ABSTRACT
Population change is the product of human action. Demography tends to produce mathematically-based descriptive models. Critical theory is a major tool with which to understand why population is changing and the power relationships that lie behind these changes. Demography may describe and analyze the components of population change, but critical theory seeks to understand them. Demography, because it is such a powerful descriptive tool, is in constant use by economic and governmental institutions with specific aims and briefs. However, analysis of global population in a macro societal and historical perspective is not frequently attempted. Demography does not usually seek to theorize this broad-brush perspective on world population, which is more often debated within economic history and anthropology (Caldwell, 1982; Greenhalgh, 1996; Wilkinson, 1973).
