Radical Statistics Population Studies Group is an open collective interested in how demographic analysis and theory is produced within society. The group was inaugurated at a fringe meeting at the British Society of Population Studies (BSPS) annual conference in 2010. From a gathering of some twenty, ideas for joint activity emerged on statistics of religion, on commercial databases used in government demography, and on the links between population and the environment claimed by the Optimum Population Trust (now known as Population Matters).
We are now interested in turning attention to other issues. One might be ageing: in whose interests are the statistics of ageing used in debates on health care, pensions policies? To what extent is it the statistics that lead to policy, or policy (on government expenditure for example) that adopts statistics.
If you have any interest in pursuing these or any other issue related to demographic change, please contact RadStats population studies group via sylvie.dubuc@spi.ox.ac.uk.
Popgroup activity
- A report on the use of statistics on population ageing has been posted, November 2011.
- The group distributed this press release on 28 October, 2011.
- The group published a paper, Moral panic about overpopulation: a distracting campaign? in October, 2011.
Return to Activity page.