Population

Department of Sociology
University of California, Irvine
2007-08
Overview

In 1900, the average American woman had four births in her life time. In 2000, that number was reduced to two. In 2000, 60 percent of the white women were married. The percent for black women was 39. In 1900, white Americans born that year were expected to live to be 48, non-whites to 33. By 2000, the gap was seven years apart. In 2000, people born in less developed countries of the world had a life expectancy that was 13 years shorter than those in the more developed countries.

Population changes as seen in marriage, fertility, mortality, and migration are among the most apparent and important indicators of a society and of social change. Population changes also have broad political, economic, and social implications for any society. Studies of population aim to understanding how to measure population change, and what are the causes and consequences of population change.

Sociologists approach the studies of population by focusing on the social processes and implications of demographic change. They ask questions such as why marriage age is going up, why people divorce, why people have fewer children today than in the past, why people move to the suburbs, why mortality is lower among the whites than it is among the blacks, and what are the implications of these and other demographic changes for a social organization such as the family and for population aging at the societal level. To answer these and other questions, research and graduate training in the population cluster involve focused methodological training in methods and broad sociological background.

Examples of current faculty research

• Immigration and intergenerational mobility in metropolitan Los Angeles (see www.cri.uci.edu for more information on this project)
• Immigration and multiracial identification in the United States
• The fertility of U.S. immigrants
• Incorporation of immigrants
• Educational inequality
• Racial and ethnic differences in residence
• Women's employment across race/ethnicity and immigrant status
• Living arrangements for children with disabilities, and their effect on
  gender inequality
• Changes in the educational distributions of Mexican immigrants to the United States from 1960-2000
• How U.S. immigrants compare to the populations remaining in their home Countries
• Decision-making among dual career couples
• International Migration and Alternative Definitions of Identity: The Mexican- and Arab-American Cases
• Global city networks
• Older people in America's immigrant families 
• Cross-national analyses of the household division of labor
• Comparative historical reproductive regimes in Eurasia
• Migration and social integration in contemporary China
  
  

FACULTY

Population

Frank Bean international migration, demography, racial & ethnic relations, economic sociology, family	Joy Pixley life course, work & family, sex stratification, gender roles, research design
Susan Brown* immigration, inequality, urban sociology	Jen'nan Read gender, ethnicity, religion, health, Arab Americans, U.S. Muslims
Cynthia Feliciano race/ethnicity/minority relations, migration and immigration, education	David Smith world systems analysis, urbanization, development, comparative-historical sociology, dependent development in east Asia
	Judy Treas Family, Social Demography, Aging, Social Stratification
Andrew Noymer demography, health, networks	Wang Feng Contemporary demographic, economic, and social processes, social inequality in state socialisms, contemporary Chinese society
* Cluster coordinator

 

For this year's schedule of Demographic and Social Analysis Talks, click here.

 

FIELD EXAMS & GRADUATE COURSES

The following courses are among those satisfying prerequisites for field exams in Population

Age, Generations, and the Life Course
Demographic Methods
Educational Inequality
Family and Households
Global Urbanization
Inequality in Social Context
Mexican Migration and U.S. Policy
Social Demography
Population
The Suburban Experience

Two Year Teaching Plan (subject to change, check with the department or a cluster coordinator)

• Age, Generations, and the Life Course -- Treas (2008-09) Note: Demography of Aging may be offered instead.
• Demographic Methods -- Wang Feng, annually in fall.
• Educational Inequality -- Brown (2008-09)
• Family and Households -- Treas (Winter 2008)
• Global Urbanization -- Smith (Fall 2008)
• Inequality -- Huffman (Spring 2008). Generally offered annually but not in 2008-09.
• Marriage and Cohabitation -- Pixley (Spring 2009)
• Mexican Migration and U.S. Policy -- Bean (Fall 2007)
• Population -- Brown, annually in fall
• Sociology and Demography of Health -- Noymer (2008-09)
• Social Organization & Demographic Change -- Lesthaeghe (Spring 2008)
• Social Demography* -- Not currently scheduled.
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