Hervé Le Bras: The Nature of Demography

The Nature of Demography by Hervé Le Bras, translated by Godfrey Rogers from the original French publication in 2005 (La démographie, Paris: Odille Jacob), is about change, as demonstrated by the title of the introduction: ‘the dynamics of change in demography’ (p. 1). On the one hand, measuring, modelling and understanding demographic changes at the individual and population level are regarded as central to the book. The author actually promotes demography to be seen as a science of processes. On the other hand, the book reflects on recent changes in the discipline of demography, by including recent topics in the field of fertility and mortality, by describing the history and core of contemporary demography and by addressing additional topics, such as migratory movements, nuptiality and the situation of the homo demographicus within networks. Perhaps surprisingly, the title of the book itself does not reflect ‘change’. Actually, The Nature of Demography reflects—as the author expresses in the introduction—the search for ‘demography’s general form, its overall structure, [...] the coherence that is the fundamental reason for its existence’ (p. 3). The author, thus, clearly did not want to constrain himself in terms of ideas and topics discussed, which is also evident from the many and broad aims of the book. The book does not just set out to provide a detailed examination of the fundamental population phenomena, but its foremost aim is to give a general introduction to demography. In addition, the book is designed to serve as a guide to recent research of relevance not only for professional demographers, but also for students and researchers in the social sciences, i.e. economists, sociologists, geographers, historians and biologists. In doing so, the book endeavours to combine theoretical preoccupations and practical intentions.