This book presents a cross section of the work and concerns of social demographers worldwide, covering a broad range of topics from social structure through population structure to social policy; from fertility and mortality through migration to the way in which organisations deal with the demographic environment in which they operate. Topics addressed also include morbidity and health profiles and transitions, as well as policies and programs concerned with these and other issues. The volume touches on some of the major links between population and societal dynamics. It addresses demographic patterns and issues from micro-level, meso-level, and macro-level perspectives and helps put into focus the past, present and future of the mutual relations between population dynamics and societal responses. With a unique introductory chapter discussing the global unevenness of population growth today, its associations with inequality and the challenges it presents for the future, and a truly international approach to social and demographic change and policy responses, this book will serve as a valuable resource for professionals and students in sociology, demography, social policy and local governance.

Jon Anson studied Sociology in Leeds, Social Work at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and received his PhD in Sociology / Demography from Brown University, Providence, RI, USA. From 1985 to his retirement in 2016 he was a faculty member in the Spitzer Department of Social Work, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel. His research interests focus on social demography, with a special emphasis on Israeli demography and the reasons for its particularly high level of fertility, and on the social conditions for premature and delayed mortality. Walter Bartl studied sociology and political science at the University of Potsdam and Lancaster University. In 2010 he received his PhD from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. Since 2005 he has been working as a research associate at the Institute of Sociology at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. His research interests include societal responses to demographic change, the use of numbers in politics, governance of education and the sociology of organizations and labour markets. Andrzej Kulczycki, MSc, PhD, links public health with the social, behavioural and policy sciences, works both domestically and internationally, and has experience with multiple methodological approaches. His research focuses on aspects of reproductive health, demography, maternal and child health, health systems, programs and policies, and research methods. He has served as Chair of the Population, Reproductive and Sexual Health section of the American Public Health Association, and on several CDC working groups on infertility. He has taught courses in reproductive health, demography, population studies, maternal and child health, research methods, and health programs and policies. He has also developed curricula in all these fields. Earlier, he was a faculty member at the American University of Beirut and a research associate at the University of Michigan, where he completed his doctorate. He also holds degrees from the Universities of London and Durham.