The Not So Secret Agenda of Depopulation of the World

2008

Demographers are an insular group. Although often located in departments of sociology or economics, at least in North America, their focus is often tightly trained on very specific issues within their discipline. Despite that, demography has been more involved in the formation and implementation of social policy than most of the social sciences; yet, the demographic literature contains rather few analyses of the relationship between demographic research and the institutions which promoted and executed population policies. It has taken an historian, Matthew Connelly, to write a history of the campaign to reduce fertility and control the growth of the human population. It is harsh reading for demographers. Some of the most famous individuals and leading institutions of our discipline come in for stinging criticism. But it is a story that all demographers and, indeed, any social scientist concerned about the relationship between research and social policy would do well to read. Connelly has written a sweeping history of efforts aimed at controlling the world's population in the twentieth century based not only on extensive archival research-the staple of historical scholarship-but also on interviews with some of the leading figures. It is a tendentious history that he is written. Connelly is not interested in simply cataloguing the various efforts at fertility reduction but in exposing what he believes was the arrogance and misguided ideas that drove the family planning programs supported by such institutions as USAID, UNFPA, and the International Planned Parenthood Federation. At the core of all these efforts, he argues, was the sense that those directing the programs knew the interests of the poor and illiterate better than they did themselves. The result was programs in which the end-control over world population

Journal of Policy History, 1995

The U.S. government position on world population growth as it emerged in the early 1960s was a fundamental departure in both content and commitment. We embraced the idea that one of the goals of American foreign policy should be the simultaneous reduction of both mortality and fertility across the Third World. It was not simply rhetoric. As the years passed, we committed a growing portion of our foreign aid to that end. The decision to link U.S. foreign-policy objectives with the subsidy of family planning and population control was truly exceptional in that it explicitly aimed at altering the demographic structure of foreign countries through long-term intervention. No nation had ever set in motion a foreign-policy initiative of such magnitude. Its ultimate goal was no less than to alter the basic fertility behavior of the entire Third World! Whether one views this goal as idealistic and naive or as arrogant and self-serving, the project was truly of herculean proportions.

Foreign Affairs, 2010

2015

In many ways, this dissertation was a joy to write. I found the topic fascinating when I began writing and it continues to fascinate me today. Going to the archives shaped the story in ways that I did not expect when I wrote the prospectus but that only deepened my interest in and commitment to this project. The enthusiasm of my advisors, research subjects, and interlocutors helped keep my own enthusiasm for the project high, even through difficult and frustrating moments in the archives and while writing. I could not have written this dissertation without the assistance and support of many people and organizations. The seeds of this dissertation were sown in Barbara Anderson's demographic theory and methods courses in the Department of Sociology at the University of Michigan, which I attended in 2008-2009 at the urging of Myron Gutmann. Myron Gutmann and Barbara Anderson encouraged my critical interest in the history of demography, and this encouragement eventually led me back to the Department of History at the University of Michigan, which I had left after earning my M.A. in 2005. I am grateful to John Carson for agreeing to be my advisor at our very first meeting, and to Kali Israel, Farina Mir, Nancy Hunt, and Gabrielle Hecht, who helped me successfully petition for re-admission to the Ph.D. program. I am also grateful to all of the staff and faculty members of the department for helping me re-integrate into the program and balance it with full-time work at the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). The support and understanding of my supervisors and colleagues at ICPSR -including Myron Gutmann,

In 2011, the global population reached 7 billion. Environmentalists, demographers and experts in development and public health renewed calls to regulate population growth in order to reduce poverty and conserve the world's resources for future generations. At the same time, China's one child policy, arguably one of the world's most well--known population control policies, has faced mounting criticism in light of recent evidence of highly coercive practices. The study of population is not limited to the jurisdiction of demography, a discipline concerned with the calculation and prediction of population growth and decline. Rather, the measurement of population is a deeply political process that determines the allocation of resources within society. Policymakers and their expert advisors in health, environment and the economy draw on demographic data to develop policies designed to regulate population such as access to contraception and abortion, work/family benefits, the regulation of assisted reproductive technology (ART) and adoption, and fertility incentives or disincentives. This class uses a feminist approach to trace the emergence of population science as a form of social regulation. We will examine how ideologies of race and gender have shaped historical and contemporary population discourse and policy around the world. We will identify and critique various phases in global population discourse and goals articulated by the United Nations, from the end of the colonial era to the Millennium Development Goals of 2000. Throughout the course, we will pay attention to the intersection between global and national population discourse and the everyday meanings and practices related to fertility and reproduction in women's lives. We will also investigate how population policies and technologies create new reproductive opportunities and constraints that are inextricably linked to broader gender and economic inequities between the global North and South. This course embraces a multi--disciplinary approach to studying population, drawing on literature from sociology, anthropology, political science, history, human rights, demography and epidemiology. Course objectives:

Conservation Biology, 1994

2010

FORTY-TWO years ago, the biologist Paul Ehrlich warned in The Population Bomb that mass starvation would strike in the 1970s and 1980s, with the world's population growth outpacing the production of food and other critical resources. Thanks to innovations and efforts such as the" green revolution" in farming and the widespread adoption of family planning, Ehrlich's worst fears did not come to pass.

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

The Population Bomb has been both praised and vilified, but there has been no controversy over its significance in calling attention to the demographic element in the human predicament. Here we describe the book's origins and impacts, analyze its conclusions, and suggest that its basic message is even more important today than it was forty years ago.

2008