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Population and Consumption
1993 - 1997
In 1993, the Centre established a new project jointly with the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, on Population and Consumption supported by the Global Stewardship Initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts. Research was concentrated on two areas: fertility, mortality and migration, and population, consumption and the environment.
Sheilagh Ogilvie, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge assisted in the coordination of the programme in 1994-1995 and in October 1994 she began a one year Research Fellowship at the Centre in connection with the programme.
Stephan Klasen (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich) joined the Centre in 1996 as coordinator of this project. His research examined links between population, consumption inequalities, the ethics of consumption, and the differential impacts of various consumption patterns on environmental degradation.
Stephan Klasen organised an international conference in October 1997 on Population, Consumption and Security. The conference brought together academics including economists, historians, demographers, anthropologists, and policy makers including representatives of the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Kingdom House of Lords, to explore links between population, consumption, inequality, the environment and development. There were five sessions: Consumption and Savings, Population, Consumption and Environment, Demographic and Economic Change, and Case Studies:China and South Africa. Papers were given by Abhijit Banerjee (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) on Policy-Making in an Over-Consuming World: Some Finger Exercises, Alaka Basu (Cornell University) on Population and Consumption Versus Fertility and Consumption: Not Two Sides of the Same Coin, Joel Cohen (Rockefeller University) on Can an Equitable World Support More or Fewer People than an Inequitable One?, Angus Deaton (Princeton University) on Do Americans Consume Too Much? Three Interpretations, Athar Hussain (London School of Economics) on Chinese Households and their Expenditure Patterns, Stephan Klasen on Population, Consumption Inequalities and the Disadvantages of Late Development and on Economic, Environmental and Social Limits for ‘Late Developers’ in South Africa, Valerie Møller (University of Natal) on Aspirations, Consumption and Conflict in the New South Africa and Emma Rothschild on Luxury and Consumption. Other participants included Partha Dasgupta (St John’s College, Cambridge), Jean Drèze (Delhi School of Economics), Anne McLaren (Wellcome Institute) and Richard Smith (Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure). A report on the proceedings of the conference was prepared by Sanjay Reddy (Harvard University) and several of the papers were produced as Centre working papers.
A colloquium on Population and Security was held in February 1995 in collaboration with the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure. It brought together distinguished scholars and policymakers to share their expertise concerning the relationship between demographic development and socio-political security. The meeting provided a forum for a wide-ranging discussion of the security implications of many aspects of demographic behaviour including fertility, mortality and migration. There were four sessions: Population and Security, Historical Evidence, Population and Institutions, and Contemporary Issues. Papers were presented by Sudhir Anand (St Catherine’s College, Oxford) and Lincoln Chen (Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies) on Human Security and Population, Alaka Basu (Institute for Economic Growth, Delhi) on The Politicization of Fertility and its Implications for Social Security, Frederick Cooper (University of Michigan) on Africa and the Development Idea: An Historical Interpretation, Geoffrey McNicoll (The Population Council, New York) on Demography in the Unmaking of Civil Society, Catherine Merridale (University of Bristol) on Responses to Demographic Loss in the Soviet Union, 1918-1953, Sheilagh Ogilvie on Population Growth and State Policy in Central Europe before Industrialization, Amartya Sen (Trinity College, Cambridge) on Population and Law, Richard Smith on Welfare, Social Institutions and Demographic Regimes, Simon Szreter (St John’s College, Cambridge) on Urbanization, Population and Insecurity, and Tony Wrigley (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge) on The Problems Posed by Low Fertility in Some Advanced Countries. The Centre produced several working papers based on the research findings presented at this workshop, and a full conference report was written by Sheilagh Ogilvie.
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