scholarly journals Household Size and Structure in Iran: 1976-2006

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akbar Aghajanian ◽  
Vaida Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Child Survival ◽  
Fertility Transition ◽  
Divorce Rate ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Family Patterns ◽  
Social Structural ◽  
Age Of Marriage ◽  
Extended Households

In addition to significant political changes, Iran has experienced a multitude of demographic and economic changes during the last four decades (1976-2006). First, there have been somewhat dramatic changes in marriage and reproduction during this period, with a sharp lowering of fertility to replacement level, an expansion of a strong rural public health program that has increased child survival, increase in age of marriage for both males and females, and an increase in the divorce rate. These changes took place in the context of structural changes in the society, with an increase in urbanization from below 40 percent in 1976 to 68 percent in 2006 and a marked transference in the economy from an agricultural base to manufacturing and service. This paper reports on the analysis of this household transition in Iran during the 1976-2006 period in the context of other changes experienced in this period. We find that despite significant fertility transition along with other demographic and social structural changes, which are expected to lead to conjugal family patterns, as of 2006, a large proportion of households in Iran continue to have five or more members and there has been very modest decline in the share of extended households. It is not clear if this situation is due to the selectivity in continuity of large and extended coresidential households or the result of housing pressure particularly in urban areas.

How left behind are rural parents of migrant children? Evidence from Thailand

2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 811-841 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN KNODEL ◽  
JIRAPORN KESPICHAYAWATTANA ◽  
CHANPEN SAENGTIENCHAI ◽  
SUVINEE WIWATWANICH
Keyword(s):  
Adult Children ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Living Arrangements ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Social Contact ◽  
Migrant Children ◽  
Older Parents ◽  
Economic Changes

ABSTRACTThe consequences of adult children's migration from rural areas for older parents who remain behind are keenly debated. While the mass media and international advocacy organisations favour an ‘alarmist’ view of desertion, the academic literature makes more sanguine assessments using the ‘household strategy’ and ‘modified extended family’ perspectives. We examine the relationship between the migration of adult children and various dimensions of older parents' wellbeing in Thailand using evidence from a survey that focused on the issues. The results provide little support for the alarmist view, but instead suggest that parents and adult children adapt to the social and economic changes associated with development in ways not necessarily detrimental to intergenerational relations. The migration of children, especially to urban areas, often benefits parents' material support while the recent spread of cell phones has radically increased their ability to maintain social contact. Nevertheless, changing living arrangements through increased migration and the smaller family sizes of the youngest age groups of older people pose serious challenges for aspects of filial support, especially at advanced ages when chronic illness and frailty require long-term personal care. Dealing with this emerging situation in a context of social, economic and technological change is among the most critical issues facing those concerned with the implications of rapid population ageing in Thailand and elsewhere.

RURAL–URBAN MIGRATION AND CHILD SURVIVAL IN URBAN BANGLADESH: ARE THE URBAN MIGRANTS AND POOR DISADVANTAGED?

2008 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. MAZHARUL ISLAM ◽  
KAZI MD ABUL KALAM AZAD
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Child Survival ◽  
Childhood Mortality ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Urban Migration ◽  
Under Five ◽  
Urban Migrants ◽  
Urban Rural

SummaryThis paper analyses the levels and trends of childhood mortality in urban Bangladesh, and examines whether children’s survival chances are poorer among the urban migrants and urban poor. It also examines the determinants of child survival in urban Bangladesh. Data come from the 1999–2000 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. The results indicate that, although the indices of infant and child mortality are consistently better in urban areas, the urban–rural differentials in childhood mortality have diminished in recent years. The study identifies two distinct child morality regimes in urban Bangladesh: one for urban natives and one for rural–urban migrants. Under-five mortality is higher among children born to urban migrants compared with children born to life-long urban natives (102 and 62 per 1000 live births, respectively). The migrant–native mortality differentials more-or-less correspond with the differences in socioeconomic status. Like childhood mortality rates, rural–urban migrants seem to be moderately disadvantaged by economic status compared with their urban native counterparts. Within the urban areas, the child survival status is even worse among the migrant poor than among the average urban poor, especially recent migrants. This poor–non-poor differential in childhood mortality is higher in urban areas than in rural areas. The study findings indicate that rapid growth of the urban population in recent years due to rural-to-urban migration, coupled with higher risk of mortality among migrant’s children, may be considered as one of the major explanations for slower decline in under-five mortality in urban Bangladesh, thus diminishing urban–rural differentials in childhood mortality in Bangladesh. The study demonstrates that housing conditions and access to safe drinking water and hygienic toilet facilities are the most critical determinants of child survival in urban areas, even after controlling for migration status. The findings of the study may have important policy implications for urban planning, highlighting the need to target migrant groups and the urban poor within urban areas in the provision of health care services.

scholarly journals Changes of marital behavior and family patterns in post-socialist countries: Delayed, incomplete or specific second demographic transition?

Stanovnistvo ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mina Petrovic
Keyword(s):  
Demographic Transition ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Social Deprivation ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Second Demographic Transition ◽  
Family Organization ◽  
Family Patterns ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Marital Behavior

The paper starts by questioning the theory of second demographic transition (SDT) and its universal relevance in the field of marriage behavior and family organization in low fertility context, arguing for more differentiated approaches. With an aim to illustrate the contextual specifics of post-socialist countries in general and of Serbia in particular, the author claims that analyzed changes have not just been delayed or incomplete in comparison to more developed European countries, but shaped by specific modernization processes, which led to rationally developed strategies in overcoming structural risks, although, without ideational changes typical to the theory of SDT. Slow changes in marital behavior and family organization in Serbia are illustrated in recent sociological (empirical) research findings. The perceived changes are linked to specific structural risks (war, slow transformation and enduring economic hardships, weak state and low trust in institutions, etc) and value characteristics (persistence of materialism and traditionalism, but with increasing ambivalence). The connection between structural and ideational changes is considered through social stratification variable by relying on Coale's model on necessary preconditions for behavioral changes as well as on social deprivation concept. Having in mind upper social strata (more educated and better off), the value changes precede the behavioral that are adapted to economic uncertainty, which still force more traditional marital and family patterns. Therefore, there is a rank of different options, from extended family (for a short period at the beginning of marriage or after divorce) to separated leaving (of married partners) in parental households (due to refusing the extended family option thus creating quite specific "living apart together" form), combined with dominant strategy of prolonging the marriage. Hence, for upper social strata, marriage is still a universal but negotiable institution since more alternative options (although attractive and in accordance to changing values) are deemed irrational (have no obvious benefit). As regards the lower social strata (less educated and worse off), marriage is more in accordance with their higher inclination to traditional values, but general value liberalization legitimizes possible failures (divorces, extra marital births), which, even if not desired or economically rational, happen due to lower capacity to command life. For that reason, cohabitations and extra marital births are more common among actors at the lower end of the stratification ladder. The paper concludes that adaptive strategies related to traditional patterns of family organization dominate in Serbia, which might be illustrated by the fact that every third of one parent families lives in extended families. Even with significant structural changes (and economic improvements) in Serbia in the near future it is realistic to expect familism as an influential context, which suggests the spreading of cohabitation primarily as a pre- marital option (but more desired than forced).

scholarly journals The relationship between elderly suicide rates, population density and room density

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 1197-1198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ajit Shah ◽  
Tanuja Sinha ◽  
Rajeswari Makena
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Elderly Person ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Household Size ◽  
National Study ◽  
Geographical Proximity ◽  
Suicide Rates ◽  
Elderly Suicide ◽  
Extended Households ◽  
Suicidal Plans

A recent cross-national study reported that elderly suicide rates in both sexes were significantly negatively correlated with household size and the percentage of extended households and positively correlated with the percentage of single-person households (Shah, 2009). Speculative explanations for these findings were based on cultural factors, including (i) a mismatch between the traditional dependence of elderly relatives on their children for emotional and financial support and their children's ability to provide this support (Yip et al., 1998, 2000; Liu et al., 2006); (ii) the unmet traditional expectation of the elderly person being able to live with their children or grandchildren (Yip et al., 2000; Liu et al., 2006); (iii) the effect on the elderly of their children's negative attitudes (Yip et al., 2000); (iv) the migration of children to urban areas or to other countries (Yip and Tan, 1998; Yip et al., 2000); and, (v) the number of available caregivers, household size and family size (Kua et al., 2003). Countries with larger household sizes and a greater number of extended households potentially have a greater number of people available within the household and within close geographical proximity who can contribute positively to these cultural issues, and this may ultimately lead to a reduction in elderly suicide rates – the “emotional proximity” explanation. However, there may also be other explanations for these findings (Shah, 2009). Having more people in a household implies that there are more people to identify suicidal ideation and support the suicidal individual in seeking approprate help. Also, in larger households elderly people are likely to be alone for shorter periods of time, which would reduce the opportunity to implement any suicidal plans. Both these possibilities form part of the “geographical proximity” explanation.

Public Sector Role in Sustainable Development

2018 ◽  
pp. 149-159
Author(s):  
Onesmus Gichuru
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Institutional Reforms ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
The Public ◽  
Progressive Development ◽  
Social Structural ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Attitudinal Changes

Being at a global development crossroad under an era plagued by major global challenges including financial crisis, poor governance, economic inequalities, climate change, food insecurity, human rights injustices, among others calls for a concerted effort from all the stakeholders to play a critical role in development. These roles are to be embraced through market-driven and people-centered modalities that seek to address inefficiency in service delivery and unequal distribution of economic gains. To foster this, the public sector is at the central point in driving institutional reforms in safeguarding progressive development-oriented norms and practices within an economy. In this regard, strategic reforms ought to be upheld as multifaceted processes that involve social structural changes, attitudinal changes, national institutions reforms, economic growth acceleration, reduction of inequalities, and poverty eradication. Restructuring, participation, public-private partnership, accountability, human-resource issues are some of the reformation strategies identified in this chapter.

Re-engineering cities: a framework for adaptation to global change

2007 ◽  
Vol 365 (1861) ◽  
pp. 3085-3098 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Dawson
Keyword(s):  
Global Change ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Greenhouse Gases Emissions ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Future Challenges

Urban areas are expected to continue their rapid growth in the twenty-first century. Globally, cities are major sources of greenhouse gases emissions and their high population densities make them potential focal points of vulnerability to global environmental change. Moreover, their reach, in terms of flows of materials and resources, extends far outside their borders. Evidently, it is no longer tenable to consider urban systems to be static artefacts constructed in a stable environment, nor continue to divorce them from the global context that influences many of the climatic and socio-economic changes within cities. Furthermore, the uncertainty in the future climatic and socio-economic conditions poses significant challenges for planners. A framework is proposed for analysing urban systems with evidence-based tools over extended time scales. This forms the basis of a manifesto for future challenges and research directions for this critical subject area, which ultimately will help engineers and urban planners to better understand the areas for which they are responsible and to develop adaptation strategies that can tackle the challenges posed by long-term global change and lead to more sustainable cities.

How Migrant Labor is Changing Rural China. By Rachel Murphy. [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 306 pp. Hard cover $70.00, ISBN 0-521-80901-0; paperback $25.00, ISBN 0-521-00530-2.]

2003 ◽  
Vol 175 ◽  
pp. 846-847
Author(s):  
Li Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Structural Changes ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Labour Migration ◽  
Migrant Labor ◽  
Jiangxi Province ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Reform Era ◽  
Economic Changes

Mass rural–urban labour migration in post-Mao China has received a great deal of attention by scholars of different disciplines. The existing research has largely focused on the causes and processes of migration; the politics of migrant identities and settlements in the cities; changing modes of governance in managing the migrant population; the questions of urban citizenship; and the cultural experiences of migrant wage workers in the reform era. Yet, we know very little about the profound social, economic and cultural impact of migrant labour on Chinese rural life and society. Rachel Murphy's book provides a timely contribution to our understanding of what has happened in rural China as a result of this unprecedented labour migration. Based on extensive, in-depth fieldwork in three counties in Jiangxi province, this is an extraordinarily insightful and fresh account of the everyday socio-economic changes brought by migration in the origin areas. Moving away from the static analysis of migration by modernization and structuralist theories, Murphy emphasizes the critical role of human agency by treating rural migrants as social agents who actively pursue their goals and utilize resources while making sense of the rapidly changing social world in which they live. Her study convincingly shows that migrants are neither passive victims of structural changes nor actors completely free of structural constraints; rather they constantly adopt strategies to negotiate with and alter the larger social, economic and political environment.

scholarly journals The development of the marriage rate, the divorce rate, the birth rate and the death rate

2008 ◽  
Vol 53 (No. 1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
J. Dufek
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Death Rate ◽  
Birth Rate ◽  
Divorce Rate ◽  
Marriage Rate ◽  
Natural Increase ◽  
The Other ◽  
Moderate Increase ◽  
Basic Characteristics ◽  
Characteristics Development

The article aims to analyze the development of the basic characteristics of the demographic dynamics in the CR in urban areas divided according to size in 1993−2004 and to express the changes in the development of the natural increase. Urban areas in the CR were divided into 3 groups according to their size (size-related groups): urban areas of up to 2 000 inhabitants − a country type, urban areas with 2 000 to 10 000 inhabitants − a transition type, urban areas with more than 10 000 inhabitants − towns. In 2004, there were 26% of inhabitants living in the country group, 20% in the transition group and 54% in towns. There was a decline in marriage rate in all the groups; in the country, with its higher level, the decline was more moderate. The divorce rate shows a moderate increase except 1999, when it dramatically fell thanks to the legislation. The divorce rate was the highest in towns and the lowest in the country. The birth rate continued its sharp decline in urban areas of all sizes during the first four years of the researched period, then it levelled off, and it has even been slightly rising in the last years. It was considerably lower in bigger towns than in the other two groups, which had practically an identical development. There was a kind of balance at the end of the period. The death rate was generally going down; it was the highest in the country areas, however, it was approximating the values in the other two groups. The dramatic fall of the natural increase levelled off and it also showed a moderate rise. Trends are expressed with polynomial functions. The article presents the characteristics development in graphs and the reasons for changes are being commented upon.

scholarly journals Parenting teenagers as they grow up: Values, practices and young people’s pathways beyond school in England

2017 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 241-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Irwin
Keyword(s):  
Structural Changes ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Compulsory Education ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Parental Influences ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Social Structural ◽  
Historical Moment ◽  
Reproduction Of Inequality ◽  
And Training

Parents’ values and practices are central to theorising the reproduction of inequality across generations. Where researchers have explored how parental values and practices relate to class circumstances and their combined influence on children’s outcomes, the focus has been largely on younger families, with limited evidence on parents’ perspectives at the point children approach and pass compulsory school leaving age. The trebling of university tuition fees in England, the insecurity which characterises many non-academic routes into the labour market and concerns about economic recession make this a particularly significant historical moment to investigate parental influences on children’s pathways through post-compulsory education and training. This article draws on research into parents’ perceptions and practices whilst their children were growing up through their teenage years between 2008 and 2014. In particular, it examines classed differences in how parents frame their young adult children’s decision making, assess their pathways and accord markedly differing value to academic and vocational pursuit. It evidences temporal dynamics through showing how diverse values and resources underpin young people’s evolving biographical pathways. In these ways, the analysis contributes to theorising parents’ values and practices and their complex relationship with social class at a time of some significant social structural changes.

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