What's New

The IUSSP organizes the International Population Conference once every four years in a different country, in collaboration with a host country institution. This major international event draws some 2,000 population scholars, policy makers, and government officials from around the world to discuss the latest population research and debate pressing global and regional population issues.

IUSSP warmly invites all those working in population and related fields to submit an abstract of recent research for presentation in an oral or poster session. We strongly encourage abstracts on all aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic across the 25 themes that structure the scientific programme. We also welcome submissions that deal with inequality, discrimination, and the differential vulnerability or resilience of specific groups that affect human welfare through population processes – a topic of importance to studying the impacts of COVID-19 and persistent inequalities.

We expect that IPC 2021 will be an on-site conference. Because of the pandemic, we are considering other options, including a virtual event, if necessary.

All abstracts must be submitted online via the IPC2021 website, which will open for submissions on 1 November 2020. Individuals can submit no more than 2 abstracts. 

The deadline for submissions is 15 February 2021.

For more information, see https://iussp.org/en/ipc2021-call-papers-new-covid-focus

The 2021 Program Committee consisted of 73 PAA members from diverse academic, demographic, and professional backgrounds. Together, they have developed 182 sessions and secured organizers for all of those sessions. The goal was to facilitate exciting, diverse, and cutting-edge submissions and, thus, help create a fabulous 2021 annual meeting.  The 2021 meeting will likely include a combination of in-person and virtual sessions.

Deadline for submission: 25 September 2020

For more information, see https://www.populationassociation.org/annual-meeting  

Guest Editor: Barbara Schumann (Department of Epidemiology and Global Health, Umeå University, Sweden)

The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH) has a call for papers in a special issue titled “Climate and Environmental Change Impacts on Health and Health Care—The Context of Food Insecurity, Conflict and Forced Migration”. 

Environmental hazards due to climate change and other anthropogenic processes pose severe challenges for human health and health care systems. These hazards include droughts, flooding, sea level rise, storms, salinization, land degradation, and deforestation, among others, and often affect the most vulnerable populations. People’s health is at risk due to climate-driven violent conflicts and food insecurity, which are both drivers of voluntary and forced migration. In some regions, such as the Greater Horn of Africa, the scale of forced displacement is substantial, overburdening the displaced, host communities, aid organizations, and governments. The public health implications of the climate–food shortage–conflict–migration nexus are, however, still not well understood.

This Special Issue welcomes original and review articles that address health issues related to environmental and climate-induced violent conflict, food insecurity, and migration.

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2021.

For more information, see https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph/special_issues/health_environmental_migration 

The  Latin  American  Population  Association  (ALAP) invites researchers,  public  officials,  students, members  of  civil  and  international  organizations,  and  all  those  interested  in  population  studies,  to participate in its IX Congress. This year’s meeting will be held in virtual mode, 9-11 December 2020.

Organizers invite researchers to submit the latest works, especially that related to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on the region. The theme of the IX Conference focuses on the challenge of equality in the context of the pandemic and the upcoming crisis, which reflects the commitment and dedication of ALAP to the study of the determinants and consequences of demographic transformations in Latin America and the Caribbean throughout its history.   

Read the call for papers (in Spanish, Portuguese and English) at https://congresosalap.com/convocatoria/ 

Deadline for extended abstracts (4 pages) or complete papers: 4 September 2020.

Eurac Research’s Centre for Advanced Studies in collaboration with the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security and within the framework of their joint Global Mountain Safeguard Research (GLOMOS) programme, have initiated a Global Mountain Sustainability Forum (GMS Forum) conference series.

This conference series is designed to address challenges concerning sustainability in mountain regions to ensure the provision of their invaluable ecosystem services to lowlands and their populations. Scientists, actors and practitioners as well as students are invited to submit their application to present their research in alignment with this year’s topic being “Sustainability Governance: International Frameworks and Local Contributions”.

Due to the current COVID-19 crisis, the Organizing Committee has decided to extend the opportunity to participate to the conference online, so to guarantee to our participants from outside Italy to attend and present while staying safe. The conference fees will be adapted accordingly.

The detailed programme and other information can be found here https://gms-forum.eurac.edu.

Guest Editors: Viviana Egidi (Sapienza University of Rome), Piero Manfredi (University of Pisa)

This Genus Thematic Series aims to offer an updated examination of the key population dynamics and demographic and socio-economic implications of the Covid-19 pandemic – and of policies to face it – at a range of geographic, socio-economic, socio-demographic, and temporal scales.

By this Thematic Series entirely devoted to Covid-19 pandemic, its population dynamics and consequences, Genus aims at fostering discussions on the aforementioned processes by a range of multidisciplinary and comparative approaches. Submitted contributions should address the following challenges:

• Which conditions and factors explain the differences in the ultimate size of this Covid-19 epidemic wave that will be observed between and within countries and territories, by age and gender, by socio-demographic groups, and so forth?

• How will population level immunity be distributed at the end of this wave within and between countries and regions? Which is the true scale of Covid-19 mortality? Particularly, which factors will ultimately explain the dramatic gradients in Covid-19 mortality within and between countries and territories, and between age and other population groups?

• Are current modelling tools of epidemic spread and related mortality adequate to explain a global phenomenon as Covid-19 pandemic? Or new tools should be designed?

• Will Covid-19 pandemic and the enacted control measures modify, or amplify known health inequalities? And will impact on known social and economic inequalities?

• What should we learn in terms of effective strategies aimed to preventively identify, and protect, more vulnerable or fragile groups during “normal” vs crisis periods?

• Which will be the impact of the pandemic on family life courses? For example, which effects can be expected for reproductive behavior and family dynamics? And to what extent this impact will depend on the different intervention policies enacted in the different countries and territories?

• What should we learn from the current pandemic wave in terms of protection of population and socio-economic structures against the likely future Covid-19 waves – given the levels of acquired immunity and the absence of a vaccine – and in general against pandemic risks – taken as a rule rather than exceptional events.

• What types of (new, harmonised) data will be critical to better understanding and managing health emergencies due to pandemic waves?

Submission deadline: 30 September 2020

For more information, see https://genus.springeropen.com/thematic-series-on-the-demography-of-covid-19 

Environmental hazards due to climate change and other anthropogenic processes are drivers of voluntary and forced migration, both cross-border and internally. These hazards include droughts, flooding, sea level rise, storms, salinization, land degradation, and deforestation, among others.

While human mobility can be an adaptive response to environmental change, a large part of migrants are considered displaced populations. In some regions, such as the Greater Horn of Africa, the scale of environmental forced displacement is substantial, posing a challenge for the displaced, host communities, aid organizations, and governments. The public health implications of environmental migration, however, are still not understood well.

This Special Issue welcomes original articles that address health issues related to environmental and climate-induced migration, in particular of people displaced by droughts and land degradation in low- and middle-income countries. Topics include but are not limited to:

• Slow onset events (droughts, salinization, soil erosion);
• Sudden onset events (floods, cyclones);
• Cross-border migration and forced displacement;
• Internally displaced people;
• Food and water safety, famine;
• Mortality and morbidity, including infant and child health;
• Disease outbreaks;
• Mental health;
• Gender-based violence;
• Violent conflicts;
• Availability and quality of health care services;
• Living conditions in refugee camps and informal settlements.

Guest Editor: Dr. Barbara Schumann

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2020

For more information, see https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph/special_issues/health_environmental_migration 

The program, which is targeted at incoming researchers, aims at reinforcing the international dimension of the host institution by supporting highly-qualified post-docs from abroad. The ultimate ambition is to build scientific and technological (S&T) collaborations and long-lasting networks between the respective research fields. 

The fellowships are assigned to researchers with a PhD degree, proving their expertise and research capacity by a personal scientific record.

The exchange must take place in the frame of the ongoing research activities taking place in a research unit of Université catholique de Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve, Brussels, Tournai, Mons, Charleroi and Namur): www.uclouvain.be;

The program is based on a bottom-up approach as all research fields are eligible (Sciences and Technology, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Health Sciences).

The application will be submitted in electronic copy by the applicant/researcher who will have been in contact with a promoter in the host institution. The list of all research entities and promoters is available on UCLouvain’s website (see point 4).

The application form will be introduced to the following e-mail address: crec-adre@uclouvain.be by October 1st, 2020 at 2 pm (Brussels time) at the latest.

Deadline for applications: Thursday, 1 October 2020

For more information, see https://iussp.org/sites/default/files/Merged%20document.docx

This call is open to Canadians, permanent residents of Canada, and citizens of developing countries enrolled in a master’s or a doctoral degree at a recognized university OR who have completed a master’s or a doctoral degree at a recognized university.

Research award recipients will join IDRC for a one-year paid program to undertake research on the topic they have submitted. They will receive hands-on experience in research and program management and support, grant administration, and the creation, dissemination, and use of knowledge from an international perspective.

Six awards will be offered. There is one award per development outcome area listed below. You may choose only ONE of the following:

    Climate resilience and sustainable food systems

    Education and innovation systems

    Ethics in development research

    Health equity

    Inclusive governance

    Sustainable inclusive growth

Deadline: 16 September 2020 by 16:00 (EDT)

For more information, see https://www.idrc.ca/en/funding/idrc-research-awards-2021 

The successful candidate in this position will support the use of Performance Monitoring for Action (PMA) data in the newly developed PMA Data Hub housed within the Minnesota Population Center (MPC). In this position, you will expand your critical thinking skills as they relate to health and development. You will also explore new research approaches and methodologies across a wide range of disciplines. Interests in quantitative analysis and in demographic methods with a focus on fertility/reproductive health, migration and/or population-environment interactions are central to this project. The position is focused on producing outcomes (publications and online white papers) using and applying PMA data for science and policy. Most of the research will employ data from countries in sub-Saharan Africa, so field experience, familiarity, or interest in Africa is required.

You will be housed at the Minnesota Population Center (MPC), a hub for interdisciplinary population training and research. Members include more than 200 faculty, research staff, and student affiliates from two dozen academic units across ten colleges in the University. Established in 2000 and funded by the National Institutes of Health, MPC cultivates innovative population research by providing a stimulating environment for interdisciplinary exchange, two vibrant and growing population training programs, and research support services designed to develop and nurture promising areas of new population research. Research and training at the MPC are characterized by a focus on four core substantive areas: population health and health systems; population mobility and spatial demography; reproductive and sexual health; and work, family, and time. Affiliates of the MPC benefit from co-location with the renowned IPUMS data infrastructure projects, the University of Minnesota’s Life Course Center, and the Minnesota Research Data Center (which is part of the Federal Statistical Research Data Center Network).

Diversity and inclusion are core values of our organization. We aspire to create a team that represents the diversity of our city, our region, and our world, and to create a space that encourages and embraces inclusiveness, equal opportunity, and respect. We strongly encourage women and members of under-represented groups to apply. This position is H1-B (or J-1) eligible and we are willing to provide visa sponsorship if needed.

In this position, you will work closely with Dr. Kathryn Grace and Dr. Elizabeth Heger Boyle, MPC faculty members, to develop research, publications, and training materials using PMA data. 

Please apply directly using the University of Minnesota’s online employment system at the following link: MPC PostDoc. Or search job opening ID 336535 on the U of MN’s job search homepage: humanresources.umn.edu/jobs.

Application requirements include a recent publication or research paper, resume, and a cover letter describing your interest and qualifications. (Please highlight your technical/statistical programming and data management skills in your cover letter). Questions concerning the application process may be addressed to Mia Riza, HR & Operations Manager, at isrdi-jobs @umn.edu.

The Population Young Author Prize is open to students or young researchers working in the field of population studies and will be awarded to the most outstanding original paper submitted to the competition jury. 

Who is eligible to compete?

    Students enrolled in PhD or Master’s programs

    Young researchers who have defended their PhD thesis in the last seven years

What papers are eligible to compete?

    Papers written under the researcher’s own name

    Papers co-authored by two or more young researchers

    Papers that comply with the journal’s editorial rules

    Papers written in English or in French

For more information, see http://www.journal-population.com/young-authors-prize/

This article provides a brief overview of the relationship between disaster vulnerability and demographic variables. Population numbers and densities are examined along with using a gender focus as illustrative of individual characteristics. For the most part, people’s and society’s choices create vulnerabilities based on demographics rather than specific demographic characteristics inevitably conferring vulnerability.

This study explores transition relationships between urbanization (population), land cover, and climate (temperature) of Dhaka city beginning in 1975 through to forecast scenarios up to 2035.

Existing research on the relationship between economic growth and environmental impact has produced mixed results. Also, there has been a lack of attention on the effect of population, and per capita measures are used rather than total pollution. To address this gap, we analyze the role of population and alternative energy on the environment using total carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) in the United States. We propose a new model integrating population demographics into the Environmental Kuznets Curve, and then apply this framework to an empirical analysis. The effect of population and immigration on total CO2 is estimated, as well as the level of alternative energy use required to overcome increasing environmental pressure. Results suggest population and immigration growth may lead to an increase in total CO2 growth, but alternative energy may lower total CO2 growth after a threshold. Further, immigration and total CO2 growth exhibit a nonlinear relationship.

In this paper, the authors estimate the GHGs across the contiguous United States and clarify the respective influence of climate, affluence, energy infrastructure, urban form, and building attributes (age, housing type, heating fuel) in driving these emissions.

The main aim of our study is to analyze the causal effect of forest resources on household income and poverty using secondary data from a socio‐economic quantitative household survey of the North Central region of Vietnam.

The authors demonstrate how humans have resided, for millennia, in the same narrow part of the climatic envelope available on the globe, characterized by a major mode around ∼11 °C to 15 °C mean annual temperature (MAT).

The authors argue that if we are to create migration policies that balance the human rights of migrants with the security concerns of host populations, we will need evidence based answers to addressquestions such as whether the unprecedented level of migration is unsustainable, and that these migrants threaten the host's way of life. 

The aim of this work was to analyse a population's vulnerability and resilience to climate‐related hazards, applying a sex‐disaggregated, quantitative methodology at household level in three Woredas (Siraro, Shalla, and Shashemene) of the Oromia Region in Ethiopia. 

The study builds on a comprehensive household survey on REDD+ activities and livelihoods in two districts (three communes) in upland Lao Cai province in northern Vietnam as it examines the implications of climate‐related interventions for ethnic minority communities in the highlands of Vietnam, as they are caught in the conflicting development logics between the international donor community, vowing to defend their interests, and the Vietnamese government administration.

The paper reviews the  trajectory  of  climate  change  and  the  limitations  of  ongoing  efforts  to  deal  with  it,  discusses  the  environmental  risks  stemming  from  global  governance  disruptions  plus  disenchantment with globalization and, finally, considers potential pathways and obstacles to the resolution of the current quandary.

In this paper, the author concludes that the natural environment is consequential for the sociospatial organization of communities and that a disaster declaration has little impact on mitigating this driver of neighborhood inequality.