ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the dynamics of human population change and the controversy about the role of population growth related to environmental and human problems. The chapter also discusses the relationship among population growth, food supply, and the prospects of feeding a much larger population; and some contentious policy questions about stabilizing the growth and size of the world’s population. One of the most universally observed but still not clearly explained patterns of population growth is termed the demographic transition. Industrialization was also coupled with opportunities for women to work outside the family and eventually improved the status of women. Industrial era urbanization was fueled not only by expanding urban opportunities, but also by the push of rural overpopulation, poverty, consolidation of land holdings, and declining farm labor markets resulting from the industrialization of agriculture. Neoclassical economic theory maintained that population growth is not a problem, and may be a source of progress.
