This blog is intended to go along with Population: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues, by John R. Weeks, published by Cengage Learning. The latest edition is the 13th (it will be out in January 2020), but this blog is meant to complement any edition of the book by showing the way in which demographic issues are regularly in the news.

You can download an iPhone app for the 13th edition from the App Store (search for Weeks Population).

If you are a user of my textbook and would like to suggest a blog post idea, please email me at: john.weeks@sdsu.edu

Monday, June 11, 2012

How Does One Count the Refugees?

I noted recently that the number of displaced persons is on the rise globally, mainly in developing countries. But that raises a question about how do we know this number? Particularly in parts of Africa, where informal refugee camps have arisen, the task has been taken up by analyzing satellite imagery. The Office of the Geographer at the US Department of State has been instrumental in this kind of work, and examples are provided by a blog hosted by Joshua Campbell. This is a visual, so you need to check it out.


Full disclosure: One of my former PhD students and co-author, Dr. Debbie Fugate, works for the Office of the Geographer at the State Department, and I am especially fascinated by this use of imagery in demographic analysis.

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