Events

CHAIRPERSON

Prof Wei-Jun Jean Yeung, Asia Research Institute, Centre for Family and Population Research, and Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

Since the January-1979 fall of the Democratic Kampuchea, often referred to as the “Khmer-Rouge regime”, Cambodia has undergone socio-economic changes at a very rapid pace. Challenged on both ideological and empirical grounds, the demographic transition theory was elaborated, through various refinements, to predict demographic trends when a society undergoes such socio-economic changes. A second demographic transition theory even attempts to predict further family and reproductive changes once the “first” transition has been completed. In this presentation, I will assess how the demographic transition(s) theory performs as a framework for understanding recent and predicting future demographic trends and family change in Cambodia, as can be assessed from a Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) that has monitored these trends since 2000.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Patrick Heuveline is the co-author of a widely used textbook on demographic analysis, Demography: Measuring and Modeling Population Processes (Blackwell, 2001). He has conducted research mostly in formal and in family demography. His substantive research interests center on how childhood family structures affect child wellbeing and the transition to adulthood. His work to date has been divided between comparative, secondary data analyses on single parenting and cohabitation in Western Nations, and an ongoing project in Cambodia, which began in 2000 and is designed to study family change since the Khmer-Rouge period (1975-79). Methodologically, he is interested in developing and estimating models that incorporate population dynamics to more realistically represent phenomena that are intertwined with demographic processes. To date, the main applications have been to assess the demographic impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Eastern Africa and the death toll of the Khmers Rouges’ regime in Cambodia, with a particular attention to measuring the uncertainty inherent to the estimation process.

REGISTRATION

Admission is free. We would greatly appreciate if you complete the form below to RSVP.