POPULATION ANALYSIS ON THE MICROCOMPUTER: A SYSTEM OF SOFTWARE PACKAGES

This paper describes a system of versatile software packages that has been developed by the author for population analysis on IBM-compatible microcomputers using PC or MS DOS. The series includes programs for the production of life tables, the analysis of spatial patterns and temporal trends in mortality, population projections, stationary-state population simulations and demographic planning, cohort survival estimates of net migration, and the analysis of migration matrices. Each of the programs in the series is discussed in terms of its principal analytical features, associated conceptual and methodological issues, and potential applications. The programs are intended for use both as basic research and planning tools and as instructional aids in university-level courses. The programs and related documentation are available on a set of four 360K diskettes.     

SOCIAL NETWORKS AND THE CONVERGENCE OF POPULATION ATTRIBUTES: A GENERALIZATION

ABSTRACT.  Analysis of social interactions has recently become an important area of economic research, and the focus of researchers in this area has increasingly shifted toward dynamic models. In one recent contribution, Brueckner and Smirnov (2007) analyze the evolution of population attributes in an exceedingly simple model, where an agent's attributes at time t are equal to the average attribute value among his acquaintances. The pattern of acquaintances in the population is determined by the social network, and Brueckner and Smirnov (BS) explore the effect of network characteristics on the convergence of population attributes over time. They show that some simple sufficient conditions on the network structure ensure convergence to a "melting-pot" equilibrium where attributes are uniform across agents. The present paper provides a generalization of BS's analysis, allowing for a more general form of the rule governing the evolution of population attributes. The analysis shows that BS's previous conclusions continue to hold under this generalization, while also providing a result that can be applied more generally to other models.     

MAPPING OF THE POPULATION POTENTIAL

The development of the population potential model and its use both in the Soviet Union and abroad are reviewed. A formula proposed by O. D. Duncan, incorporating the so-called inner potential (equivalent to the actual population) in the formula for the population potential of a region or place is found to yield exaggerated high values for population centers. Interpolation of potentials on the basis of such peak values leads to considerable distortion of reality, as does the use of transport distance instead of straightline distance between interacting places. The author develops new formulas for the construction of population potential maps in an effort to refine the technique and extend its applicability to large-scale mapping.     

WIPING THE BLOOD OFF ABORIGINALITY: THE POLITICS OF ABORIGINAL EMBODIMENT IN CONTEMPORARY INTELLECTUAL DEBATE

I had to meet the white man's eyes. An unfamiliar weight burdened me. In the white world the man of colour encounters difficulties in the development of his bodily schemes … I was battered down by tom-toms, cannibalism, intellectual deficiency, fetishism, racial defects … I took myself off far from my own presence … What else could it be for me but an amputation, an excision, a haemorrhage that splattered my whole body with black blood? (Fanon 1968)     

人口自身再生产与生态环境的拓扑探析

本文运用耗散结构和自组织理论,从物质循环和能量转化方面,剖析了生态环境与生态系统的拓扑关系,进而从理论深层探讨了人口自身再生产与生态环境之间的相互机制与演绎规律。文章认为再建生态平衡和人与自然和谐的基础在于有效地控制人口增长和寻求合宜的经济发展模式,并通过技术进步改善和保护生态环境。