what is demography?
Second, given a working definition of demography, what are some promising fields of demographic research?What is demography? The reason I think this question is relevant to a discussion of new directions in demographic research is that I wonder what happens as we follow these “new directions”. If these new demographic research areas lead us outside of traditional demographic areas, are we still demographers? To begin with, the very fact that we are having this town meeting suggests to me both a sense of optimism in the field about the expanding possibilities and new directions of demographic research and a sense of unease about what the identity of the field will be as a result of those developments. In a sense, the question of the identity of demography is already pertinent. It is impossible, for instance, to read the titles of the paper presentations for this year’s PAA and not wonder about the authors’ common connection as demographers. As a sociologist, I have always dealt with thi
