The Dictionary of Human Geography

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Morello-Frosch and Sadd, 2005), where pol-

lution and other differences in environmental

quality are seen as discrimination, and increas-

ingly in other countries (see Walker, Mitchell,

Fairburn and Smith, 2005). In areas said to be

in a state ofunderdevelopment, it is often the

local forms of pollution, such as the lack of

clean drinking water, that cause the greatest

immediate concern. pm

population density The number of persons

divided by the area that they occupy. Within

urban geography, neighbourhood and

housing-based measures of density became

part of discussions abouturbanism, which

linked context to the well-being of population

groups. Withindemographyandpopulation

geography, density is mostly calculated at a

national and regionalscale, and sheds light on

links between environmental conditions and

population well-being (seemalthus model;

overpopulation). However, wide variations

between countries in rates ofurbanization

and the availability of cultivable land under-

mine the use of the simple measure in a com-

parative sense, and have led some to favour

physiological density, which divides the number

of persons by the area of potentially productive

land (Sambrook, Pigozzi and Thomas, 1999).

The availability of geo-referenced data and

flexible models is supporting the further devel-

opment of density-related classifications

(Hugo, Champion and Lattes, 2003). ajb

Suggested reading

Plane and Rogerson (1994, ch. 2).

population geography Scholarship on the

geographical organization of, and connections

between, groups. Between 1953 and the 1990s,

population geographydefined itself as the

systematic study of ‘(1) the simple description

of the location of population numbers and

characteristics. .. (2) the explanation of the

spatial configuration of these numbers and

characteristics ... (3) the geographic analysis

of population phenemona (the inter-relations

among areal differences in population with

those in all or certain other elements within

the geographic study area)’ (Zelinsky, 1966,

pp. 5–6). Accordingly, the sub-discipline

thought of populations as groups synonymous

with political jurisdictions (e.g. urban resi-

dents, Australians), ethnic and nationaliden-

tities(e.g. latino/as), phenotype (e.g. white,

black), and demographic events (e.g. migrants,

the elderly, families, baby boomers,refugees).

As links betweenclassificationssuch as these

(i.e. the construction of knowledge) and the

circulation ofpowerbecame acknowledged,

views on how populations were made and

maintained, and for what purposes, have

greatly expanded. This enlarged reading of

groups also takes into account the relations

and connections between groups, as with work

that examines the meanings ofwhitenessin the

context of blackness, or the experiences of

migrancyin relation to those of sedentarism.

Scholarship similarly investigates more plural

views of geographical organization that go

beyond the one time focus uponareal differ-

entiationin space to recover and rework ideas

aboutplaceand environment. For some, the

widening agenda threatens the integrity of the

vision for the sub-discipline first proposed by

Trewartha in 1953; for others, growing plural-

ity signals strength and the relevance of the field

to other branches ofgeographyand to society

more generally. The recent rebranding of the

flagship journal toPopulation, Space and Place

has occurred with the rise of critical accounts

(seecritical human geography), and at a

time of increasing ‘post-disciplinarity’

(Conway, 2004).

Contributions to population geography

have long been cross-disciplinary, not least

because ‘geographical’epistemologies(par-

ticularly those related to environment, place

and space) have been variously developed as

part ofenlightenmentthinking in different

disciplines, including economics, sociology

and demography. Classical economic thought

• most notably the malthusian model –
  argued that population growth rates could
  lead to the demand for food (resources)
  exceeding the capacity of the environment to
  supply necessary inputs. Neo-Malthusian
  work has expanded the concept ofcarrying
  capacityto include social and cultural factors,
  and use has been made of large-scalesimula-
  tionsandmodels, including thelimits to
  growth model. Neo-Marxist critiques and
  views of a population–environment–resource–
  ideologynexus have served to complicate
  ideas about overpopulation and drawn
  greater attention to political factors (seepol-
  itical ecology).
  While accounts concerned with environ-
  ment drew attention to the links between
  population, scarcity and production,
  approaches focused upon place saw important
  links between population, culture and produc-
  tion/consumption. Reflecting the still influen-
  tial ideas of the French ge ́ographiehumaine
  school, Beaujeu-Garnier (1956–8) believed
  that by studying the ‘ways of being’ of

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_P Final Proof page 552 1.4.2009 3:20pm

POPULATION DENSITY