Population Control
Content
"Overpopulation" is often proclaimed as the root of all global problems. Journalists and public policy experts claim that crises ranging from civil war in Rwanda to deforestation in the Amazon are the result of overpopulation. CWPE challenges the dominant representations of population, which are largely simplistic and ahistorical, ignoring the political and economic causes of poverty, environmental degradation, and conflict such as the legacy of colonialism, militarism and corporate greed.
CWPE exposes the people, philosophies, funding and politics behind such analyses. Most demographically-driven population control policies and programs are deeply disrespectful of women, particularly women of color and their children. Such policies disempower women; they treat women as objects of control, and violate the basic feminist tenets of reproductive choice and bodily integrity. We direct attention to the roots of poverty, patriarchy, and environmental destruction, and work with progressive movements to find socially just solutions.
CWPE Analysis on Population Control
Currently much of the material in mainstream US textbooks presents a simplistic view of 'overpopulation' as the cause of poverty and environmental degradation, reinforcing cultural and racial stereotypes of poor people in the Third World. It also accepts the use of coercion in population control programs in countries such as India and China, ignoring important ethical issues of reproductive choice. In order to encourage the introduction of more complex, gendered, and culturally sensitive analyses of population and the environment into secondary school social studies curricula in the United States, CWPE has undertaken this project in collaboration with the Population and Development Program at Hampshire College to survey currently available mainstream and alternative curricular materials, and to assess the need for further curriculum development.
Contact Hampshire College's Civil Liberty & Public Policy Program for the following articles:
Opposition to the Formation of a National Optimum Population Commission
CWPE educates population and environmental organizations on the problems of using demographic alarmism and rationales in explaining the causes of global problems. CWPE is working to produce a visual report for activist use, with analysis of demographically driven metaphors and messages produced in recent campaigns such as "Day of Six Billion," or "PLANet." It will explain why such metaphors dangerously exploit existing racism and xenophobia, and could lead to coercive population control measures.
More Resources On Population Control
CWPE exposes the people, philosophies, funding and politics behind such analyses. Most demographically-driven population control policies and programs are deeply disrespectful of women, particularly women of color and their children. Such policies disempower women; they treat women as objects of control, and violate the basic feminist tenets of reproductive choice and bodily integrity. We direct attention to the roots of poverty, patriarchy, and environmental destruction, and work with progressive movements to find socially just solutions.
CWPE Analysis on Population Control
- U.S Population Policy and Feminism: A Working Relationship?, by Amy J. Higer
- Indigenous Malthusian: Birth Control Debates in Early Twentieth Century, by S. Anandhi
- Patriarchal Demography: Tracing India's History, by Malini Karkal
- Population and International Security in the New World Order, by Fátima Vianna Mello
- Forced Sterilization in Peru, by Brita Schmidt
- Puerto Rico, Where Sterilization of Women Became "La Operacion", by Helen Rodriguez-Trias
- Environmentalism and Population Control (background information), by Rajani Bhatia and Tom Reisz
- To Vanquish the Hydra, by Betsy Hartmann
- Dangerous Intersections, by Betsy Hartmann
- Population, Environment and Security: A New Trinity, by Betsy Hartmann
- A New and Improved Population Control Policy?, by Asoka Bandarage
- Taking Population Out of the Equation, by H. Patricia Hynes
- Population Control and National Security: A Critique of 'The Coming Anarchy', by Nalini Visvanathan
- China's Population Policies, by Kay Johnson
- Refugee Women and Population Control, by Betsy Hartmann
- A Paradigm Shift, by Amit Sen Gupta
- Christian Responses to Population Control, by Andy Smith
- A Faulty Diagnosis: The World Bank's Prescription for India's Family Welfare Program, by Mohan Rao
Currently much of the material in mainstream US textbooks presents a simplistic view of 'overpopulation' as the cause of poverty and environmental degradation, reinforcing cultural and racial stereotypes of poor people in the Third World. It also accepts the use of coercion in population control programs in countries such as India and China, ignoring important ethical issues of reproductive choice. In order to encourage the introduction of more complex, gendered, and culturally sensitive analyses of population and the environment into secondary school social studies curricula in the United States, CWPE has undertaken this project in collaboration with the Population and Development Program at Hampshire College to survey currently available mainstream and alternative curricular materials, and to assess the need for further curriculum development.
Contact Hampshire College's Civil Liberty & Public Policy Program for the following articles:
- Demography or Teaching Fear: The Population Problem in U.S. and U.K. Social Studies Textbooks, by Anne Hendrixson
- The Industrious Europeans and the Hungry Third World Masses: The Story of Population Told by U.S. High School Social Studies Textbooks, by Anne Hendrixson (based on research by Laura Agustín)
- Are People a Good Thing? How British Social Studies Textbooks Present Population Issues, by Susan Bullock Leather
- The Problem of Population in U.S. High School Biology Textbooks, by Syd Lindsley
Opposition to the Formation of a National Optimum Population Commission
- An Open Letter to Oppose the Formation of a National Optimum Population Commission
- Environmentalism and Population Control (background information), by Rajani Bhatia and Tom Reisz
CWPE educates population and environmental organizations on the problems of using demographic alarmism and rationales in explaining the causes of global problems. CWPE is working to produce a visual report for activist use, with analysis of demographically driven metaphors and messages produced in recent campaigns such as "Day of Six Billion," or "PLANet." It will explain why such metaphors dangerously exploit existing racism and xenophobia, and could lead to coercive population control measures.
More Resources On Population Control
