POPULATION IN ITS SOCIAL-CONTEXT

This article presents an overview of the field of demography, focusing on aspects relevant to a sociological perspective. The field is broad ly divided into the areas of fertility, mortality and migration, the p rocesses that constitute and shape populations. Issues of current acad emic and programmatic relevance within each of these subfields are dis cussed. Concerning fertility, the issue of persistent high fertility i n some regions of the world, in contrast to very low fertility in indu strialized nations is discussed. The section on mortality discusses th e gender bias in mortality in South and East Asia which leads to exces s female mortality. Behavioural issues relevant to the spread of AIDS are discussed, focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa. The section on migratio n deals with issues of the massive east-west and south-north migration pattern current in Europe. The concluding section discusses the inter face between demographic and sociological theory. These disciplines de veloped more disparately in the past, but have recently begun a closer theoretical co-operation.