Abstract
While the contributions of the Malthusian theory to the current debate on population and development are without precedent, they fail to account for the impact of contemporary socio-economic processes. Today, as was the case during the Malthusian era, urbanisation constitutes a key social phenomenon, yet both Malthus and his followers have continued to focus on the “population-food-environment trap” and to stress that the primary condition for responding to food demand lies in population control. This chapter highlights the need to reorient the original Malthusian framework, accounting for key contemporary challenges related to sustainable development. The main focus is on the role of contemporary urban growth including its direct and indirect human development impacts. The chapter develops the argument that in the current highly urbanised, innovative and interconnected world, the Malthusian theory should not be abandoned, but instead revised so as to reflect additional factors affecting resource availability and human livelihoods.
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Notes
- 1.
While the positive checks operate at the fertility level, it should be stressed that from the Malthusian perspective contemporary contraception would likely be classified as vice.
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Szabo, S. (2016). Why This Book?. In: Urbanisation and Inequalities in a Post-Malthusian Context. SpringerBriefs in Population Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26571-1_1
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