Population Control is History

New Perspectives on the International Campaign to Limit Population Growth

Bibliographic Data

ID2108216
AuthorsMatthew Connelly (0000-0001-8030-4140, Columbia University, corresponding author)
Year2003
Volume45
Issue01
Publication date2003-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueComparative Studies in Society and History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0010-4175 • E-ISSN: 1475-2999
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0010417503000069
OpenAlexW2144694280
LanguageEN
Citations received40

The international campaign to control human fertility has inspired a vast inter-disciplinary literature, but only in recent years has it become a subject for historical study and debate. New archives have opened, especially among the largest donors during its early, heroic phase. And scientists and activists are increasingly willing to be reflexive about their lives' work. Most importantly, with rates of fertility declining in every region of the world, it is now possible to begin to see the end of the story. As the period of unprecedented growth in world population draws to a close, international efforts directed at limiting that growth-as opposed to safeguarding reproductive rights and health-will inexorably pass from the domain of policy to history.This distinction suggests the nature and limits of the term "population control," which is itself fast becoming a historical artifact. As will be discussed anon, while it now denotes a shrinking subset of the "family planning" agenda, population control can be seen as encompassing the once wide-ranging efforts to shape the quality as well as the quantity of population. On this point see also Dennis Hodgson and Susan Cotts Watkins, "Feminists and Neo-Malthusians: Past and Present Alliances," Population and Development Review 23 (1997):471. The latest U.N. projections are presented in "World Population Prospects: The 2000 Revision," http://www.un.org/esa/population/wpp2000.html

Population control · World population · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences

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