Demographic Issues Research Articles

Immigrants' spatial concentration: Region or locality attractiveness?

AbstractThe spatial concentration of immigrants across and within European countries is highly heterogeneous, tending to reinforce the internal spatial disparities within EU Member States and regions. Although European regional data show that the highest levels of foreign‐born population concentration correspond to those NUTS2 regions that contain a large city or metropolitan area, there are other place‐based determinants that might explain their attractiveness to immigrants. Using a comprehensive database at NUTS2 (regional) and LAU2 (local) levels for three large European countries in terms of immigrant population (Italy, Spain, and France), comparable results show how the relevance of these determinants depends on the country under analysis and the spatial unit chosen. This provides challenges for the design of a common future European policy addressing the unresolved demographic issues. Understanding the main regional and local factors of attraction to foreign‐born population within countries is crucial to explain the present spatial concentration patterns and anticipate future migration flows, especially in a context where immigrants are the fastest‐growing population group in those European countries. Nevertheless, there might be a trade‐off between the foreign‐born population alleviating the territorial ageing and depopulation issues and the search for spatial justice.

Integrating Industry 4.0 and circular economy: a review

PurposeIndustry 4.0 and circular economy are the two major areas in the current manufacturing industry. However, the adoption and implementation of Industry 4.0 and circular economy worldwide are still in the nascent stage of development. To address this gap, the purpose of this article is to conduct a systematic literature review on integrating Industry 4.0 and circular economy. Further, identify the research gaps and provide the future scope of work in this area.Design/methodology/approachContent-based analysis was adopted for reviewing the research articles and proposed a transition framework that comprises of four categories, namely, (1) Transition from Industry 3.0 to Industry 4.0 and integration with circular economy; (2) Adoption of combined factors and different issues; (3) Implementation possibilities such as front-end technologies, integration capabilities and redesigning strategies; (4) Current challenges. The proposed study reviewed a total of 204 articles published from 2000 to 2020 based on these categories.FindingsThe article presents a systematic literature review of the last two decades that integrates Industry 4.0 and circular economy concepts. Findings revealed that very few studies considered the adoption and implementation issues of Industry 4.0 and circular economy. Moreover, it was found that Industry 4.0 technologies including digitalization, real-time monitoring and decision-making capabilities played a significant role in circular economy implementation. The major elements are discussed through the analysis of the transition and integration framework. The study further revealed that a limited number of developing countries like India have taken preliminary initiatives toward Industry 4.0 and circular economy implementation.Research limitations/implicationsThe study proposes a transition and integration framework that identifies adoption and implementation issues and challenges. This framework will help researchers and practitioners in implementation of Industry 4.0 and circular economy.Originality/valueReviews of articles indicated that there are very few studies on integrating Industry 4.0 and circular economy. Moreover, there are very few articles addressing adoption and implementation issues such as legal, ethical, operational and demographic issues, which may be used to monitor the organization's performance and productivity.

Forecasts and demographic development of the population of Fergana Valley regions of Uzbekistan until 2040


 
 
 The world's population is growing rapidly and today exceeds 7.8 billion people. World population growth is expected to slow down slowly in the future. A decade ago, the world's population increased by 1.24 percent; today it is 1.1 percent, an increase of 83 million a year. The world's population is expected to reach 8.6 billion by 2030. (UNFPA 2015). This creates a regional imbalance between population growth and the development of employment, production and social infrastructure. Information is needed on the creation of new jobs in the regions, for planning the construction of preschool institutions, schools, higher and secondary specialized educational institutions, how many children will be able to attend preschool institutions in the future, how many children will reach school age and how many children will be transfered to specialized secondary and higher education, how much the labor force will increase. The population of Uzbekistan is constantly growing. From 1991 to 2020, the country's population increased by 1.7 times. For comparison: during this period, the population of neighboring Kyrgyzstan increased by 1.3 times, the population of Kazakhstan – by 1.02 times, the population of Tajikistan – by 1.5 times, the population of Turkmenistan – by 1.4 times. During the years of independence in Uzbekistan, special attention was paid to demographic issues based on the population and the human factor, the principles of a healthy mother and a healthy child. The course of demographic processes changes in accordance with the natural, socio-economic geographical conditions of the regions (Tojieva Z. N. 2019). The Fergana Valley is the most densely populated region of Uzbekistan with a small territory, a large demographic load and the largest demographic potential (Abdullaev O. 2000). Land resources with limited, high demographic pressure require research aimed at identifying, predicting and preventing future adverse events specific to the development of demographic processes in the regions of the valley. The article makes a forecast for 2025–2040 and draws conclusions using the method of age shift of the population of regions, districts and cities of the Fergana Valley, demographic regions and gender and age composition.
 
 

Роль инноваций в решении демографических проблем Арктики: опыт изучения восприятия населением

The decline in the birth rate, the increase in migration outflows and the deterioration of the health of the Russian Arctic population make it necessary to find innovative solutions to these issues. The scientific problem is to reveal the mechanisms of the influence of innovations and methods of their imple-mentation in the sphere of the formation and realizing of the Arctic demographic potential. The aim of the article is to study the perception of innovation by the population of the Arctic territories when solving personal demographic issues and to assess the relationship between this perception with socio-demographic characteristics. The novelty of the study is in an attempt to link demographic and innovation processes in the Arctic. It was reflected in the substantiation of the theoretical model. The key element of the model is the zone of innovations perception by the population, formed on the basis of the interaction of demographic and innovation processes and combining the following directions of perception: population innovative activity, the desire to learn, the willingness to invest in innovations, the assessment of the innovations availability and willingness to use them, the inclusion of the population into the digital environment when solving demographic problems. The empirical basis was formed by the author's sociological survey of the Arctic municipalities population of the Arkhangelsk region, conducted in 2019. It was revealed that innovation perception is mainly influenced by the age and education and, to a lesser extent, by the level of their income. The results obtained can be used to develop a state regional policy for the demographic development of the Arctic territories based on the use of innovations.

The New European Political Arithmetic of Inequalities in Education: A History of the Present

The article describes the emergence and development of positive epistemology and quantification tools in the dynamics of inequalities in education. It contributes to a history of the present at a time when datafication and experimentalism are reappearing in educational policies to justify the reduction of inequalities across international surveys and randomised controlled trials. This socio‐history of metrics also sheds light on transformations about relationships historically established between the welfare state and education that have shaped the representation of inequalities and social programs in education. The use of large‐scale surveys and controlled experiments in social and educational policies developed in the 1920s and 30s, even if their methods and techniques have become more sophisticated due to statistical progress. However, statistical reasoning is today no less persuasive in justifying the measurement of student skills and various forms of state intervention for “at‐risk” children and youth. With the rise of international organisations, notably the European Commission, demographic issues related to school population and the reduction of inequalities have shifted. It is less a question of selecting the most talented or gifted among working‐class students than of investing in human capital from early childhood to improve the education systems’ performance and competitiveness for the lifelong learning economy and European social investment strategy. This article attempts to illustrate this new arithmetic of inequalities in education at the European level.

The determinants of financialization - A Bayesian approach

This study considers the determinants of financialization in a sample of 158 countries over the period of 2000-2016. The atheoretical Bayesian model averaging approach was applied in order to identify the macroeconomic determinants of the phenomenon. A broad set of variables was tested without adopting any theoretical perspective. It was revealed that the main determinants of financialization are connected with the real sphere of economy, demographic issues and the new conditions in which the global economy functions. At the same time, factors from the financial and monetary sphere, such as interest rates and CPI, were revealed to be insignificant. The Bayesian model averaging approach could be regarded as a promising method for quantifying and empirically investigating such a complex phenomenon as financialization.

Health risks analysis and complex procedure for estimating the efficiency of targeted activities performed within regional public healthcare systems and aimed at reducing mortality among the population caused by cardiovascular diseases and oncologic diseases

Introduction. Preservation and growth of the country population is the top national priority in the Russian Federation. A contemporary approach focuses on several especially urgent demographic issues that can be resolved, among other things, due to public healthcare systems becoming more efficient. The present research work is vital due to the necessity to achieve target medical and demographic parameters fixed in the national and federal projects and regional programs. These parameters include life expectancy and mortality caused by cardiovascular and oncologic diseases. The goal of this work is a development of new approaches for the complex evaluation of potential management reserves of health population indicators and the prognosis of efficiency of targeted activities performed within public healthcare systems and aimed at increasing life expectancy through reducing mortality among the population caused by cardiovascular diseases and oncologic diseases. Material and methods. The work dwells on solving a “direct” task in the “medical activities - morbidity - mortality” triple analysis system; the solution involves predicting changes in morbidity and mortality under preset, planned, or scenario changes in parameters related to the public healthcare system. We modelled cause-and-effect relations in the above system, applying mathematical statistics techniques (correlation-regression analysis and factor analysis) with the consequent medical expertise of obtained results. Results. These procedures allow assessing health losses and spot out priorities in activities performed within the public healthcare system as well as ranking managerial decisions, already taken or only planned, as per their efficiency, taking into account territories; sex and age structure of the population; diseases, their subclasses and gravity; specific activities performed within the public healthcare system (prevention, diagnostics, or treatment). We should stress that the most significant potential management reserves of reducing mortality are achieved on territories with maximum mortality levels due to reserves for the reduction in it; these reserves are manageable due to prevention and early diagnostics. Conclusion. Research techniques and results described in the present work can be used in practice to achieve target parameters fixed by national and regional priorities and to select an optimal set of activities aimed at reducing mortality among the population.

Is the Naturalization of the Townscape a Condition of De-Industrialization? An Example of Bytom in Southern Poland

A characteristic element of the transformations of cities in Central and Eastern Europe after 1990 was the emergence of shrinking cities. The main problem related to shrinking cities is around how this process developed as a result of rapidly intensifying de-industrialization. While many studies in this area are devoted to demographic, social, and economic issues, relatively few studies address the spatial dimension. In this article, the example of spatial development in the (post-) mining city of Bytom in southern Poland is discussed, pointing to the need for a multifaceted approach to this issue. This article begins with an attempt to contextualize this issue within a broader time perspective. Such an analysis makes it possible to better situate contemporary changes in the context of the processes that were visible in previous periods. Next, these changes are described using two methods. The basis of the first method is comparisons between the different types of land use. The second method, which is emphasized, is the method of A. Macias, which indicates the degree of naturalization/anthropogenization of space. Macias’ method is crucial in the context of discussions about the future of post-mining towns, where attention is paid, among other things, to the issue of sustainable development.

Critical review on technological advancements for effective waste management of municipal solid waste — Updates and way forward

Rise in industrialization and urbanization has resulted in problems like uprising energy demand, voluminous waste generation, and environmental effects. As a consequence, implementing an efficient solid waste management strategy is gaining momentum. The urgency becomes more evident as out of 17 Sustainable Development Goals majority of goals and their targets have a direct link to solid waste management. Public awareness is essential for proper waste management as well as social and demographic issues. The present review intends to expand the literature about recent technological advancements in the area of minimizing waste content and electricity generation. It also covers the conversion of energy from waste with the help of techniques like incineration, gasification, plasma gasification, co-gasification, composting, vermicomposting, co-composting, anaerobic digestion, and co-digestion. These techniques are utilized to convert municipal solid waste into a suitable source for renewed energy that produces heat and electricity and other byproducts in risk-free and environmentally friendly way(s). More precisely, this paper focuses on the enhanced generation of biogas. This review also highlights challenges, knowledge gaps, and future research direction(s).

Does a Demographic Crisis Threaten European and Polish Agriculture?

In recent decades, problems in family farming have been coupled with a demographic crisis. In the face of unfavourable demographic forecasts and processes, the EU’s agricultural policy has consistently underlined the strategic importance of family farming and the need for its development as a vital segment of the economy and the core of rural communities. The paper aims to assess the grounds for policies focusing on alleviation of the demographic crisis in EU agriculture as well as giving a preliminary presentation of the effects of implementing the instrument involving subsidies for young farmers’ farms, on the example of Poland. The analyses suggest that the mechanisms for accelerating generational changes in EU agriculture have been based on questionable premises and have been not adjusted to the needs at national and regional level. In the EU policy documents and public debate, the support for generational turnover is based on arguments diagnosing a particularly adverse demographic situation in the agricultural sector. The article shows that this position is too general and unnuanced, because it does not include the general long-term population changes, other economic sectors and the different socio-economic and institutional contexts in member states, as well as being limited to a narrow range and often non-comparable public statistics. At present it is also hard to find justification for claims that instruments like subsidies for young farmers have resolved the problem of farms without successors and contributed to generational renewal in agriculture. Varied sources of data and information have been used, including EU and Polish legislation, thematic and expert studies related to demographic issues in agriculture, and empirical material gathered by public institutions.

“Britain's rainforests”: engaging the public with brownfield sites for conservation in the U.K.

This small-scale study aims to understand what different environmental organisations are doing to engage people with brownfield sites in the U.K. Interviews with staff members from different environmental organisations found a wide range of initiatives to be in practice, including collaboration with other organisations and local schools and involving volunteer groups with maintenance of the sites. Working with volunteers and partner organisations and the management of sites were often identified as essential contributors to the success of projects. Interesting themes which arose, including the lack of demographic data and issues engaging with developers, could act as springboards for further studies.

Urban geographical patterns of the relationship between mobile communication, social networks and economic development – the case of Hungary

In the post-industrial age, the transformation of urban networks and urban regions was fundamentally influenced by the rapid spread of infocommunication technologies (ICT) and the Internet. People share information in their daily lives with the help of various ICT devices and ultimately generate georeferenced data that could obtain important information about people’s use of space, spatial movement and social connections. The main aim of the study is to explore the urban geographical and spatial impacts of ICT and social media networks in Hungarian cities. We focus on drawing territorial and settlement hierarchical patterns and clusters based on the mobile communication and online social network relationship data of Hungarian cities. The paper highlights the relationship between the intensity of mobile communication and the density and expansion of intercity social relations and the settlements’ level of economic development, respectively. The methodology is based on mobile phone call detail record (CDR) analysis and intercity network analysis of social media activities. Our findings suggest that different communication networks follow divergent spatial patterns in Hungary. The traditional East–West dichotomy of the Hungarian spatial divide is still reflected in mobile communication, but intercity clusters based on social media activities are usually aligned to the borders of administrative structures. In several cases, we were able to identify strong intercity links between settlements with a similar level of economic development of the mesolevel spatial structure that traverses over different counties and regional borders. Results on social and demographic issues suggest that ‘generation Z’ could play a key role in dampening the social and economic tensions created by the digital divide in the long run. Using a multidimensional explanatory model, we could demonstrate the growing interconnectedness between digital networks and economic development.

Integration in Latvia: a success story?

ABSTRACT Since Latvia restored her independence 30 years ago, numerous studies of Latvia’s inter-ethnic relations have been published, each with specific analytical and periodic frames. This article covers demographic data and naturalization issues, language and educational policies, political representation, the attitudes and perceptions of population subgroups, and last, but not least, the influence of Russia. The latter has become especially important following Russia’s exploitation of minority issues in Ukraine since 2014. More than ever, ethnopolitics in the post-Soviet region cannot be analyzed without assessing international contexts.

Approaches and Methods for Causal Analysis of Panel Data in the Area of Morbidity and Mortality

We aim to give an overview of the state of the art of causal analysis of demographic issues related to morbidity and mortality. We will systematically introduce strategies to identify causal mechanisms, which are inherently linked to panel data from observational surveys and population registers. We will focus on health and mortality, and on the issues of unobserved heterogeneity and reverse causation between health and (1) retirement, (2) socio-economic status, and (3) characteristics of partnership and fertility history.
 The boundaries between demographic research on mortality and morbidity and the neighbouring disciplines epidemiology, public health and economy are often blurred. We will highlight the specific contribution of demography by reviewing methods used in the demographic literature. We classify these methods according to important criteria, such as a design-based versus model-based approach and control for unobserved confounders. We present examples from the literature for each of the methods and discuss the assumptions and the advantages and disadvantages of the methods for the identification of causal effects in demographic morbidity and mortality research.
 The differentiation between methods that control for unobserved confounders and those that do not reveal a fundamental difference between (1) methods that try to emulate a randomised experiment and have higher internal validity and (2) methods that attempt to achieve conditional independence by including all relevant factors in the model. The latter usually have higher external validity and require more assumptions and prior knowledge of relevant factors and their relationships. It is impossible to provide a general definition of the sort of validity that is more important, as there is always a trade-off between generalising the results to the population of interest and avoiding biases in the estimation of causal effects in the sample. We hope that our review will aid researchers in identifying strategies to answer their specific research question.
 * This article belongs to a special issue on "Identification of causal mechanisms in demographic research: The contribution of panel data".

Neighborhood Environment and Child Health in Immigrant Families: Using Nationally Representative Individual, Family, and Community Datasets.

This study aimed to examine neighborhood effects on the physical and socioemotional health of children from immigrant families, after controlling for parents' demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, acculturation, and health care issues. Pooled cross-sectional data were merged with community profiles. The United States in 2013, 2014, and 2015. 10,399 children from immigrant families in the 2013-2015 National Health Interview Surveys and the U.S. Census Data. Both objective and subjective measures of neighborhood environments were assessed, including neighborhood physical disorder, socioeconomic status, demographic composition, community resources, and social trust. Descriptive statistics, logistic regression models. About half of the sampled children were male (51%); 68% were white; 56% were of Hispanic; and 34% were school-aged. Three neighborhood factors-neighborhood trust, area-level poverty rate, and the presence of primary care physician-were identified as significant predictors for child health outcomes. Foreign-born population, green space, and food desert were not significant. At the individual level, parents' racial and ethnic minority status, non-marital status, and healthcare issues were found to be risk factors. Families' financial resources and parental education were identified as protective factors of socioemotional health. Intervention approaches to build on neighborhood trust may have broad potential to improve child outcomes. Programs focusing on immigrant families with children in high poverty neighborhoods should be a high priority.

Compared to Individuals with Mild to Moderate Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), Individuals with Severe OSA Had Higher BMI and Respiratory-Disturbance Scores.

Objective: Individuals with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are at increased risk to suffer from further somatic and sleep-related complaints. To assess OSA, demographic, anthropometric, and subjective/objective sleep parameters are taken into consideration, but often separately. Here, we entered demographic, anthropometric, subjective, and objective sleep- and breathing-related dimensions in one model. Methods: We reviewed the demographic, anthropometric, subjective and objective sleep- and breathing-related data, and polysomnographic records of 251 individuals with diagnosed OSA. OSA was considered as a continuous and as categorical variable (mild, moderate, and severe OSA). A series of correlational computations, X2-tests, F-tests, and a multiple regression model were performed to investigate which demographic, anthropometric, and subjective and objective sleep dimensions were associated with and predicted dimensions of OSA. Results: Higher apnea/hypopnea index (AHI) scores were associated with higher BMI, higher daytime sleepiness, a higher respiratory disturbance index, and higher snoring. Compared to individuals with mild to moderate OSA, individuals with severe OSA had a higher BMI, a higher respiratory disturbance index (RDI) and a higher snoring index, while subjective sleep quality and daytime sleepiness did not differ. Results from the multiple regression analysis showed that an objectively shorter sleep duration, more N2 sleep, and a higher RDI predicted AHI scores. Conclusion: The pattern of results suggests that blending demographic, anthropometric, and subjective/objective sleep- and breathing-related data enabled more effective discrimination of individuals at higher risk for OSA. The results are of practical and clinical importance: demographic, anthropometric, and breathing-related issues derived from self-rating scales provide a quick and reliable identification of individuals at risk of OSA; objective assessments provide further certainty and reliability.

Changes in the Quality of Life in the Victorian Empire

The Victorian Empire experienced lots of major changes that affected living standards profoundly in different stages of Victorian period. Victorian society bore witness to major penetrating changes at an unprecedented pace, which affected the social, economic, political and educational structure profoundly. It was inevitable that economic progress and industrialization led to population growth in urban life, with the urbanization of rural areas, the intensification of the growth of towns, the coming of the railways, better sanitation, higher living standards, while at the same time the Industrial Revolution created a gap between employers and workers during this mechanization process. These groundbreaking changes naturally transgressed the stereotypical gender roles, by making middle-class women pursue more social rights and independence in both education and work sphere and by attacking the patriarchal structure of the society that condemns women to domestic imprisonment. The aim of the present paper is to demonstrate the changes in the quality of life in Victorian Empire, mainly depending upon social, industrial, economic, gender and demographic issues and question whether these changes produced better or worse living conditions during the years between 1837 and 1901.

Employer Branding Training Development for Public Organisations

In the condition of demographic issues in Europe and competition for specialist between public and private sector on the labour market public organisations’ as employers’ image is an important aspect of development. The research aim is to identify principles of Employer Branding (EB) and ways public organisations can organize and develop employees’ education on this topic. There are EB activities examined in ten socially responsible (SR) organisations from public sector in Latvia. Authors prepare theoretical bases for the research analysing scientific literature to explain the main point of the approaches framework and define the main terms in depth implementing qualitative and quantitative research methods. In the result proposals for the EB training development for public organisations were developed. Training programs on EB for the public sector organisations should consist of blocks connected to marketing and HRM. Managers should decide whom to train and why and develop different training tracks for each employees level. Training should be implemented periodically reflecting on the changes in external and internal organisational environment. Key words: employer branding, training, public administration. jel codes: H83, O15 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15181/rfds.v14i3.877

ИДЕИ И ПРОЕКТЫ В ОБЛАСТИ АРХИТЕКТУРЫ И УРБАНИЗМА ИЗ МАТЕРИАЛОВ КАТАЛОНСКИХ ПЕРИО-ДИЧЕСКИХ ИЗДАНИЙ ВТОРОЙ РЕС-ПУБЛИКИ

Catalan architects who were members of the G.A.T.C.P.A.C. associa-tion and the Association of Architects of Catalonia (SAC) were con-cerned about social, demographic and sanitary issues. Specialists were engaged in the development of new strategies in the field of urban planning, the creation of comfortable and safe spaces that solved prob-lems associated with high population density. Catalan architects were engaged in the development of functional projects that could solve a number of fundamental problems, such as the lack of a sufficient num-ber of hospitals, schools, housing, factories, places for leisure, etc. They presented these projects in two magazines Actividad Contempora-nea and Arquitectura i Urbanisme, which are investigated in this article. In them, the architects proposed a new way of life, consonant with the ideas of the Second Republic about equality and social justice.

Legal aspects related to the access of natural family planning services: patient’s right to accurate and impartial information

Natural family planning methods historically were considered as a separate group of family planning methods as opposed to conventional contraception methods. In the 60‘s of the last century family planning have become an international demographic policy issue and lately it was included into the international public health agenda. Since that time natural family planning experienced a radical transformation in conceptual terms, accompanied by terminological chaos. In the last two decades the term of natural family planning as autonomous concept was almost completely eliminated from the language of international intergovernmental organizations, such as World Health Organization. Natural family planning methods terminologically now are incorporated into the concept of contraception, contrasting them with the so-called „effective modern contraceptive methods“. Two relevant conclusions could be drawn from that. Firstly, these above mentioned terminological innovations arise from working definitions developed by various internal working groups, lack transparency and thus they may not be formally considered as legally or politically binding international community. Secondly, the marginalization of effective natural family planning methods from the agenda of healthcare and the exclusive promotion of “effective modern contraception“ work against the rights and the interests of patients to receive unbiased and comprehensive information about healthcare services and to make an autonomous decision.