Arie Morgenstern
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195305784
- eISBN:
- 9780199784820
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195305787.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
The Jewish population of the Land of Israel more or less doubled in size between 1808 and 1840. A significant segment of the immigrants were disciples of the Vilna Ga’on, who undertook an organized ...
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The Jewish population of the Land of Israel more or less doubled in size between 1808 and 1840. A significant segment of the immigrants were disciples of the Vilna Ga’on, who undertook an organized immigration effort beginning no later than 1806. Many were motivated by messianism, but some came in an effort to escape hardship in Europe. Many settled in the Galilee, in and around Safed, while others came to Jerusalem; there was a degree of rivalry between the groups (respectively led by Israel of Shklov and Menahem Mendel of Shklov). Immigration was adversely affected by recurring epidemics, natural calamities, poverty, and political instability. It increased substantially during the relatively enlightened and stable reign of Muhammad Ali, an Egyptian who took control of the Land of Israel from the Ottomans in 1831 and remained in power through the 1830s. The Montefiore Census of 1839 shows that nearly half of the Jewish population of the Land of Israel that year were under the age of twenty.Less
The Jewish population of the Land of Israel more or less doubled in size between 1808 and 1840. A significant segment of the immigrants were disciples of the Vilna Ga’on, who undertook an organized immigration effort beginning no later than 1806. Many were motivated by messianism, but some came in an effort to escape hardship in Europe. Many settled in the Galilee, in and around Safed, while others came to Jerusalem; there was a degree of rivalry between the groups (respectively led by Israel of Shklov and Menahem Mendel of Shklov). Immigration was adversely affected by recurring epidemics, natural calamities, poverty, and political instability. It increased substantially during the relatively enlightened and stable reign of Muhammad Ali, an Egyptian who took control of the Land of Israel from the Ottomans in 1831 and remained in power through the 1830s. The Montefiore Census of 1839 shows that nearly half of the Jewish population of the Land of Israel that year were under the age of twenty.
James W. Cortada
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195165869
- eISBN:
- 9780199868025
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195165869.003.0005
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Business History
This chapter discusses the impact of IT on the work of the Social Security Administration (SSA), the Bureau of the Census, and the US Postal Service (USPS). All three organizations extensively use ...
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This chapter discusses the impact of IT on the work of the Social Security Administration (SSA), the Bureau of the Census, and the US Postal Service (USPS). All three organizations extensively use information technology, in fact, to such an extent that it would be difficult to imagine how they could function in the future without its use. How each came to such a point reflects various experiences unique to each agency. The rate of adoption and extent of deployment reflects internal operational and managerial issues and as with other federal agencies and departments, digital tools had to be configured in ways specific to their needs.Less
This chapter discusses the impact of IT on the work of the Social Security Administration (SSA), the Bureau of the Census, and the US Postal Service (USPS). All three organizations extensively use information technology, in fact, to such an extent that it would be difficult to imagine how they could function in the future without its use. How each came to such a point reflects various experiences unique to each agency. The rate of adoption and extent of deployment reflects internal operational and managerial issues and as with other federal agencies and departments, digital tools had to be configured in ways specific to their needs.
Michael Banton
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198280613
- eISBN:
- 9780191598760
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198280610.003.0011
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
The collection of census data on the ethnic origin of the population poses political problems for many black African states. The discrimination that led towards genocide in Rwanda and Burundi was of ...
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The collection of census data on the ethnic origin of the population poses political problems for many black African states. The discrimination that led towards genocide in Rwanda and Burundi was of particular concern from 1989. South Africa had not ratified the ICERD at the time of writing.Less
The collection of census data on the ethnic origin of the population poses political problems for many black African states. The discrimination that led towards genocide in Rwanda and Burundi was of particular concern from 1989. South Africa had not ratified the ICERD at the time of writing.
Theodore M. Porter
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199546350
- eISBN:
- 9780191720048
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199546350.003.0014
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies, Finance, Accounting, and Banking
The standing of accounting among the academic disciplines has never been very high, in part because the work of accounting is not regarded as suitably creative. Yet when we think of knowledge as a ...
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The standing of accounting among the academic disciplines has never been very high, in part because the work of accounting is not regarded as suitably creative. Yet when we think of knowledge as a set of institutionalized practices, the subservience of accounting to the sciences and to the ancient professions may be reversed. Fields like economics, engineering, biology, and medicine cannot escape the twin imperatives of commensuration and accountability, especially when these are brought to bear on matters of recognized public importance. In this regard, the career of cost-benefit quantification is exemplary. Knowledge and rationality, whenever they touch on politics and policy, have become closely bound up with a logic of accountancy.Less
The standing of accounting among the academic disciplines has never been very high, in part because the work of accounting is not regarded as suitably creative. Yet when we think of knowledge as a set of institutionalized practices, the subservience of accounting to the sciences and to the ancient professions may be reversed. Fields like economics, engineering, biology, and medicine cannot escape the twin imperatives of commensuration and accountability, especially when these are brought to bear on matters of recognized public importance. In this regard, the career of cost-benefit quantification is exemplary. Knowledge and rationality, whenever they touch on politics and policy, have become closely bound up with a logic of accountancy.
Martin Campbell-Kelly
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198508410
- eISBN:
- 9780191708831
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198508410.003.0013
- Subject:
- Mathematics, History of Mathematics
The mathematical table, as a paper-based artefact, is close to the end of its technological life. Tables had two main uses — as a calculating aid (such as a logarithm table) and as a data storage ...
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The mathematical table, as a paper-based artefact, is close to the end of its technological life. Tables had two main uses — as a calculating aid (such as a logarithm table) and as a data storage device (such as an actuarial or census table). Logarithmic tables have now been made obsolete by the electronic calculator, while data tables are increasingly being replaced by online databases. Examples of these uses of tables have been given in several of the previous chapters. The decline in the use of tables was much in evidence before the arrival of the electronic spreadsheet on the scene, and by and large the spreadsheet has not taken over these functions of the table. Yet, the perception of the spreadsheet as an historical successor to the table is intuitive and appealing. This chapter considers the sense in which this can be said to be true.Less
The mathematical table, as a paper-based artefact, is close to the end of its technological life. Tables had two main uses — as a calculating aid (such as a logarithm table) and as a data storage device (such as an actuarial or census table). Logarithmic tables have now been made obsolete by the electronic calculator, while data tables are increasingly being replaced by online databases. Examples of these uses of tables have been given in several of the previous chapters. The decline in the use of tables was much in evidence before the arrival of the electronic spreadsheet on the scene, and by and large the spreadsheet has not taken over these functions of the table. Yet, the perception of the spreadsheet as an historical successor to the table is intuitive and appealing. This chapter considers the sense in which this can be said to be true.
Scott Eddie
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780198201663
- eISBN:
- 9780191718434
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198201663.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter sets the historical stage, puts the study in context, and reviews the relevant literature, beginning with the pioneering efforts of Johannes Conrad to quantify land ownership by size and ...
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This chapter sets the historical stage, puts the study in context, and reviews the relevant literature, beginning with the pioneering efforts of Johannes Conrad to quantify land ownership by size and by social position of the owner. It then reviews critically similar efforts by Conrad's students and later scholars, with detailed critiques of the work of Hess, Buchsteiner, Nabert, and Schiller. The chapter concludes with a long section showing why the data of the German agricultural censuses are not only unsuitable, but downright misleading for the study of land ownership: production units do not correspond to ownership units, and the size of agricultural enterprises cannot even serve as a proxy for size of ownership units, neither at a single date nor for changes over time. Moreover, the censuses contain inconsistencies with each other, requiring major adjustment to the figures from the 1882 census.Less
This chapter sets the historical stage, puts the study in context, and reviews the relevant literature, beginning with the pioneering efforts of Johannes Conrad to quantify land ownership by size and by social position of the owner. It then reviews critically similar efforts by Conrad's students and later scholars, with detailed critiques of the work of Hess, Buchsteiner, Nabert, and Schiller. The chapter concludes with a long section showing why the data of the German agricultural censuses are not only unsuitable, but downright misleading for the study of land ownership: production units do not correspond to ownership units, and the size of agricultural enterprises cannot even serve as a proxy for size of ownership units, neither at a single date nor for changes over time. Moreover, the censuses contain inconsistencies with each other, requiring major adjustment to the figures from the 1882 census.
Martin Campbell-Kelly, Mary Croarken, Raymond Flood, and Eleanor Robson (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198508410
- eISBN:
- 9780191708831
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198508410.001.0001
- Subject:
- Mathematics, History of Mathematics
The oldest known mathematical table was found in the ancient Sumerian city of Shuruppag in southern Iraq. Since then, tables have been an important feature of mathematical activity; table making and ...
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The oldest known mathematical table was found in the ancient Sumerian city of Shuruppag in southern Iraq. Since then, tables have been an important feature of mathematical activity; table making and printed tabular matter are important precursors to modern computing and information processing. This book contains a series of chapters summarizing the technical, institutional, and intellectual history of mathematical tables from earliest times until the late 20th century. It covers mathematical tables (the most important computing aid for several hundred years until the 1960s), data tables (e.g., Census tables), professional tables (e.g., insurance tables), and spreadsheets — the most recent tabular innovation. This book captures the history of tables through eleven chapters. The contributors describe the various information processing techniques and artefacts whose unifying concept is ‘the mathematical table’.Less
The oldest known mathematical table was found in the ancient Sumerian city of Shuruppag in southern Iraq. Since then, tables have been an important feature of mathematical activity; table making and printed tabular matter are important precursors to modern computing and information processing. This book contains a series of chapters summarizing the technical, institutional, and intellectual history of mathematical tables from earliest times until the late 20th century. It covers mathematical tables (the most important computing aid for several hundred years until the 1960s), data tables (e.g., Census tables), professional tables (e.g., insurance tables), and spreadsheets — the most recent tabular innovation. This book captures the history of tables through eleven chapters. The contributors describe the various information processing techniques and artefacts whose unifying concept is ‘the mathematical table’.
Kenneth Prewitt
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691157030
- eISBN:
- 9781400846795
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691157030.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter calls for very specific changes in the census race and ethnic questions. The strategy depends on a close understanding of the political and technical landscape. It is often the fine ...
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This chapter calls for very specific changes in the census race and ethnic questions. The strategy depends on a close understanding of the political and technical landscape. It is often the fine print that has to be changed to bring about change. In the case of census race questions the fine print is knowing exactly what is being asked by the Census Bureau, when it is asked, and on which of its many different surveys. Powerful political constituencies are wedded to the current statistical races, especially the well-organized African Americans and Hispanics. Commercial interests are organized around familiar race data, which they use for product placement and location of retail outlets. These and other sources of resistance contribute to what social science describes as the self-reinforcing tendencies of political and social institutions.Less
This chapter calls for very specific changes in the census race and ethnic questions. The strategy depends on a close understanding of the political and technical landscape. It is often the fine print that has to be changed to bring about change. In the case of census race questions the fine print is knowing exactly what is being asked by the Census Bureau, when it is asked, and on which of its many different surveys. Powerful political constituencies are wedded to the current statistical races, especially the well-organized African Americans and Hispanics. Commercial interests are organized around familiar race data, which they use for product placement and location of retail outlets. These and other sources of resistance contribute to what social science describes as the self-reinforcing tendencies of political and social institutions.
Edward Higgs
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198508410
- eISBN:
- 9780191708831
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198508410.003.0009
- Subject:
- Mathematics, History of Mathematics
This chapter presents the story of table-making in the General Register Office (GRO), which reveals a general pattern — the reduction in informational complexity and the subsequent reintroduction of ...
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This chapter presents the story of table-making in the General Register Office (GRO), which reveals a general pattern — the reduction in informational complexity and the subsequent reintroduction of such complexity via improved technology and methodological advances. Paradoxically, at least at first sight, the triumph of the GRO in the Victorian period lay not just in collecting and displaying ‘data’ but also in finding ways of truncating the collection and presentation of information via forms and techniques of tabular presentation. These allowed the GRO to control the amount of information it had to process, so allowing it to create a coherent picture of the certain aspects of the external world. They also allowed the GRO to present information in a simple form that could be comprehended by a busy public.Less
This chapter presents the story of table-making in the General Register Office (GRO), which reveals a general pattern — the reduction in informational complexity and the subsequent reintroduction of such complexity via improved technology and methodological advances. Paradoxically, at least at first sight, the triumph of the GRO in the Victorian period lay not just in collecting and displaying ‘data’ but also in finding ways of truncating the collection and presentation of information via forms and techniques of tabular presentation. These allowed the GRO to control the amount of information it had to process, so allowing it to create a coherent picture of the certain aspects of the external world. They also allowed the GRO to present information in a simple form that could be comprehended by a busy public.
Rebecca Flemming
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265314
- eISBN:
- 9780191760402
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265314.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter provides an analytical survey of identity registration practices (and their absence) across the ancient Mediterranean. The discussion focuses on the citizen census in Republican Rome, ...
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This chapter provides an analytical survey of identity registration practices (and their absence) across the ancient Mediterranean. The discussion focuses on the citizen census in Republican Rome, but also covers registration activities in democratic Athens, with further reference to a wider background including Ptolemaic Egypt and the Roman Empire. The analysis emphasizes that civil registration in ancient states is more a matter of record and ritual than actual legal definition, and that its systems are as much about membership and privilege, as about subordination and exploitation.Less
This chapter provides an analytical survey of identity registration practices (and their absence) across the ancient Mediterranean. The discussion focuses on the citizen census in Republican Rome, but also covers registration activities in democratic Athens, with further reference to a wider background including Ptolemaic Egypt and the Roman Empire. The analysis emphasizes that civil registration in ancient states is more a matter of record and ritual than actual legal definition, and that its systems are as much about membership and privilege, as about subordination and exploitation.
Khaled Fahmy
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265314
- eISBN:
- 9780191760402
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265314.003.0014
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter describes a number of medico-administrative and legal changes that were introduced in nineteenth-century Egypt and that gave rise to an individualized conception of identity. Prompted by ...
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This chapter describes a number of medico-administrative and legal changes that were introduced in nineteenth-century Egypt and that gave rise to an individualized conception of identity. Prompted by the recruitment needs of a new conscript army, an administrative apparatus was put in place that gave rise to novel techniques of identifying peasants, monitoring their movements, and controlling their bodies. A wide-ranging public hygiene programme aimed at serving the army resulted in a statistical regime whose crowning achievement was a nation-wide census. Concurrently, legal reforms replaced the reputational and oral witnesses that the shari'a relied on with named and written forms of identification. The chapter concludes with a discussion about the implications of this rise of a free-floating individual for conceptions of legal equality.Less
This chapter describes a number of medico-administrative and legal changes that were introduced in nineteenth-century Egypt and that gave rise to an individualized conception of identity. Prompted by the recruitment needs of a new conscript army, an administrative apparatus was put in place that gave rise to novel techniques of identifying peasants, monitoring their movements, and controlling their bodies. A wide-ranging public hygiene programme aimed at serving the army resulted in a statistical regime whose crowning achievement was a nation-wide census. Concurrently, legal reforms replaced the reputational and oral witnesses that the shari'a relied on with named and written forms of identification. The chapter concludes with a discussion about the implications of this rise of a free-floating individual for conceptions of legal equality.
Frederic H. Wagner
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195148213
- eISBN:
- 9780199790449
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195148213.003.0002
- Subject:
- Biology, Ecology
Winter elk numbers on the northern range have been counted through most of its history, with ground counts up to 1956 (except 1935) and aerial counts up to the present. Several sightability bias ...
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Winter elk numbers on the northern range have been counted through most of its history, with ground counts up to 1956 (except 1935) and aerial counts up to the present. Several sightability bias tests have indicated that the censuses count approximately 70-75% of the herd. Regression of annual, instantaneous rates of change (r) between censuses of years t and t+1 on censuses of years t produces an inverse correlation with r reaching zero (equilibrium) at 16,800 (22,000-25,000 corrected for the sightability bias), and indicating density dependence. Below 16,800, the herd increased or held its numbers when hunting kills outside the park and park removals fell below 15-20%, but declined when removals exceeded this magnitude. While evidence of equilibration supports one tenet of the population aspect of the natural-regulation hypothesis, the 6x increase from a census of 3,172 in 1968 to 18,913 in 1988 (‘eruption’) falsifies two of the population tenets of the hypothesis.Less
Winter elk numbers on the northern range have been counted through most of its history, with ground counts up to 1956 (except 1935) and aerial counts up to the present. Several sightability bias tests have indicated that the censuses count approximately 70-75% of the herd. Regression of annual, instantaneous rates of change (r) between censuses of years t and t+1 on censuses of years t produces an inverse correlation with r reaching zero (equilibrium) at 16,800 (22,000-25,000 corrected for the sightability bias), and indicating density dependence. Below 16,800, the herd increased or held its numbers when hunting kills outside the park and park removals fell below 15-20%, but declined when removals exceeded this magnitude. While evidence of equilibration supports one tenet of the population aspect of the natural-regulation hypothesis, the 6x increase from a census of 3,172 in 1968 to 18,913 in 1988 (‘eruption’) falsifies two of the population tenets of the hypothesis.
Colin J. Bibby
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198520863
- eISBN:
- 9780191706189
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198520863.003.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Biodiversity / Conservation Biology
The chapter focuses on the design and methods of bird survey programmes. It deals with issues such as survey design and selection of study areas, effect of time of day and time of year on counts, how ...
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The chapter focuses on the design and methods of bird survey programmes. It deals with issues such as survey design and selection of study areas, effect of time of day and time of year on counts, how to find and count different kinds of birds, standardizing census efforts in time and space, and problems of bird detectability and survey comparability in different habitats. Mapping or ‘atlas’ methodology, based on grid cells, is also discussed, as well as methods of estimating species richness and diversity, and the storage and accessibility of data. The key points in designing bird surveys are listed. No survey method is perfect; the method chosen should be suited to both purpose and resources, in terms of money, manpower, and skill levels.Less
The chapter focuses on the design and methods of bird survey programmes. It deals with issues such as survey design and selection of study areas, effect of time of day and time of year on counts, how to find and count different kinds of birds, standardizing census efforts in time and space, and problems of bird detectability and survey comparability in different habitats. Mapping or ‘atlas’ methodology, based on grid cells, is also discussed, as well as methods of estimating species richness and diversity, and the storage and accessibility of data. The key points in designing bird surveys are listed. No survey method is perfect; the method chosen should be suited to both purpose and resources, in terms of money, manpower, and skill levels.
Rong Ma
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622092020
- eISBN:
- 9789882207288
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622092020.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This survey documents Tibetan society over five decades, including population structure in rural and urban areas, marriage and migration patterns, the maintenance of language and traditional culture, ...
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This survey documents Tibetan society over five decades, including population structure in rural and urban areas, marriage and migration patterns, the maintenance of language and traditional culture, economic transitions relating to income and consumption habits, educational development, and the growth of civil society and social organizations. In addition to household surveys completed over twenty years, the book provides a systematic analysis of all available social and census data released by the Chinese government, and a review of Western and Chinese literature on the topic. It covers several sensitive issues in Tibetan studies, including population changes, Han migration into Tibetan areas, intermarriage patterns, and ethnic relations.Less
This survey documents Tibetan society over five decades, including population structure in rural and urban areas, marriage and migration patterns, the maintenance of language and traditional culture, economic transitions relating to income and consumption habits, educational development, and the growth of civil society and social organizations. In addition to household surveys completed over twenty years, the book provides a systematic analysis of all available social and census data released by the Chinese government, and a review of Western and Chinese literature on the topic. It covers several sensitive issues in Tibetan studies, including population changes, Han migration into Tibetan areas, intermarriage patterns, and ethnic relations.
Simon Szreter, Hania Sholkamy, and A. Dharmalingam (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- April 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199270576
- eISBN:
- 9780191600883
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199270570.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, History of Economic Thought
Throughout its history as a social science discipline, demography has been associated with an exclusively quantitative orientation for studying population problems. An important outcome of this is ...
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Throughout its history as a social science discipline, demography has been associated with an exclusively quantitative orientation for studying population problems. An important outcome of this is that demographers tend to analyse population issues scientifically through sets of fixed social categories that are divorced from their embeddedness in dynamic relationships and in varied local contexts and processes. The collection of essays in this volume questions these fixed categories in two ways: firstly, by examining the historical and political circumstances in which such categories have their provenance, and secondly, in reassessing their uncritical applications over space and time in a diverse range of empirical case studies. Reflexive questioning is achieved by encouraging a constructive interdisciplinary dialogue involving anthropologists, demographers, historians, and sociologists.This volume seeks to examine the political complexities that lie at the heart of population studies, through a focus on category formation, category use, and category critique. It is shown that this takes the form of a dialectic between the needs for clarity of scientific and administrative analysis and the recalcitrant diversity of the social contexts and human processes that generate population change. The critical reflections on the established categories in each of the essays included here are enriched by meticulous ethnographic fieldwork and historical, archival research, drawn from all the continents. The essays collected here, therefore, exemplify a new methodology for research in population studies, which does not simply accept and use the established categories of population science, but seeks critically and reflexively to explore, test, and re‐evaluate their meanings in diverse contexts. The essays show that for demography to realise its full potential, there is an urgent need to re‐examine and contextualise the social categories used today in population research.Less
Throughout its history as a social science discipline, demography has been associated with an exclusively quantitative orientation for studying population problems. An important outcome of this is that demographers tend to analyse population issues scientifically through sets of fixed social categories that are divorced from their embeddedness in dynamic relationships and in varied local contexts and processes. The collection of essays in this volume questions these fixed categories in two ways: firstly, by examining the historical and political circumstances in which such categories have their provenance, and secondly, in reassessing their uncritical applications over space and time in a diverse range of empirical case studies. Reflexive questioning is achieved by encouraging a constructive interdisciplinary dialogue involving anthropologists, demographers, historians, and sociologists.
This volume seeks to examine the political complexities that lie at the heart of population studies, through a focus on category formation, category use, and category critique. It is shown that this takes the form of a dialectic between the needs for clarity of scientific and administrative analysis and the recalcitrant diversity of the social contexts and human processes that generate population change. The critical reflections on the established categories in each of the essays included here are enriched by meticulous ethnographic fieldwork and historical, archival research, drawn from all the continents. The essays collected here, therefore, exemplify a new methodology for research in population studies, which does not simply accept and use the established categories of population science, but seeks critically and reflexively to explore, test, and re‐evaluate their meanings in diverse contexts. The essays show that for demography to realise its full potential, there is an urgent need to re‐examine and contextualise the social categories used today in population research.
Edward Higgs
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- April 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199270576
- eISBN:
- 9780191600883
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199270570.003.0005
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, History of Economic Thought
Examines the classification systems and nosologies that were developed by the General Register Office in London in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in terms of modern linguistic analysis. ...
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Examines the classification systems and nosologies that were developed by the General Register Office in London in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in terms of modern linguistic analysis. The Office was responsible for administering civil registration and the censuses in England and Wales, and used the data collected by these processes to create demographic, medical, and occupational statistics. Such statistics have meaning within the terms of the particular linguistic conventions employed.Less
Examines the classification systems and nosologies that were developed by the General Register Office in London in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in terms of modern linguistic analysis. The Office was responsible for administering civil registration and the censuses in England and Wales, and used the data collected by these processes to create demographic, medical, and occupational statistics. Such statistics have meaning within the terms of the particular linguistic conventions employed.
Melissa Nobles
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- April 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199270576
- eISBN:
- 9780191600883
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199270570.003.0006
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, History of Economic Thought
Provides an abbreviated history of racial categorization in American and Brazilian censuses from each country's first census in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries up through the 2000 census. It ...
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Provides an abbreviated history of racial categorization in American and Brazilian censuses from each country's first census in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries up through the 2000 census. It argues against the view that census bureaux are disconnected from larger political developments or that racial data are innocuous demographic data. For most of their countries’ histories, state officials, (social) scientists, and politicians tightly controlled American and Brazilian census‐taking and the social categories deployed. Over the past thirty years in the US and the past twenty years in Brazil, groups within civil society have organized and lobbied to have methods of categorization altered. Categorization is now a ‘bottom up’ process and not only a ‘top down’ process.Less
Provides an abbreviated history of racial categorization in American and Brazilian censuses from each country's first census in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries up through the 2000 census. It argues against the view that census bureaux are disconnected from larger political developments or that racial data are innocuous demographic data. For most of their countries’ histories, state officials, (social) scientists, and politicians tightly controlled American and Brazilian census‐taking and the social categories deployed. Over the past thirty years in the US and the past twenty years in Brazil, groups within civil society have organized and lobbied to have methods of categorization altered. Categorization is now a ‘bottom up’ process and not only a ‘top down’ process.
Francine Hirsch
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- April 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199270576
- eISBN:
- 9780191600883
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199270570.003.0007
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, History of Economic Thought
Looks at the connections between census‐taking, border‐making, and identity‐formation in the Soviet Union. It focuses on the All‐Union Census of 1926, which was the first census to categorize the ...
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Looks at the connections between census‐taking, border‐making, and identity‐formation in the Soviet Union. It focuses on the All‐Union Census of 1926, which was the first census to categorize the entire population of the USSR according to ‘nationality.’ It analyses the process through which ethnographers and statisticians used their expertise to formulate a census question about nationality and to create an official definitional grid. Also focuses on the activation of official nationality categories on the ground in Central Asia. In particular, it looks at how self‐identified Tajik and Uzbek leaders used the occasion of the census to mobilize their populations and vie for contested territories.Less
Looks at the connections between census‐taking, border‐making, and identity‐formation in the Soviet Union. It focuses on the All‐Union Census of 1926, which was the first census to categorize the entire population of the USSR according to ‘nationality.’ It analyses the process through which ethnographers and statisticians used their expertise to formulate a census question about nationality and to create an official definitional grid. Also focuses on the activation of official nationality categories on the ground in Central Asia. In particular, it looks at how self‐identified Tajik and Uzbek leaders used the occasion of the census to mobilize their populations and vie for contested territories.
Santiago Villaveces-Izquierdo
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- April 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199270576
- eISBN:
- 9780191600883
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199270570.003.0009
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, History of Economic Thought
The increasing intensification of Colombia's internal wars since 1990 has exacted a heavy toll in uprooting large segments of the country's rural population. As of 2002, it was estimated that 2.9 ...
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The increasing intensification of Colombia's internal wars since 1990 has exacted a heavy toll in uprooting large segments of the country's rural population. As of 2002, it was estimated that 2.9 million Colombians (of a total of 42 million) had become internally displaced. The lack of census variables that capture the dynamics and impact of such dramatic demographic flux has produced a statistical conundrum that hides the crisis from policy‐making spheres as well as from political debates, creating an ‘official invisibility’. Explores the way in which an official ‘narrative’ can obliterate the political standing of the forms of ‘otherness’ that it creates through such state classificatory devices as the census, vital statistics, laws, and maps.Less
The increasing intensification of Colombia's internal wars since 1990 has exacted a heavy toll in uprooting large segments of the country's rural population. As of 2002, it was estimated that 2.9 million Colombians (of a total of 42 million) had become internally displaced. The lack of census variables that capture the dynamics and impact of such dramatic demographic flux has produced a statistical conundrum that hides the crisis from policy‐making spheres as well as from political debates, creating an ‘official invisibility’. Explores the way in which an official ‘narrative’ can obliterate the political standing of the forms of ‘otherness’ that it creates through such state classificatory devices as the census, vital statistics, laws, and maps.
Paula Jean Davis
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- April 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199270576
- eISBN:
- 9780191600883
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199270570.003.0016
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, History of Economic Thought
The household is a standard social category used in demographic census and survey work around the world where it is taken to represent both the family and the basic economic unit of society. From an ...
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The household is a standard social category used in demographic census and survey work around the world where it is taken to represent both the family and the basic economic unit of society. From an anthropological perspective, however, there can be a great difference between ‘the household’ as defined by demographers and the concrete networks of kinship relations that extend beyond the household and connect certain households to one another. It is shown that the women in urban Kampala, who would be demographically enumerated as residing in female‐headed households, in fact typically form, as ‘Senga aunts’, an integral part of a dual family household paired with a rurally located brother's household. Application of the conventional demographic category of household can only result in a complete misreading of family structure and economic relationships in this part of Africa. Routine demographic practices such as household surveys are of questionable value without more careful attention to the local contexts in which active agents create their culturally diverse household forms.Less
The household is a standard social category used in demographic census and survey work around the world where it is taken to represent both the family and the basic economic unit of society. From an anthropological perspective, however, there can be a great difference between ‘the household’ as defined by demographers and the concrete networks of kinship relations that extend beyond the household and connect certain households to one another. It is shown that the women in urban Kampala, who would be demographically enumerated as residing in female‐headed households, in fact typically form, as ‘Senga aunts’, an integral part of a dual family household paired with a rurally located brother's household. Application of the conventional demographic category of household can only result in a complete misreading of family structure and economic relationships in this part of Africa. Routine demographic practices such as household surveys are of questionable value without more careful attention to the local contexts in which active agents create their culturally diverse household forms.
