate or birth rate), or the number of live births per 1,000 women aged 15–44 (i.e.,
of childbearing age). The US general fertility rate for 2010 was about 64.7 (i.e.,
64.7 births per 1,000 women aged 15–44) (Sutton & Hamilton, 2011).

A third measure is the total fertility rate, or the number of children an average
woman is expected to have in her lifetime (taking into account that some women
have more children and some women have fewer or no children). This measure
often appears in the news media and is more easily understood by the public than
either of the first two measures. In 2010, the US total fertility rate was about 1.93
(or 1,930 births for every 1,000 women) (Hamilton, Martin, & Ventura, 2011).

Demographers use several measures of fertility. The general fertility rate refers to the number of live births per 1,000 women
aged 15–44. The US general fertility rate is about 65.5.
Daniel – Delivery – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

As Figure 15.1 “US General Fertility Rate, 1920–2010” indicates, the US general
fertility rate has changed a lot since 1920, dropping from 101 (per 1,000 women
aged 15–44) in 1920 to 70 in 1935, during the Great Depression, before rising
afterward until 1955. (Note the very sharp increase from 1945 to 1955, as the post–
World War II baby boom began.) The fertility rate then fell steadily after 1960
until the 1970s but has remained rather steady since then, fluctuating only slightly
between 65 and 70 per 1,000 women aged 15–44.

Figure 15.1 US General Fertility Rate, 1920–2010

 Sources: Data from Hamilton, B. E., Martin, J. A., & Ventura, S. J. (2011). Births: Preliminary data for 2010. National Vital
Statistics Reports, 60(2), 1–13; Martin, J. A., Hamilton, B. E., Sutton, P. D., Ventura, S. J., Menacker, F., Kirmeyer, S., &
Mathews, T. J. (2009). Births: Final data for 2006. National Vital Statistics Reports, 57(7), 1–102; US Census Bureau.
(1951). Statistical abstract of the United States: 1951. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.

Fertility rates differ around the world and are especially high in poor nations
(see Figure 15.2 “Crude Birth Rates around the World, 2008 (Number of Births per
1,000 Population)”). Demographers identify several reasons for these high rates
(Weeks, 2012).

Figure 15.2 Crude Birth Rates around the World, 2008 (Number of Births per 1,000 Population)

Source: Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Birth_rate_figures_for_countries.PNG.

First, poor nations are usually agricultural ones. In agricultural societies, children
are an important economic resource, as a family will be more productive if it has
more children. This means that families will ordinarily try to have as many
children as possible. Second, infant and child mortality rates are high in these
nations. Because parents realize that one or more of their children may die before
adulthood, they have more children to make up for the anticipated deaths.

A third reason is that many parents in low-income nations prefer sons to daughters,
and, if a daughter is born, they try again for a son. Fourth, traditional gender roles
are often very strong in poor nations, and these roles include the belief that women
should be wives and mothers above all. With this ideology in place, it is not
surprising that women will have several children. Finally, contraception is
uncommon in poor nations. Without contraception, many more pregnancies and
births certainly occur. For all these reasons, then, fertility is much higher in poor
nations than in rich nations.

Poor nations have higher birth rates for several reasons. One reason is the agricultural economies typical of these nations. In these
economies, children are an important economic resource, and families will ordinarily try to have as many children as possible.
Wikimedia Commons – public domain.

Mortality and Death Rates

Mortality is the flip side of fertility and refers to the number of deaths.
Demographers measure it with the crude death rate, the number of deaths for every
1,000 people in a population in a given year. We call this a “crude” death rate
because the population component consists of the total population and does not
take its age distribution into account. All things equal, a society with a higher
proportion of older people should have a higher crude death rate. Demographers
often calculate age-adjusted death rates that adjust for a population’s age
distribution.

In general, the risk of death at any given age is less for females than for males,
except during the childbearing years (in economically developed societies
females have a lower mortality even during those years). The risk of death for
both sexes is high immediately after birth, diminishing during childhood and
reaching a minimum at 10 to 12 years of age. The risk then rises again, until at
late ages it surpasses that of the first year of life. The expectation of life at
birth is the most efficient index of the general level of mortality of a
population. In ancient Greece and Rome the average life expectancy was about
28 years; in the early 21st century life expectancy averaged about 78 years in
most industrialized countries. In countries with a high rate of HIV infection,
however, the average life expectancy was as low as 33 years.
Migration
Since the earliest times, humanity has been on the move. Some
people move in search of work or economic opportunities, to
join family, or to study. Others move to escape conflict,
persecution, terrorism, or human rights violations. Still others
move in response to the adverse effects of climate change,
natural disasters, or other environmental factors.
Several classifications of migration exist. When people move into a region, we call
it in-migration, or immigration; when they move out of a region, we call it out-
migration, or emigration. The in-migration rate is the number of people moving
into a region for every 1,000 people in the region, while the out-migration rate is
the number of people moving from the region for every 1,000 people. The
difference between the two is the net migration rate (in-migration minus out-
migration). Recalling our earlier discussion. Michigan has had a net migration of
less than zero, as its out-migration has exceeded its in-migration.

Migration can also be either domestic or international in scope. Domestic

migration happens within a country’s national borders, as when retired people
from the northeastern United States move to Florida or the
Southwest. International migration happens across national borders. When
international immigration is heavy, the effect on population growth and other
aspects of national life can be significant, as can increased prejudice against the
new immigrants. Domestic migration can also have a large impact. The great
migration of African Americans from the South into northern cities during the first
half of the twentieth century changed many aspects of those cities’ lives
(Wilkerson, 2011). Meanwhile, the movement during the past few decades of
northerners into the South and Southwest also had quite an impact: The housing
market initially exploded, for example, and traffic increased.

The Debate over Overpopulation

Many experts continue to be concerned about overpopulation, as they feel it is
directly responsible for the hunger and malnutrition that plague hundreds of
millions of people in poor nations (Gillis, 2011). One expert expressed this
concern: “Every billion more people makes life more difficult for everybody—it’s
as simple as that. Is it the end of the world? No. Can we feed 10 billion people?
Probably. But we obviously would be better off with a smaller population” (Gillis
& Dugger, 2011, p. A1). Recognizing this problem, India has begun giving cash
bonuses to poor, rural married couples, who typically have high fertility rates, to
wait to have children, and it has intensified its encouragement of contraception
(Yardley, 2010).
Calls during the 1970s for zero population growth (ZPG) population control stemmed from concern that the planet was becoming
overpopulated and that food and other resources would soon be too meager to support the world’s population.
James Cridland – Crowd – CC BY 2.0.

However, other experts say the world’s resources remain sufficient and minimize
the problem of overpopulation. They acknowledge that widespread hunger in
Africa and other regions does exist. However, they attribute this problem not to
overpopulation and lack of food but rather to problems in distributing the sufficient
amount of food that does in fact exist. As an official for Oxfam International
explained, “Today’s major problems in the food system are not fundamentally
about supply keeping up with demand, but more about how food gets from fields
and on to forks” (2011). The official added that enough grain (cereal and soy)
exists to easily feed the world, but that one-third of cereal and 90 percent of soy
feed livestock instead. Moving away from a meat-laden Western diet would thus
make much more grain available for the world’s hungry poor.

Sociologists Stephen J. Scanlan and colleagues add that food scarcity results
from inequalities in food distribution rather than from overpopulation: “[Food]
scarcity is largely a myth. On a per capita basis, food is more plentiful today than
any other time in human history…Even in times of localized production shortfalls
or regional famines there has long been a global food surplus…A good deal of
thinking and research in sociology…suggests that world hunger has less to do with
the shortage of food than with a shortage of affordable or accessible food.
Sociologists have found that social inequalities, distribution systems, and other
economic and political factors create barriers to food access” (Scanlan, Jenkins, &
Peterson, 2010, p. 35).

This sociological view has important implications for how the world should try to
reduce global hunger. International organizations such as the World Bank and
several United Nations agencies have long believed that hunger is due to food
scarcity, and this belief underlies the typical approaches to reducing world hunger
that focus on increasing food supplies with new technologies and developing more
efficient methods of delivering food. But if food scarcity is not a problem, then
other approaches are necessary. According to Scanlan et al., these approaches
involve reducing the social inequalities that limit poor nations’ access to food.

As an example of one such inequality, Scanlan et al. point out that poor nations
lack the funds to import the abundant food that does exist. These nations’ poverty,
then, is one inequality that leads to world hunger, but gender and ethnic
inequalities are also responsible. Nations with higher rates of gender inequality and
ethnic inequality have higher rates of hunger. In view of this fact, the authors
emphasize that improvements in gender and ethnic equality are necessary to reduce
global hunger: “International attention to food security should therefore shift from
increasing food supply to regulating armed conflict, improving human rights, and
promoting gender equity throughout the world—factors that reduce barriers to
access and empower populations throughout the world to benefit from their food
entitlements” (Scanlan et al., 2010, p. 39).

Population Decline and Pronatalism

Spain is one of several European nations that have been experiencing a population decline because of lower birth rates. Like
some other nations, Spain has adopted pronatalist policies to encourage people to have more children; it provides €2,500, about
$3,400, for each child.
paul.hartrick – Spain-477 – CC BY-NC 2.0.

If population growth remains a problem in poor nations, population decline is a

problem in some industrial nations. As noted earlier, some nations are even
experiencing population declines, while several more are projected to have
population declines by 2050 (Brooks, 2012). For a country to maintain its
population, the average woman needs to have 2.1 children, the replacement
level for population stability. But several industrial nations, not including the
United States, are below this level. Increased birth control is one reason for their
lower fertility rates but so are decisions by women to stay in school longer, to go to
work right after their schooling ends, and to postpone having their first child.

Ironically, these nations’ population declines have begun to concern demographers

and policymakers (Haartsen & Venhorst, 2010). Because people in many industrial
nations are living longer while the birth rate drops, these nations are increasingly
having a greater proportion of older people and a smaller proportion of younger
people. In several European nations, there are more people 61 or older than 19 or
younger. As this trend continues, it will become increasingly difficult to take care
of the health and income needs of so many older persons, and there may be too few
younger people to fill the many jobs and provide the many services that an
industrial society demands. The smaller labor force may also mean that
governments will have fewer income tax dollars to provide these services.

To deal with these problems, several governments have

initiated pronatalist policies aimed at encouraging women to have more children.
In particular, they provide generous child-care subsidies, tax incentives, and
flexible work schedules designed to make it easier to bear and raise children, and
some even provide couples outright cash payments when they have an additional
child. Russia in some cases provides the equivalent of about $9,000 for each child
beyond the first, while Spain provides €2,500 (equivalent to about $3,400) for each
child (Haub, 2009).

Two Other Problems Related to

Population Growth
As we saw, population experts debate the degree to which population growth
contributes to global poverty and hunger. But there is little debate that population
growth contributes to two other global problems.

Population growth causes many environmental problems, one of which is deforestation.

crustmania – Deforestation – CC BY 2.0.

One of these problems concerns the environment. Population growth in both

wealthy and poor nations has damaged the environment in many ways (Walsh,
2011). As the news story that opens this chapter illustrated, countries with large
numbers of people drive many motor vehicles that pollute the air, and these
countries engage in many other practices of the industrial era that pollute the air,
water, and ground. Further, as populations have expanded over the centuries, they
have cut down many trees and deforested many regions across the globe. This
deforestation ruins animal habitats and helps to contribute to global warming
because trees help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release oxygen
into the atmosphere.

Another problem is interpersonal conflict in general and armed conflict in

particular. As populations grow, they need more and more food, water, and other
resources. When these resources have become too scarce over the centuries, many
societies have decided to take resources from other societies “by any means
necessary,” as the old saying goes, meaning the use of force (Gleditsch & Theisen,
2010).
Population growth thus helps to create armed conflict between societies, but it also
helps to generate conflict within a single society. As a society grows, people begin
to compete for resources. This competition has often led to hostility of many types,
including interpersonal violence. As we shall discuss shortly, the history of
immigration in the United States illustrates this dynamic. As the number of
immigrants grew rapidly in various historical eras, native-born whites perceived
threats to their jobs, land, and other resources and responded with mob violence.

Immigration
Recall that migration generally and immigration specifically are central concepts in
the study of population. As just indicated, immigration is also a source of great
controversy in the United States and in many other countries. This controversy is
perhaps almost inevitable, as increasing numbers of immigrants can affect many
aspects of a society: crowding in its cities, increasing enrollments in its schools,
having enough jobs for everyone who wants to work, and so forth. However, the
fact that immigration can cause these complications does not begin to justify the
prejudice and hostility that have routinely greeted immigrants into the United
States and elsewhere.

The history of the United States is filled with prejudice and hostility of this type.
Starting with the Pilgrims, this nation was settled by immigrants who came to these
shores seeking political and religious freedom and economic opportunity. Despite
these origins, when great waves of immigrants came to the United States beginning
in the nineteenth century, they were hardly greeted with open arms (Roediger,
2006). During the first half of this century, some 3 million Irish immigrants, most
of them Catholic, moved to the United States. Because these immigrants were not
Anglo-Saxon Protestants, native-born whites (most of whom were Anglo-Saxon
Protestants) deeply disliked them and even considered them to be a different race
from white. During the 1850s, the so-called Know-Nothing Party, composed of
native-born whites, was openly hostile to Irish immigrants and would engage in
mob violence against them, with many murders occurring. Later waves of
immigrants from Italian, Polish, and Jewish backgrounds also were not considered
fully white and subject to employment discrimination and other ethnic prejudice
and hostility.

Beginning with the California gold rush of 1849 and continuing after the Civil
War, great numbers of Chinese immigrants came to the United States and helped to
build the nation’s railroads and performed other important roles. They, too, were
greeted hostilely by native-born whites who feared the Chinese were taking away
their jobs (Pfaelzer, 2008). As the national economy worsened during the 1870s,
riots against the Chinese occurred in western cities. In more than three hundred
cities and towns, whites went into Chinese neighborhoods, burned them down, and
murdered some Chinese residents while forcing the remainder to leave town.
Congress finally outlawed Chinese immigration in 1882, with this ban lasting for
almost a century.

During the 1930s, rising numbers of Mexican Americans in the western United
States led to similar hostility (Daniels, 2002). The fact that this decade was the
time of the Great Depression deepened whites’ concerns that Mexican immigrants
were taking away their jobs. White-owned newspapers falsely claimed that these
immigrants posed a violent threat to white Americans, and that their supposed
violence was made more likely by their use of marijuana. It is estimated that at
least 500,000 Mexicans returned to their native country, either because they were

D. The Concept of Human Rights

What are human rights?

Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms that belong to every person in the
world, from birth until death.
They apply regardless of where you are from, what you believe or how you choose to
live your life.
They can never be taken away, although they can sometimes be restricted – for
example if a person breaks the law, or in the interests of national security.
These basic rights are based on shared values like dignity, fairness, equality, respect
and independence.
These values are defined and protected by law.

What Are Human Rights Violations?

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was established in
response to the atrocities during WWII, including the Holocaust. The
document outlines the human rights that all people are entitled to such as
freedom from torture, freedom of expression, and the right to seek asylum.
When those rights aren’t protected or blatantly disregarded, they are violated.
What are the types of human rights violations? Who is responsible for
preventing and addressing them?

Definition and types of human rights violations

A state commits human rights violations either directly or indirectly. Violations
can either be intentionally performed by the state and or come as a result of
the state failing to prevent the violation. When a state engages in human
rights violations, various actors can be involved such as police, judges,
prosecutors, government officials, and more. The violation can be physically
violent in nature, such as police brutality, while rights such as the right to a fair
trial can also be violated, where no physical violence is involved.

The second type of violation – failure by the state to protect – occurs when
there’s a conflict between individuals or groups within a society. If the state
does nothing to intervene and protect vulnerable people and groups, it’s
participating in the violations. In the United States, the state failed to protect
black Americans when lynchings frequently occurred around the country.
Since many of those responsible for the lynchings were also state actors (like
the police), this is an example of both types of violations occurring at the same
time.

Examples of human rights violations

We’ve mentioned a few examples of human rights violations, but there are
many more. Civil, political, economic, cultural, and social rights can all be
violated through various means. Though all the rights enshrined in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the legally binding International
Covenants of Human Rights (ICCPR, CESCR) are considered essential, there
are certain types of violations we tend to consider more serious. Civil rights,
which include the right to life, safety, and equality before the law are
considered by many to be “first-generation” rights. Political rights, which
include the right to a fair trial and the right to vote, also fall under this
category.
Civil and political rights

Civil and political rights are violated through genocide, torture, and arbitrary
arrest. These violations often happen during times of war, and when a human
rights violation intersects with the breaking of laws about armed conflict, it’s
known as a war crime.

Conflict can also trigger violations of the right to freedom of expression and
the right of peaceful assembly. States are usually responsible for the
violations as they attempt to maintain control and push down rebellious
societal forces. Suppressing political rights is a common tactic for many
governments during times of civil unrest.

Violations of civil and political human rights aren’t always linked to specific
conflicts and can occur at any given time. Human trafficking is currently one of
the largest issues on a global scale as millions of men, women, and children
are forced into labor and sexual exploitation. Religious discrimination is also
very common in many places around the world. These violations often occur
because the state is failing to protect vulnerable groups.

Economic, social, and cultural rights

As described in the UDHR, economic, social, and cultural rights include the
right to work, the right to education, and the right to physical and mental
health. As is the case with all human rights, economic, social, and cultural
rights can be violated by states and other actors. The United Nations Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights gives a handful of examples of how
these rights can be violated. They include:
 Contaminating water, for example, with waste from State-owned
facilities (the right to health)
 Evicting people by force from their homes (the right to adequate
housing)
 Denying services and information about health (the right to health)
 Discriminating at work based on traits like race, gender, and sexual
orientation (The right to work)
 Failing to provide maternity leave (protection of and assistance to
the family)
 Not paying a sufficient minimum wage (rights at work)
 Segregating students based on disabilities (the right to education)
 Forbidding the use of minority/indigenous languages (the right to
participate in cultural life)
Who is ultimately responsible for ensuring
human rights violations don’t happen?
In human rights treaties, states bear the primary burden of responsibility for
protecting and encouraging human rights. When a government ratifies a
treaty, they have a three-fold obligation. They must respect, protect, and
fulfill human rights. When violations occur, it’s the government’s job to
intervene and prosecute those responsible. The government must hold
everyone (and itself) accountable.
This doesn’t mean that members of civil society don’t also have a
responsibility to prevent human rights violations. Businesses and institutions
must comply with discrimination laws and promote equality, while every
individual should respect the rights of others. When governments are violating
human rights either directly or indirectly, civil society should hold them
accountable and speak out. The international community also has an
obligation to monitor governments and their track records with human rights.
Violations occur all the time, but they should always be called out.

E. POVERTY
Poverty is about not having enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing
and shelter. However, poverty is more, much more than just not having enough money.
The World Bank Organization describes poverty in this way:
“Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being
able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how
to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time.
Poverty has many faces, changing from place to place and across time, and has
been described in many ways. Most often, poverty is a situation people want to
escape. So poverty is a call to action -- for the poor and the wealthy alike -- a call
to change the world so that many more may have enough to eat, adequate
shelter, access to education and health, protection from violence, and a voice in
what happens in their communities.”

What Causes Poverty?

Poverty is a difficult cycle to break and often passes from one generation to the next. It
is often determined by socioeconomic status, ethnicity, gender, and geography. Many
people are born into poverty and have little hope of overcoming it. Others may fall into
poverty because of negative economic conditions, natural disasters, or surging living
costs, as well as drug addiction, depression, and mental health issues.

Access to good schools, healthcare, electricity, clean drinking water, and other critical
services remains elusive for many and is often determined by socioeconomic status,
gender, ethnicity, and geography. Other root causes of poverty include:

 Limited to no job growth

 Poor infrastructure
 Conflict and war
 High cost of living
 Social barriers
 Lack of government support

For those able to move out of poverty, progress is often temporary. Economic
shocks, food insecurity, and climate change threaten their gains and may force them
back into poverty.
Typical consequences of poverty include alcohol and substance abuse, little to no
access to education, poor housing and living conditions, and increased levels of
disease. Heightened poverty is likely to cause increased tensions in society as
inequality increases. These issues often lead to rising crime rates in communities
affected by poverty.

How to Reduce Poverty

The United Nations and the World Bank are major advocates of reducing world
poverty. The World Bank has an ambitious target of reducing poverty to less than 3%
of the global population by 2030. Some of the actionable plans to eliminate poverty
include the following:

 Installing wells that provide access to clean drinking water

 Educating farmers on how to produce more food
 Constructing shelter for those in need
 Building schools to educate disadvantaged communities
 Providing enhanced access to better healthcare services by building medical
clinics and hospitals

For poverty to be eradicated as the World Bank sets out to do, communities,
governments, and corporations need to collaborate to implement strategies that
improve living conditions for the world’s poor. Among these strategies may include
boosting socioeconomic conditions, fighting and eliminating systemic racism,
establishing minimum wages that align with the cost of living, providing paid leave, and
promoting pay equity among other things.

F. Environment Issues
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS AND GLOBAL
SEARCH FOR SOLUTIONS.

Global environmental problems involve one or more of the following:

1. Deforestation
2. Desertification
3. Rapid Population Growth
4. Food Production and Equitable Distribution
5. Global Warming
6. Depletion of the Atmospheric Ozone
7. Acid Precipitation and Air Pollution
8. Ocean Pollution

Characteristics of International Environmental Problems:

1. Many of the international problems involve the use of common pool resources - air,
water, ocean and forests – that are owned by no one nation.

2. Human and environmental impacts of the problems transcend the borders of any one
country. Impacts of such problems as acid precipitation, ozone depletion and air
pollution are not felt at only within countries where the problems are often created.
3. International Environmental Problems require international Cooperation to resolve
them

Climate Change
It is now widely recognized that global warming over the past 50 years is largely due to
human activities that have released green- house gases into the atmosphere. The most
recent assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
concludes that the global average surface temperature has increased by about 0.6°C
during the 20th century. The seemingly small rise of mean temperature is already
showing adverse effects. One of the consequences has been a rise in the global average
sea level Another effect has been more frequent and intensified droughts in recent
decades in parts of Asia and Africa. Additionally, in most mid and high latitudes of the
Northern Hemisphere continents, precipitation has increased by 0.5 to 1.0 per cent per
decade in the 20th century. The world’s emissions of greenhouse gases, notably carbon
dioxide, continue to increase. The most recent estimates are that atmospheric
concentrations of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO 2) will double or triple pre-
industrial levels by the end of this century. As a result, global surface temperature is
expected to increase by 1.4 to 5.8 degrees Celsius from 1990 to 2100 The repercussions
of climate change will disproportionately affect those who are least able to adapt - the
poor and the most vulnerable sections of society, including children. For example,
scientists project that this level of warming could, among other things:

• Greatly exacerbate the range, frequency and intensity of natural disasters, from
flooding, to droughts, to torrential rains, icestorms, tornadoes and hurricanes;

• Cause sea levels to rise by between nine and 80 centimeters by 2100 due to the
expansion of warming waters and the melting of polar icecaps and other glaciers, which
in turn may produce deadly flooding in many low-lying areas and small island States,
displacing millions from their homes;

• Increase the number of environmental refugees resulting from weather-related

disasters;

• Augment the risk of disease migration and disease out-breaks; and

• Render large areas of the world “uninsurable” due to the magnitude of property
damage from disasters.

It is widely recognized that climate change, by altering local weather patterns and by
disturbing life-supporting natural systems and processes, has significant implications for
human health. While the range of health effects is diverse, often unpredictable in
magnitude, and sometimes slow to emerge, children remain among the most vulnerable
to these threats. Higher temperatures, heavier rainfall, and changes in climate variability
would encourage vectors of some infectious diseases (such as malaria, schistosomiasis,
dengue fever, yellow fever and encephalitis) to multiply and expand into new
geographical regions, intensifying the already overwhelming threats to children from
such diseases. There is also evidence that El Niño - a vast natural climatic phenomenon
that can bring intense floods and droughts in many parts of the globe - is becoming
more frequent as a result of global warming and could further aggravate health
problems in many parts of the world. Excessive flooding is, for example, a prime cause of
cholera and other water-borne and food-borne infections to which children are
particularly susceptible. While heavy rains will become more frequent, there will also be
more periods of drought and increased spreading of the deserts. Scientists predict that
a lack of rain, warmer temperatures and increases in evaporation could have severe
implications in terms of water availability and food security, reducing crop yields in
Africa, further compromising child nutrition. There are also numerous health effects,
both in terms of disease and injury, associated with extreme weather events, such as
heat waves, storms and floods. Extreme weather events can exacerbate health issues
such as asthma and respiratory problems due to worsening air pollution, precisely those
diseases that most significantly burden children.

Environmental Issues
Environmental issues are the harmful effects of human activities on the environment. These include
pollution, overpopulation, waste disposal, climate change, global warming, the greenhouse effect,
etc.
Various environment protection programs are being practised at the individual, organizational and
government levels with the aim of establishing a balance between man and the environment.
Some of the current environmental issues that require urgent attention are:

Climate Change
Climate change is a great concern in today’s scenario. This problem has surfaced in the last few
decades. Greenhouse gases are the major cause of climate change. Environmental changes have
several destructive impacts such as the melting of glaciers, change in seasons, epidemics, etc.

Global Warming
The burning of fossil fuels, emissions from automobiles and chlorofluorocarbons add to the
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This has led to an increase in the earth’s temperature causing
environmental changes. This increase in temperature across the globe is known as global warming.

Ozone Layer Depletion

The ozone layer is a layer of concentrated ozone gas. It protects us from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet
rays. This very important layer is being destroyed by CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons), which are used in
industries and everyday life (e.g. aerosol cans).
The chlorine in these compounds destroys the ozone layer. The hole in the ozone layer leaves
humans and wildlife exposed to harmful UV rays resulting in several skin diseases including cancer.

Water Pollution
The introduction of harmful substances into rivers, oceans, lakes and ponds, which changes the
physical, chemical or biological condition of the water is called water pollution. The polluted water
lacks oxygen and therefore the organisms die.
Water is the main source of life and therefore it is our prime duty to prevent it from any kind of
pollution.

Air Pollution
Air pollution is the result of emissions from industries, automobiles, and the increasing use of fossil
fuels. The gaseous emissions have added to an increase in the temperature of the earth. Not only
this, but it had also increased the risk of diseases among individuals.

Solid Waste Management

Solid-waste management is defined as the discipline associated with the generation, storage,
collection, transfer and transport, processing, and disposal of solid waste in a manner that it does
not have a harmful effect on the environment.

Deforestation
Deforestation is the depletion of trees and forests at an alarming rate. The trees provide us with
oxygen, and several raw materials and also maintain the temperature of the earth. Due to the
depletion of trees for commercial purposes, there has been a drastic change in the earth’s climate.
Forests are an abode to a large number of wild animals and plants. Destruction of forests has led to
the elimination of a large number of plants and animal species affecting biodiversity.
Overpopulation
The earth’s population is increasing drastically. It is estimated to be more than seven billion. The
increasing population has led to a shortage of resources. If this continues, it will be very difficult to
sustain such a huge population. The other environmental issues including pollution, waste
management, deforestation, climate change and global warming are all associated with
overpopulation.
Also Read: Solid Waste Management

Solutions to Environmental Issues

Following are some of the most common solutions to the environmental issue:

1. Replace disposal items with reusable items.

2. The use of paper should be avoided.
3. Conserve water and electricity.
4. Support environmental friendly practices.
5. Recycle waste to conserve natural resources.

Environmental issues are a warning of the upcoming disaster. If these issues are not controlled,
there will soon be no life on earth.