SOC103H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Herbert J. Gans, Symbolic Interactionism, Georg Simmel
Document Summary
Technologies are central to city life (eg. subways, rapid transit, elevators) as opposed to rural life. Because, technologies were developed to deal with large populations p. 35 population, built environments and natural environment, technology are interconnected and are important in people s lives. Founder of demography = key term in textbook. Population increases exponentially while technological improvements to agriculture improve linearly. Result: human society is in danger of losing equilibrium through the lack of food while will result in famine, wars, diseases. Solutions: malthus proposed to types of checks that could be used to prevent the loss of equilibrium. Positive checks: prevent overpopulation by increasing the death rate. Preventative checks: prevent overpopulation by limiting the number of births (eg. abortion, infanticide, delayed marriage) Redistribution of wealth: malthus thinks this is a stupid idea!!! The poor will only procreate more heavily and will ignore the laws of nature.
