Master’s degrees  in population studies: £15,000 scholarships available

Are you thinking about doing a Master’s degree in the field of population studies in 2009/2010?

Students accepted for the

MSc in Population and Development, or
MSc Health, Population and Society, or
MSC Social Research Methods (Population)

at the LSE will be eligible to be considered for nomination for a £15,000 scholarship from the ESRC-PIC.

Details of the degrees can be found at:
http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/graduateProspectus2009/taughtProgrammes/MScPopulationAndDevelopment.htm
http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/graduateProspectus2009/taughtProgrammes/MScHealthPopulationAndSociety.htm
http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/graduateProspectus2009/taughtProgrammes/MScSocialResearchMethods.htm

You can specialise in population studies in either developed or developing countries.

Residential eligibility for the studentships will be according to the ESRC’s criteria. In particular, all candidates should have settled status in the UK and have been ordinarily resident here for at least three years. Residence in the UK as full-time student does not qualify non-EU nationals for an award.

For further information, please contact Dr Ernestina Coast (e.coast@lse.ac.uk).

Nominations for scholarships close on July 13th, and you will need to have been accepted onto one of the MScs in order to be considered for nomination.

Poverty and Reproductive Health in Poor Countries: Issues, Measurement & Evidence

BSPS day meeting

Sponsored in collaboration with the ESRC

Venue: New Academic Building (NABL09), LSE

Friday 29th May, 2009

Background

The burden of out-of-pocket expenditure related to reproductive health service

use remains largely unexplored in poor country contexts. The knock-on effect of

poverty on reproductive health is difficult to quantify given limited crosssectional

and longitudinal evidence as well as lack of representative data on

health related expenditure at the individual level. Apart from the indirect costs,

there is a lack of evidence on user-fees and institutional subsidies in the public

and private sector and how these influence treatment/ care seeking behaviour,

both short-term and long-term. Generating evidence through cross-country

studies is essential to design effective and sustainable policies to enhance

reproductive wellbeing of individuals.

Aims

1. To examine evidence on the pathways through which poverty affects

reproductive health at the individual, household, institutional and community

levels in poor countries, with a regional focus on Asia and Africa.

2. To provide a forum for debate on the short- and long-term impact of poverty

on reproductive wellbeing

3. To discuss the challenges in measuring and interpreting empirical evidence

on poverty and reproductive health

This day meeting is open to all, and is free-of-charge but there is only limited space available.

However, PRE-REGISTRATION is essential, also for access to New Academic Building and for security related reasons – please email Ms. Anne Shepherd (pic@lse.ac.uk ) or phone: 020 7955 7666.

“Population, Education and Development: Addressing the Interactions”

LSE Population Research Seminar
Speaker: Prof. Wolfgang Lutz
Leader, World Population Program
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

Chair: Prof. Mike Murphy, Professor of Demography, LSE

Abstract:
Education is a key determinant if international development. This Seminar
presents new projections of populations by age, sex and four levels of
educational attainment for more than 120 countries and a series of population-
development-environment (PDE) case studies that comprehensively assess the
role of population and education relative to other factors in the struggle for
sustainable development. It is argued that most concerns about the
consequences of population trends are in fact concerns about human capital.
Only by adding the “quality” dimension of education to the traditionally narrow
focus on size and age structure can some of the long-standing population
controversies be resolved.
Thursday, June 4th, 17.00-18.30
The Alumni Room (NABLG09) LSE, 54 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3LJ

Registration is free and open, but please email Dianne Josephs
(d.e.josephs@lse.ac.uk) to pre-register attendance.

Call for participants

‘Fertility declines in the past, present and future: what we don’t know and what we need to know’

A joint workshop of

 the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research,  

the British Society for Population Studies

and

the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure

Dates: 15-17^th July 2009

Location: Cambridge Group for the History of Population, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge & Downing College, Cambridge, UK

Organising committee

Dr Eilidh Garrett, Cambridge Group (eilidh.garrett@btinternet.com )

Dr Rebecca Sear, London School of Economics (r.sear@lse.ac.uk )

Dr Mikolaj Szoltysek, Max Planck Institute of Demographic Research (szoltysek@demogr.mpg.de )

Administrative Team:

Anne Shepherd BSPS

Birgit Moeller MPIDR

Workshop description

Fertility decline is now universal. But, despite decades of research, we still have no universal explanation for why fertility declines. Changes in reproductive patterns due to the demographic transition have been a central focus of research within post-war demography. However, over recent years fertility research has confronted challenges to almost all its initial presumptions, models and theories. This critical process has been accompanied by an extensive accumulation of detailed empirical evidence which has emphasized localized cultural, economic and environmental factors affecting family formation rules and couples’ reproductive decisions in a variety of ways. Unfortunately, this new evidence has been piling up faster than its theoretical implications could be assimilated.

The time is therefore right to assess the current state of research into fertility decline, and the theories underpinning it, to suggest future directions for both research and policy. At this meeting, we intend to gather an inter-disciplinary and international group of researchers to discuss what is known about fertility decline, what remains unknown, and how might the unknown become known and better understood. It is our hope that bringing together representative demographers, economists, historical demographers, evolutionary biologists  and anthropologists drawn from of all three ‘strands’ of fertility research  –  i.e. working in the context of historic, contemporary developed and contemporary developing populations – who do not often have the opportunity to meet and communicate fruitfully with one another,  will facilitate new energies and research initiatives to understand fertility change in the past, present and future. Our intention is to re-evaluate ways in which fertility research has been conducted so far, and to open new horizons by pushing forward methodological and theoretical frameworks for the study of human reproduction. Such an endeavour to generate a new understanding of fertility trends is particularly timely given current concerns across the contemporary developed world about extremely low rates of fertility. 

Conference programme

We intend the format of the meeting to a mix of short presentations of pre-read papers followed by discussion panels, leading to more general discussion. The pre-read format will allow participants to make best use of the time available during the workshop to move forward the discussion. The number of participants will be limited so that all those attending can actively take part in the discussions.

Speakers & discussants

The following have stated their intention of attending as either speakers or members of discussion panels:

George Alter, Indiana University

Greg Clark, University of California, Davis

John Cleland, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

David Coleman, University of Oxford

Paul Demeny, Population Council

Tim Dyson, London School of Economics

Joshua Goldstein/Sebastian Klüsener, Max Planck Institute of Demographic Research

Ruth Mace, University College London

Geoffrey McNicoll, Population Council

Mike Murphy, London School of Economics

Lesley Newson, University of Exeter

Máire Ní Bhrolcháin, University of Southampton

Dimiter Philipov, Vienna Institute of Demography

David Reher, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Tomáš Sobotka, Vienna Institute of Demography

Simon Szreter, University of Cambridge

Arland Thornton, University of Michigan

Dirk Van de Kaa, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute

Frans van Poppel, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute

Sarah Walters, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Chris Wilson, University of St Andrews

Bob Woods, University of Liverpool                 

Call for participants

We would like to invite applications for the remaining places for participants from individuals working in the field of fertility decline who wish to contribute to this workshop. We already have a full line-up of speakers but would like to invite non-presenting participants to attend the workshop and engage in discussion and debate. Please copy your email response to all 3 members of the organising committee (at the addresses given above) by 15 May 2009 including a short statement of your research activities and the reasons for your interest in participation in this meeting. Owing to the limitation on the number of participants it may not be possible to accept all applications to take part in this workshop, so please state as clearly as possible your reasons for wishing to take part.

Those responding to this call should be aware that they will be expected to meet their own travel, subsistence and accommodation costs. However, a small number of travel bursaries (to a maximum of £100 each, on provision of receipts) will be available for post-graduate students and post-doctoral researchers. Please state in your email whether you would like to be considered for one of these bursaries.

BSPS day meeting: Health and mortality using record linkage data in the UK

 LG03, New Academic Building, London School of Economics

14th  May 2009

Programme

10.30 Registration and Coffee

11.00 Introduction by the Chair

11.10 Marital history and mortality using ONS Longitudinal Study data, Emily Grundy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

 3.50 Final questions and comments

4.00 End of meeting

3.10 Associations between self reported health and mortality in the UK: analysis of the Longitudinal Studies of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Harriet Young, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

2.30 Reinvigorating your data with some contextual colour: examples from the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study. Dermot O’Reilly, Queens University Belfast

12.50 Lunch (not provided) Optional demonstration of the Centre for Longitudinal Study Information and User Support (CeLSIUS) web resources.

1.50 Using the Scottish Longitudinal Study to consider the effects of widowhood on mortality,   Paul Boyle, University of St. Andrews

 12.20 Paid employment, permanent sickness and mortality risk: England and Wales 1971-2001, David Blane, Imperial College London

11.50 Examining the influence of health selection on male mortality by socio-economic position, England and Wales, 2001-04,  Chris White, Office for National Statistics

This day meeting is open to all, and is free of charge. However, - please email pic@lse.ac.uk or phone 020 7955 7666 to pre-register   pre-registration is essential

Challenging the ‘Parallel Lives’ Myth: Race, Sociology, Statistics and Politics

Wednesday May 13 th 2009 10.30 -16.00

London School of Economics

Room LG01, New Academic Building, Lincoln’s Inn Fields

The BSA Race and Ethnicity Study Group and the BSPS are taking the opportunity of the publication of ‘Sleepwalking to Segregation’? Challenging myths about race and immigration by Nissa Finney and Ludi Simpson (Policy Press 2009) to review recent public debates about ‘race’, immigration and integration. The idea of communities living ‘parallel lives’ and of Britain ‘sleepwalking to segregation’ will be a major focus of the seminar. The occasion will also mark the official launch of Sleepwalking to Segregation.

10.30 Registration and refreshments, and Policy Press book display

11.00 Robert Moore (University of Liverpool) Introduction: ‘recurrent themes’

11.20 Ludi Simpson (University of Manchester) ‘Sleepwalking to Segregation’? How do claims of white flight, growing segregation and dangerous segregation persist despite evidence to the contrary? What are the consequences?

12.05 Paul Gilroy (LSE) Race Politics and the retreat from rationality. In the age of ‘evidence based policy development’ why would our leaders choose to set the evidence base on Parallel Lives aside?

12.35 – 13.45 Lunch (sandwich and drink provided), and book display

13.50 to 14.20 Brief introductions from three speakers who will join the morning speakers for a panel discussion:

Debbie Phillips (Leeds and Oxford Universities) will focus on how questions about community cohesion have become intertwined with a racialised political discourse on urban segregation and integration.

Shamser Sinha (CoConvenor BSA Race and Ethnicity Study Group) argues that multicultural communities are displaying solidarities and resisting racism in ways confounding Trevor Phillips’ segregation thesis and its inbuilt reification of cultural, ethnic and racial difference.

Kjartan Sveinsson (Runnymede Trust) will argue that the socioeconomic disadvantage of poor white communities has been cast as an ethnic and cultural problem while larger structural considerations, such as the hierarchical nature of the British class system, are left out of the equation altogether.

14.20 – 16.00 Panel discussion with all speakers, and contributions from the floor

Please note that it is essential to register for this free conference in order to gain admission to the LSE lecture theatre. Please register your name and address and affiliation at:

http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/international/lectures/parallellivesmyth.htm

How to get to LSE: LSE is in central London at Aldwych, WC2A 2AE. The nearest underground station is Holborn, which is on the Central line or Piccadilly line. Click on this hyperlink for further information:

http://www2.lse.ac.uk/mapsAndDirections/howToGetToLSE.aspx

The event takes place in the New Academic Building which can be found in the top left hand corner of this map: http://www2.lse.ac.uk/mapsAndDirections/LSE_CampusMap_web_07.pdf

BSPS Prize 2009

Entries are invited for the 2009 BSPS Prize.
This is awarded to the entry judged to be the best MSc. Dissertation on a demographic topic during the year 2008 (which would normally be at or around distinction level). Applicants should supply four copies of their dissertation, which do not need to be bound – electronic submissions can also be accepted.

Please note that all entries should be submitted by the institution awarding the degree, or by the supervising academic, and not by the authors themselves. A maximum of two entries per institution will be accepted. A word limit of 12,000 words per entry is encouraged, on the basis that it is very difficult to judge and compare entries of vastly differing lengths. However, longer dissertations may also be entered, with a section not exceeding the given word limit being nominated for judging.

A cash prize of £300 is offered, which will be increased to £400 if there is a tie for first place and the Prize is split between two winners. The winner(s) will be announced at the BSPS Conference in September.

For the purposes of this prize, demography is defined as
1. the scientific study of human populations, especially with reference to their size, structure and distribution
2. the scientific study of the determining processes, such as fertility, mortality and migration, and
3. the relationship of these with the social, economic and cultural context within which they exist.

Entries should be received by 31 May 2009 at the BSPS Secretariat, PS201, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, or pic@lse.ac.uk

We would like to draw your attention to Popfest 2009, the 17th annual conference of postgraduate students in Population-related studies. Popfest 2009 will be taking place from the 2nd July to the 4th of July 2009, and will be hosted by the Population At LSE research students at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Popfest is organised by postgraduates, for postgraduates, and is an event which aims to give researchers in Social Science, Demography, Human Geography, Social Anthropology, Social Statistics, Development, Health, Social Policy and other related fields, a relaxed and supportive forum to meet and present their research.

Popfest 2009 is now ready to accept abstracts for papers and posters. We welcome contributions from postgraduate students studying any aspect of population.

Please forward this on to anyone who you feel might be interested in participating in this event.

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 20 April 2009
Deadline for registration: 08 May 2009

The conference registration fee for Popfest 2009 is £25 which covers all conference materials, lunches on 6th and 7th of July, refreshments, and a conference dinner.

For further information and on-line abstract submission please visit our conference website: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/BSPS/postgraduates/PopFest.htm