Book Review: Why Demography Matters, Danny Dorling and Stuart Gietel-Basten. Published by Policy Press 2018
Book Review: Why Demography Matters, Danny Dorling and Stuart Gietel-Basten. Published by Policy Press 2018
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书评：为什么人口统计学很重要，丹尼·多林和斯图尔特·吉特尔-巴斯滕。
DOI：
10.1007/s12061-018-9290-6
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发表时间：
2019
影响因子：
1.9
通讯作者：
James W
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
James W
在这本书中，Dorling和Gietel-Basten探讨了21世纪一些最有争议的方面背后的人口统计学，主题从英国脱欧和特朗普政府到疟疾预防，痴呆症流行病甚至优生学。对于一些人来说，这对于一本260页9章的书来说可能有点压倒性。然而，作者令人钦佩地完成了任务，将专家意见与一系列精心挑选的案例研究相结合，为读者提供了人口学领域翔实而有趣的指南。贯穿全书的写作应该对任何对人口学、政治和时事原理有基本了解的读者都是容易理解的。那些对人口统计学有深入了解的人也会发现这本书很有用，书中的参考文献涵盖了具体的主题和更多的技术元素。虽然涵盖了广泛的主题，但具有环境或物理科学背景的读者可能会对缺乏人为气候变化等领域的讨论感到失望，人口统计学无疑是一个关键组成部分（Bongaarts和奥尼尔2018）。第一章通过研究其他学者和主流媒体概述的一些经典（通常是悲观的）人口学观点来介绍本书。这种令人沮丧的未来观很快受到作者的挑战，引用贾科莫·吉罗拉莫·卡萨诺瓦的话来总结这本书的主题：“没有命运这样的东西。我们自己塑造我们自己的生活。在设定场景之后，第二章解决了当今人口学领域面临的一些关键问题，即数据质量差和统计数据不对称。这篇评论得到了充分研究和有趣的案例研究的支持，包括中国数百万未登记的人口和巴基斯坦用于计算官方生育率的复杂方法。本章有效地强调了统计数据不应被视为表面价值，并鼓励读者批判性地评估人口信息。虽然强调了人口统计学家今天面临的问题，但很少讨论这些问题是如何解决的。
In this book, Dorling and Gietel-Basten explore the demography behind some of the most contentious aspects of the twenty-first century, with topics ranging from Brexit and the Trump administration to malaria prevention, the dementia epidemic and even eugenics. For some, this may appear slightly overwhelming for a book of 260 pages and nine chapters. However, the authors accomplish the task admirably, combining expert opinion with a range of carefully selected case studies to give the reader an informative and interesting guide to the field of demography. The writing throughout the book should be accessible to any reader with a basic understanding of the principles of demography, politics and current affairs. Those with an in depth understanding of demography will also find the book useful, with references throughout covering specific subjects and more technical elements. Whilst covering a wide range of topics, readers with an environmental or physical sciences background may be disappointed by the lack of discussion in fields such as anthropogenic climate change, where demography is certainly a crucial component (Bongaarts and O'Neill 2018). Chapter 1 introduces the book by examining some of the classical (often pessimistic) views of demography as outlined by other academics and the mainstream media. This depressing view of the future is quickly challenged by the authors, quoting none other than Giacomo Girolamo Casanova to sum up the theme of the book:‘There is no such thing as destiny. We ourselves shape our own lives’. After setting the scene, Chapter 2 addresses some of the key issues facing the field of demography today–namely poor data quality and skewed statistics. The commentary is backed up by well researched and interesting case studies including the millions of unregistered people in China and the convoluted methods used for calculating official fertility rates in Pakistan. This chapter effectively highlights how statistics should not be taken at face value and encourages the reader to critically assess demographic information. Whilst highlighting the issues facing demographers today, there is little discussion of how these problems