Population Forecasting 1895-1945, the Transition to Modernity The Transition to Modernity

This book is about the transition to modernity of population forecasting. Because population debates tended to be based on emotion rather than 'objective' arguments, some economists and statisticians felt the need for a better understanding of population dynamics and its effect on the development of future population. Their pursuit of objectivity in population debates resulted in the development of a forecasting methodology based on the findings of life table theory and analytical demography.This book recounts the history of the origin and establishment of modern population forecasting methodology and the resistance the new methodology met with. It demonstrates -- using George Herbert Mead's philosophy of time -- that the emergence of modern population forecasting resulted in a drastic change of the societal position of the forecaster, the consequences of which still resound today. The book uncovers the first contributions to the description and theory of the demographic transition in the publications of the early innovators of population forecasting. It lays bare the pioneering position of inter-war population forecasting in The NDe Gans, Henk A. is the author of 'Population Forecasting 1895-1945, the Transition to Modernity The Transition to Modernity' with ISBN 9780792355373 and ISBN 0792355377.