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programmes (Kosin ́ski, 1984; Lawson, 2000).
Drawing on feminist geographies and
social geography, the field has re-examined
the meaning of concepts of demography,
including age (literatures onchildren’s geog-
raphiesand ageing), reproduction, disease,
disability, death and dying (Pratt, 1999;
Valentine, 2001; Kalipeni, Craddock,
Oppong and Ghosh, 2004; Silvey, 2004).
The diverse readings of space, which
increasingly call upon notions of environment
and place, run through the field’s expanding
engagement with the economic, cultural and,
to a lesser extent, ecological dimensions of
globalization and neo-liberalism.
Research on global cities explores patterns of
skilled migration, the diversification of families
and households, and variations in experiences
of settlement, incorporation, assimilation
andsocial exclusionamong immigrant com-
munities (Clark, 1998; Beaverstock, 2002;
Wong, Yeoh and Graham, 2003). Balancing
production-centred accounts offamily migra-
tion, an emphasis upon gendered migration
has drawn attention to factors of social repro-
duction and institutional context among
domestic workers and persons trafficked
(Boyle, Halfacree and Robinson, 1998). The
growing social and spatial plurality of house-
hold living arrangements has been linked to
ageing and immigration, and has sparked
new research on the demographic transition.
Historically, low levels of fertility have been
connected to the interplay of changes in con-
cepts of self and a range of state policies,
including housing supply and social support.
Similarly, the variable ways in which states
mediatetransnationalanddiasporiccom-
munities, includingbordercontrols, remit-
tance management and through discourses of
long-distancenationalism, have witnessed a
more explicitly integrative approach, combin-
ing economic, cultural and political readings
(Samers, 1997; Jackson, Crang and Dwyer,
2004).
There are a number of key engagements
within population geography that relate to
the direction of travel and the broader influ-
ence of its scholarship. The simultaneous
embrace of plurality, and the deepening meth-
odological specialism of many approaches,
ensure that time-honoured questions about
intellectual coherence and vitality remain.
While there is an implicit suggestion that mod-
eration and balance (in approach, in topic and
so forth) will best serve ongoing research
needs and meet funding expedients, there is a
tendency to define balance in terms of thelong-standing demographic approach to the
field. That is, migration is seen as exerting an
overdue influence on research agendas, at the
expense of work on fertility (and to a lesser
extent mortality and composition, which are
the subjects of other fields of enquiry within
geography). Under post-structural and critical
readings, however, this divide is artificial and
problematic.
Similarly, spirited debates on methodo-
logical pluralism have supported the develop-
ment of mixed methods approaches almost to
the exclusion of single-method techniques,
which are seen as the preserve of more special-
ized fields, including spatial demography.
Methodological specialization has tended to
exaggerate a divide between those using quan-
titative, qualitative and ethnographic tools at a
time when many agendas require flexible and
plural approaches. The growth in interest in
participatory geographies represents another
opportunity for reflection about the relation-
ship between knowledge and power in the
field.
Furthermore, it remains largely the case that
analyses ofriskremain absent from debates
within the field, despite increased public
attention to matters ofsecuritization, broadly
defined (seesecurity). Given the profound
implications of well-documented ecological
and cultural transitions, to name two, for the
geographical organization of populations and
the structure of society, work is needed to
understand the roles that groups play in affect-
ing global futures. ajbSuggested reading
Bailey (2005); Findlay (2004); Jones (1981);
Kalipeni, Craddock, Oppong and Ghosh
(2004); Plane and Rogerson (1994).population potential A measure of the
nearness of a spatially distributed population
to a point (developed as part of themacro-
geographyproject). The potential exerted on
a point (Vi) is as follows:Vi¼Xkj¼ 1(Pj=dij),j6¼i,wherePjis the population at pointj,dijis the
distance betweeniandjand summation is over
allkpoints (dijmay be raised to some power, to
reflect thefriction of distance: cf.distance
decay). The higher the potential at a point –Vi- the more accessible it is to the population
concerned. Isopleth maps of population poten-
tial indicate the relative accessibility of a set of
Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_P Final Proof page 554 1.4.2009 3:20pmPOPULATION POTENTIAL