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Table of Contents | Background & Objective | Contributors
Spatially Integrated Social Science: Chapter 19
< Chapter 18 - Chapter 20 >
The Role of Spatial Analysis in Demographic Research
John R. Weeks
Abstract
A general framework is proposed for the application of spatial analysis to demographic research as a way of integrating and better understanding the different transitional components of the overall demographic transition – the epidemiological transition, the fertility transition, the migration transition, urban transition, the age transition, and the family and household transition. This framework is discussed in the context of a review of the still relatively sparse literature on spatial analysis in demography. The discussion then turns to the kinds of data that are required for spatial demographic analysis, the kinds of statistical approaches that are available to researchers, and the way in which GIS can help to integrate each of these components for the testing of theories and building of models. The chapter concludes with an example of this type of research, drawing upon the author’s study, which is aimed at an improved understanding of the Arab fertility transition through the testing of explicitly spatial theories about the timing and tempo of fertility change. Specifically, this research applies GIS, remote sensing, and spatial statistics to the fertility transition in rural and urban Egypt.
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