scholarly journals Hungarian Population Discourses in the Twentieth Century: The Problem of Declining Birth Rates

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 63-78
Author(s):  
Ildikó Szántó

Falling birth rates had already been recorded as early as the late-eighteenth century in south-western Hungary in the Ormánság. Population loss from low birth rate remained one of the main topics writers and sociologists focused on in the twentieth century. The issue of Hungarian population decline was highlighted among the social ills in the interwar period, which was one of several subjects that divided intellectuals into ‘populists’ and ‘urbanites’. Following the impact of the low birth rate figures in the 1960s, the populists’ views of the 1930s resurfaced in public discourse in the 1960s and 1970s and up to the present day. The concern about the increasing trend of single-child families in rural settlements as well as in urban areas appeared in the various works of Hungarian writers and journalists throughout the previous century. The present paper intends to focus on the intellectual background to the public debates on the population issue, outlining the accounts of the interwar ‘village explorers’ briefly, and the way they are related to the pre-Second World War populist movement. Finally the reappearance of the debates between populists and non-populists of the 1970s is discussed, a debate that is still continuing.

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 608-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinrong Lu ◽  
Jun Zhang ◽  
Yinghui Liu ◽  
Ting Wang ◽  
Yanyu Lu ◽  
...  

Recently, there has been a significant increase in the rate of multiple births in most developed countries. However, few population-based studies have been conducted in China regarding the epidemiology of twin births in recent years. We performed a descriptive analysis of twin births from 1993 to 2005 using data from a population-based perinatal care program in southeast China. The twin birth rate in southeast China was 0.65%, and the twin birth rates from 1993 to 2005 fluctuated between 0.60% and 0.70%. During the three periods of 1993–1996, 1997–2000, and 2001–2005, the twin birth rate increased from 0.57% to 0.71% in urban areas (p = .005) and from 0.59% to 0.68% in mothers who had an education level of high school or higher (p = .046). After 2000, the twin birth rate of primiparae 30 years of age and older significantly increased from 0.72% to greater than 1.20%. We concluded that the twin birth rates in southeast China from 1993 to 2005 stayed constant in the overall population but increased in certain subgroups of women, presumably due to increased use of fertility treatment and the development of assisted reproductive technology.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (03) ◽  
pp. 282-303
Author(s):  
Frances Davey

This essay directs attention to the original attraction of those amusements outside the city proper: natural landscapes at the edge of cities in which popular amusements were constructed. Here, the heart of subversive possibility was located where the immutable, uncontrollable natural elements interacted with constructed ones. In the case of Coney Island and similar coastal landscapes, this meant the seashore. The beach broke down manufactured limitations, exposing all beachgoers—particularly women—as the same under the sun. I examine the impact that Coney's seashore had on defining class-bound womanhood. I argue that within the island's liminal confines, the beach's natural elements exposed the fallacy that well-off women were naturally cleaner, both physically and morally, than not just men, but also working-class women. Nature trumped the manufactured to sully both the bodies and, metaphorically, the respectability of the women who flocked to Coney. The farther that women ventured toward the ocean, the more the seascape nullified their differences and democratized its allegedly hygienic visitors. This concept normalized in the early twentieth century as city borderlands, primarily the seashore and mountains, introduced possibilities for more porous gender and class identities in urban areas.


Author(s):  
Stéphane A. Dudoignon

A geographical survey of Iranian Baluchistan highlights the modern transformation of the desert/oasis dichotomy, and the socioeconomic impact of this evolution upon political and religious authority within the Baluch world. Examining the discourses of different categories of primary sources on the Baluch, the chapter highlights the changing perception by diverse observers of Baluch religiosity and religious identity since the early twentieth century. It also shows, notably, how Iranian anticolonial discourse in the 1960s-70s exposed the impact of Shia migration to the country’s Sunni-peopled periphery upon the consolidation of an ethno-social Sunni minority identity. Dealing with Baluch historiography, the chapter discusses how Baluch chroniclers have promoted, since the 1960s, a typology of heroes and values in which the ulama and Islamic discourse tend to replace tribal leaders and pastoral ethics of previous centuries. The chapter underlines the role played in this discursive change and the contest of the tribal chieftains’ power, by representatives of the oases world and of minor tribal groups of landowning status.


Author(s):  
Gitte Hedermann ◽  
Paula L Hedley ◽  
Marie Baekvad-Hansen ◽  
Henrik Hjalgrim ◽  
Klaus Rostgaard ◽  
...  

Objectives To explore the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on premature birth rates in Denmark Design Nationwide register-based prevalence proportion study. Participants 31,180 live singleton infants born in Denmark between March 12, and April 14, from 2015 to 2020 Main outcome measures The Main outcome measure was the odds ratio of premature birth, per preterm category, during the lockdown period compared with the calendar match period in the five previous years. Results A total of 31 180 newborns were included in the study period, of these 58 were born extremely premature (gestational age below 28 weeks). The distribution of gestational ages was significantly different (p = 0.004) during the lockdown period compared to the previous five years. The extremely premature birth rate during the lockdown was significantly lower than the corresponding mean rate for the same dates in the previous years (odds ratio 0.09 [95 % CI 0.01 - 0.04], p < 0.001). No significant difference between the lockdown and previous years was found for other gestational age categories. Conclusions The birth rate of extremely premature infants decreased significantly (~90 % reduction) during the Danish nationwide lockdown from a stable rate in the preceding five years. The reasons for this decrease are unclear. Identification of possible causal mechanisms might stimulate changes in clinical practice. Ideally, some cases of extreme prematurity are preventable which may decrease infant morbidity and mortality.


REGIONOLOGY ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 494-511
Author(s):  
Asiya F. Validova

Introduction. The solution to the problem of ensuring demographic growth is one of the most pressing issues of the state policy. In 2007, Russia’s demographic policy was supplemented by new measures to stimulate the birth rate. The objective of this paper is to analyze the effectiveness of the demographic policy programs aimed at supporting families and natality using the case studies of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Tatarstan. Materials and Methods. To identify the impact of measures to stimulate the birth rate, the method of regression analysis was used; time series based on age-specific birth rates for each age group were presented. Results. The data obtained showed that the steady trend of increasing the total fertility rate in Russia and Tatarstan since 2007 was almost completely related to the meas- ures under consideration, whereas the number of births was affected by many other factors. According to the results of the study, the impact of measures to increase the birth rate in the Republic of Tatarstan is slightly higher than in Russia as a whole. Discussion and Conclusions. State support measures reduce the costs associated with the birth of a child and can encourage women to have children, which con- firms the hypothesis of the positive impact of the state fertility policy. For a more accurate assessment of the effectiveness of the demographic policy measures, it is advisable to take into account the changing social and economic conditions of life in a region, as well as the consequences of the earlier or present-day demographic policy measures. The results of the study are of practical importance and may be used in the development of demographic policies in the country and in the region.


Author(s):  
Lucian Adrian Sala

Like most of the countries around the world, European member states are suffering from the declining population, due to low birth rates and decreasing death rates. Romania’s population is undergoing a series of changes that will continue to unfold in the foreseeable future. Demographic transitions are taking place in the case of all member states that are part of EU-28, with various degrees of intensity. Romania’s population has been shrinking and undergoing a continuous process of erosion since 1992 when it hit a peak of 23.2 million. Under the influence of a decreasing birth rate and death rate, the population is projected to decrease from 19.8 million in 2015 to 14.5 million in 2080. This article examines how these inevitable changes will shape Romania's demographic landscape, with an emphasis on the changes over time suffered by the total population, birth rates, and life expectancy, as seen through the ”Demographic Transition Model” stages as put forward by Thompson in 1929. Also, this article will touch upon some of the main economic consequences that arise as a result of these demographic transitions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-108
Author(s):  
Linda M. Ross

This article combines the traditionally rural focus of Highland history with the growing field of nuclear culture to examine the impact which Dounreay Experimental Research Establishment had on Caithness between 1953 and 1966. From the outset of the project the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority knew that it would have to import specialist technical staff into an area economically driven by agriculture and fishing. This resulted in a distinct form of employment-based migration to the Highlands, reversing population decline in Caithness during the period of study. This article identifies the reasons for, and local reaction to, the UKAEA's choice of Caithness as the location for its fast breeder reactor establishment. It assesses the significant in-migration to the area during the initial phase of the Dounreay plant's development, before exploring how perceptions of distance and Caithnessian ‘difference’ affected the recruitment of staff in what the UKAEA considered an ‘unconventional’ location. It puts people and place at the centre of the nuclear project, revealing Dounreay's role in creating a mid-twentieth century Highland counter-narrative of in-migration and modernity far removed from traditional discourses of depopulation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 1206-1221
Author(s):  
Peter Eisenstadt

This article, by looking at the life, career, and thought of Howard Thurman, one of the most significant African American religious thinkers of the twentieth century, argues that one way to understand the call for racial integration by Thurman and others in the mid-century is through the demand to restructure urban space in less exclusive ways. The failure to realize this, in the 1960s, led to calls for defending “black space” in cities, although this too proved to be a failure. Thurman’s spatial understanding of integration is a still relevant intervention in understanding the complexities of race and racial conflict in urban areas.


2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 433-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Dumont

Abstract. Wilderness areas in the world are threatened by the environmental impacts of the growing global human population. This study estimates the impact of birth rate on the future surface area of biodiverse wilderness and on the proportion of this area without major extinctions. The following four drivers are considered: human population growth (1), agricultural efficiency (2), groundwater drawdown by irrigation (3), and non-agricultural space used by humans (buildings, gardens, roads, etc.) (4). This study indicates that the surface area of biodiverse unmanaged land will reduce with about 5.4% between 2012 and 2050. Further, it indicates that the biodiverse land without major extinctions will reduce with about 10.5%. These percentages are based on a commonly used population trajectory which assumes that birth rates across the globe will reduce in a similar way as has occurred in the past in many developed countries. Future birth rate is however very uncertain. Plausible future birth rates lower than the expected rates lead to much smaller reductions in surface area of biodiverse unmanaged land (0.7% as opposed to 5.4%), and a reduction in the biodiverse land without major extinctions of about 5.6% (as opposed to 10.5%). This indicates that birth rate is an important factor influencing the quality and quantity of wilderness remaining in the future.


Author(s):  
C. J. Stevens ◽  
J. N. B. Bell ◽  
P. Brimblecombe ◽  
C. M. Clark ◽  
N. B. Dise ◽  
...  

Although awareness that air pollution can damage vegetation dates back at least to the 1600s, the processes and mechanisms of damage were not rigorously studied until the late twentieth century. In the UK following the Industrial Revolution, urban air quality became very poor, with highly phytotoxic SO 2 and NO 2 concentrations, and remained that way until the mid-twentieth century. Since then both air quality, and our understanding of pollutants and their impacts, have greatly improved. Air pollutants remain a threat to natural and managed ecosystems. Air pollution imparts impacts through four major threats to vegetation are discussed through in a series of case studies. Gas-phase effects by the primary emissions of SO 2 and NO 2 are discussed in the context of impacts on lichens in urban areas. The effects of wet and dry deposited acidity from sulfur and nitrogen compounds are considered with a particular focus on forest decline. Ecosystem eutrophication by nitrogen deposition focuses on heathland decline in the Netherlands, and ground-level ozone at phytotoxic concentrations is discussed by considering impacts on semi-natural vegetation. We find that, although air is getting cleaner, there is much room for additional improvement, especially for the effects of eutrophication on managed and natural ecosystems. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Air quality, past present and future’.


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