Population paradigms: pathways and processes

John Hobcraft, University of York

Much demography is concerned with answering questions about when rather than about why or what. We need to focus explicitly on processes. We should study becoming a parent or parenthood, not births; partnership processes not marriages; health and well-being, not deaths. The other key shift of emphasis is to within-individual pathways. We must engage with the biological sciences and learn from the approach of psychology. The interplays of genes and their expression with the environment and of the neuroendocrine system with behaviour will prove essential in understanding demographic behaviour. Demography can transform to a generic social and behavioural science linked to the biological sciences. We should emphasise frameworks and theories that can illuminate the processes and pathways involved in demographic behaviour.