Abstract
Star formation is the primary driver in the evolution of galactic systems, and star clusters and associations mark the locations that drive global evolution. Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, provides a convenient laboratory for mapping the results of star formation on a global scale. This introductory chapter provides a brief historical overview of how successive observational surveys have probed the nature and structure of our home Galaxy and summarises the current understanding of the large-scale properties of its constituent stellar populations. We review the role played by star formation in galaxy evolution, notably how successive generations of stars return processed materials to the interstellar medium, enriching the overall chemical abundance distribution in galactic systems. Finally, we describe the Sun’s location in the outer regions of the Milky Way, lying in a relatively quiescent region adjacent to one of the less-fashionable outer spiral arms.
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Reid, I.N. (2015). Galactic Demographics: Setting the Scene. In: Meyer, M., Eyer, L., Bell, C. (eds) Dynamics of Young Star Clusters and Associations. Saas-Fee Advanced Course, vol 42. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47290-3_15
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