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12: Population, Urbanization, and the Environment

  • Page ID
    241722
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    How do sociologists study population and urbanization issues? Functionalist sociologists might focus on the way all aspects of population, urbanization, and the environment serve as vital and cohesive elements, ensuring the continuing stability of society. They might study how the growth of the global population encourages emigration and immigration, and how emigration and immigration serve to strengthen ties between nations. Or they might research the way migration affects environmental issues; for example, how have forced migrations, and the resulting changes in a region’s ability to support a new group, affected both the displaced people and the area of relocation? Another topic a functionalist might research is the way various urban neighborhoods specialize to serve cultural and financial needs.

    • 12.1: Introduction
      There are important societal issues connected to the environment and how and where people live.  Take the case of fracking for example.
    • 12.2: Demography and Population
      How quickly will the world's population grow? How will that population be distributed? To explore these questions, we turn to demography.
    • 12.3: Urbanization
      In some ways, cities can be microcosms of universal human behavior, while in others they provide a unique environment that yields its own brand of human behavior.
    • 12.4: The Environment and Society
      The subfield of environmental sociology studies the way humans interact with their environments. This field is closely related to human ecology, which focuses on the relationship between people and their built and natural environment. This is an area that is garnering more attention as extreme weather patterns and policy battles over climate change dominate the news. A key factor of environmental sociology is the concept of carrying capacity.
    • 12.5: Key Terms
    • 12.6: Section Summary
    • 12.7: Section Quiz
    • 12.8: Short Answer
    • 12.9: Further Research
    • 12.10: References

    Thumbnail: Sights like this are common for anyone who lives near the water, creating problems not only for the residents but also for the health of ecosystems. (Photo courtesy of Jim Linwood/flickr).


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