The Demography of Conflict and Violence: An Introduction 
Helge Brunborg, Division for Social and Demographic Research, Statistics Norway, hbr@ssb.no, henriku@prio.no 
Henrik Urdal, Centre for the Study of Civil War, International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) 
Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 42, No. 4, 371-374 (2005) DOI: 10.1177/0022343305054084 © 2005 International Peace Research Institute, Oslo
The demography of armed conflict is an emerging field among demographers and peace researchers alike. The articles in this special issue treat demography as both a cause and a consequence of armed conflict, and they carry important policy implications. A study of German-allied countries during World War II addresses the role of refugees and territorial loss in paving the way for genocide. Other articles focusing on the demographic causes of conflict discuss highly contentious issues of whether economic and social inequality, high population pressure on natural resources, and youth bulges and limited migration opportunities can lead to different forms of armed conflict and state failure. The articles on demographic responses to armed conflict analyze the destructiveness of pre-industrial warfare, differences in short- and long-term mortality trends after armed conflict, and migratory responses in war. Another set of articles on demographic responses to war is published simultaneously in the European Journal of Population. - jpr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/42/4/371

Assimilation and differences between the settlement patterns of individual immigrants and immigrant households 
Spatial Demography Special Feature
Mark Ellis and Richard Wright 
Department of Geography, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-3550; and Department of Geography, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755-3571 
Edited by William A. V. Clark, University of California, Los Angeles, CA and approved September 15, 2005 (received for review July 1, 2005)
Abstract: Analyses of immigrant settlement patterns typically rely on counts of foreign-born individuals by neighborhood, metropolitan area, state, or region. As an alternative, this study classifies immigrants and their descendents into household types to shift attention from individuals to relationships between individuals. The study uses pooled current population survey data to identify seven household types, six of which have various degrees of immigrant or second-generation presence. The research compares distributions of first- and second-generation immigrants with different types of households that include first- and second-generation immigrants. Our analysis shows that the geography of immigration based on households differs considerably from geographies based on individuals. The spatial distribution and concentration of the foreign-stock population provides one picture of immigrant geographies, whereas the patterns of concentration by several different household types opens up the chance to tell other stories. More pointedly, we emphasize that the unit of analysis shapes assimilation research results and implies that this analytical choice cannot be thought of as independent from the politics of immigration. - pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/102/43/15325

Perspectives on the geographic stability and mobility of people in cities 
Susan Hanson, School of Geography, Clark University, Worcester, MA 01610 
Contributed by Susan Hanson, August 31, 2005 
Spatial Demography Special Feature
Abstract: A class of questions in the human environment sciences focuses on the relationship between individual or household behavior and local geographic context. Central to these questions is the nature of people's geographic mobility as well as the duration of their locational stability at varying spatial and temporal scales. The problem for researchers is that the processes of mobility/stability are temporally and spatially dynamic and therefore difficult to measure. Whereas time and space are continuous, analysts must select levels of aggregation for both length of time in place and spatial scale of place that fit with the problem in question. Previous work has emphasized mobility and suppressed stability as an analytic category. I focus here on stability and show how analyzing individuals' stability requires also analyzing their mobility. Through an empirical example centered on the relationship between entrepreneurship and place, I demonstrate how a spotlight on stability illuminates a resolution to the measurement problem by highlighting the interdependence between the time and space dimensions of stability/mobility. - pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/102/43/15301

Migration up and down the urban hierarchy and across the life course 
D. A. Plane, C. J. Henrie, and M. J. Perry
Department of Geography and Regional Development, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721; cDepartment of Social Sciences, Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, KS 66762; and dPopulation Division, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC 20233 
Edited by Susan Hanson, Clark University, Worcester, MA and approved September 15, 2005 (received for review August 29, 2005)
Spatial Demography Special Feature
Abstract: In this article, we begin by reviewing the concept of step migration that originated in E. G. Ravenstein's seminal papers "The Laws of Migration" (1885, 1889). As a result of the forces of the Industrial Revolution underway in 19th century Great Britain, migrants moved from farms to villages, from villages to towns, from towns to county seats, and thence to large cities. Throughout much of the industrialization era in the United States, net population movements similarly were upward within the urban hierarchy, and step migration today remains widespread throughout much of the still developing world. Our investigations of recent data and trends, however, suggest that the latest U.S. migration-pattern regime is a strongly contrasting one. Many of the major movements in the system of internal (or domestic) migration are flows down the urban hierarchy, although we note highly differentiated patterns for persons and households at specific stages of the life course. We make use of the newly defined metropolitan and micropolitan Core-Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) and a seven-level size typology to tabulate origin-destination-specific migration flow data from both Census 2000 and IRS tax-return administrative records for the period 1995-2000. We discuss the causes for net movements being either upward or downward in the national urban hierarchy, including the effects of spatially focused immigration, and movement preferences at various ages, including migration in young adulthood associated with entering and leaving college and the military, as well as moves characteristic of the stages of family formation, childrearing, and retirement. - pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/102/43/15313

Population distribution and redistribution of the baby-boom cohort in the United States: Recent trends and implications 
Peter A. Rogerson and Daejong Kim
Spatial Demography Special Feature
Departments of Geography and Biostatistics, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14261; and National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, Buffalo, NY 14261 
Edited by Susan Hanson, Clark University, Worcester, MA and approved September 16, 2005 (received for review September 1, 2005)
Abstract: Over 70 million people were born into the baby-boom cohort between 1946 and 1964. Over 65 million of these individuals are presently alive, and thus the cohort continues to exert a powerful influence on regional population change in the United States. In this article, we examine the recent and current geographic distribution of the baby-boom cohort. In 1990, the members of the cohort comprised a particularly high proportion of the population in a small number of dynamic metropolitan areas. We also highlight the recent migration trends exhibited by this cohort; these trends are potentially important early indicators of the retirement-related migration patterns that the cohort might follow. The spatial redistribution of the cohort has many implications, including potentially significant consequences for intergenerational relationships and caregiving. Also highlighted in the article are the temporal and geographical implications for intergenerational caregiving. There has been much attention given to the "sandwich" generation, with its members having dual caregiving responsibilities to both parents and children. A more appropriate designation may be the "stretched" generation, because caregiving seems to extend over a long period. In particular, many members of the baby-boom cohort are beginning to care for their aging parents just as they finish child rearing. - pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/102/43/15319

Assimilation and differences between the settlement patterns of individual immigrants and immigrant households 
Mark Ellis and Richard Wright 
Department of Geography, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-3550; and Department of Geography, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755-3571 
Edited by William A. V. Clark, University of California, Los Angeles, CA and approved September 15, 2005 (received for review July 1, 2005)
Spatial Demography Special Feature
Abstract: Analyses of immigrant settlement patterns typically rely on counts of foreign-born individuals by neighborhood, metropolitan area, state, or region. As an alternative, this study classifies immigrants and their descendents into household types to shift attention from individuals to relationships between individuals. The study uses pooled current population survey data to identify seven household types, six of which have various degrees of immigrant or second-generation presence. The research compares distributions of first- and second-generation immigrants with different types of households that include first- and second-generation immigrants. Our analysis shows that the geography of immigration based on households differs considerably from geographies based on individuals. The spatial distribution and concentration of the foreign-stock population provides one picture of immigrant geographies, whereas the patterns of concentration by several different household types opens up the chance to tell other stories. More pointedly, we emphasize that the unit of analysis shapes assimilation research results and implies that this analytical choice cannot be thought of as independent from the politics of immigration. - pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/102/43/15325

The changing demographic, legal, and technological contexts of political representation 
Benjamin Forest
Department of Geography, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755 
Edited by William A. V. Clark, University of California, Los Angeles, CA and approved September 13, 2005 (received for review August 22, 2005)
Spatial Demography Special Feature
Abstract: Three developments have created challenges for political representation in the U.S. and particularly for the use of territorially based representation (election by district). First, the demographic complexity of the U.S. population has grown both in absolute terms and in terms of residential patterns. Second, legal developments since the 1960s have recognized an increasing number of groups as eligible for voting rights protection. Third, the growing technical capacities of computer technology, particularly Geographic Information Systems, have allowed political parties and other organizations to create election districts with increasingly precise political and demographic characteristics. Scholars have made considerable progress in measuring and evaluating the racial and partisan biases of districting plans, and some states have tried to use Geographic Information Systems technology to produce more representative districts. However, case studies of Texas and Arizona illustrate that such analytic and technical advances have not overcome the basic contradictions that underlie the American system of territorial political representation. - pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/102/43/15331

Confidentiality and spatially explicit data: Concerns and challenges 
Leah K. VanWey, Ronald R. Rindfuss , Myron P. Gutmann , Barbara Entwisle , and Deborah L. Balk
Department of Sociology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405; Department of Sociology and Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2524; Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248; and Center for International Earth Science Information Network, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964 
Edited by Susan Hanson, Clark University, Worcester, MA and approved September 14, 2005 (received for review July 10, 2005)
Spatial Demography Special Feature
Abstract: Recent theoretical, methodological, and technological advances in the spatial sciences create an opportunity for social scientists to address questions about the reciprocal relationship between context (spatial organization, environment, etc.) and individual behavior. This emerging research community has yet to adequately address the new threats to the confidentiality of respondent data in spatially explicit social survey or census data files, however. This paper presents four sometimes conflicting principles for the conduct of ethical and high-quality science using such data: protection of confidentiality, the social–spatial linkage, data sharing, and data preservation. The conflict among these four principles is particularly evident in the display of spatially explicit data through maps combined with the sharing of tabular data files. This paper reviews these two research activities and shows how current practices favor one of the principles over the others and do not satisfactorily resolve the conflict among them. Maps are indispensable for the display of results but also reveal information on the location of respondents and sampling clusters that can then be used in combination with shared data files to identify respondents. The current practice of sharing modified or incomplete data sets or using data enclaves is not ideal for either the advancement of science or the protection of confidentiality. Further basic research and open debate are needed to advance both understanding of and solutions to this dilemma. - pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/102/43/15337

Demography of Sexual Orientation in Adolescents 
Gary Remafedi MD, MPH, Michael Resnick PhD, Robert Blum MD, PhD, and Linda Harris
From the Adolescent Health Program, Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnnesota Hospital and Clinics, Minneapolis
This study was undertaken to explore patterns of sexual orientation in a representative sample of Minnesota junior and senior high school students. The sample included 34 706 students (grades 7 through 12) from diverse ethnic, geographic, and socioeconomic strata. Five Items pertaining to sexual attraction, fantasy, behavior, and affiliation were embedded in a self-administered survey of adolescent health. Overall, 10.7% of students were "unsure" of their sexual orientation; 88.2% described themselves as predominantly heterosexual and 1.1% described themselves as bisexual or predominantly homosexual. The reported prevalence of homosexual attractions (4.5%) exceeded homosexual fantasies (2.6%), sexual behavior (1%), or affiliation (0.4%). Gender differences were minor; but responses to Individual sexual orientation items varied with age, religiosity, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Uncertainty about sexual orientation diminished in successively older age groups, with corresponding increases in heterosexual and homosexual affiliation. The findings suggest an unfolding of sexual identity during adolescence, influenced by sexual experience and demographic factors. - pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/89/4/714

Aging: The Reality - Demography of Human Supercentenarians 
L. Stephen Coles, Department of Surgery, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles. 
Address correspondence to L. Stephen Coles, MD, PhD, Department of Surgery, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-7313. E-mail: scoles@ucla.edu
The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences 59:B579-B586 (2004) © 2004 The Gerontological Society of America 
An international committee of demographers has created a carefully documented list of worldwide living supercentenarians (110 years old) that has been published by the Los Angeles Gerontology Research Group on its web site and updated on a weekly basis for the past 6 years [see "snapshot" for the year 2003 in the Appendix]. What can be learned by studying this distinguished group of individuals? Also, what are the implications for understanding the fundamental biological limits to human longevity and maximum life span? Our conclusion: Although everyone agrees that average life expectancy has systematically advanced linearly over the last century, it is not realistic to expect that this pace can continue indefinitely. Our data suggest that, without the invention of some new unknown form of medical breakthrough, the Guinness Book of World Records benchmark established by French woman Jeanne Calment of 122 years, set back in 1997, will be exceedingly difficult to break in our lifetime. - biomed.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/59/6/B579

Israeli Discourse on Arab-Jewish Demography
Elia Zureik
Abstract: Without exception, Israeli commentators of various political and disciplinary shades have recently turned their attention to examining Arab-Jewish population balance in the current political dispute between the two peoples. While demography is not new to Zionist and Israeli discourse, its veracity now and the need, in the face of declining Jewish immigration and continuing increase in the size of the Arab population, to settle once and for all the geography and political contours of the “Jewish” state is greater than ever. 
The paper situates the debate within discussions about the role of demography in ethnically-bound societies, the evolution of population balance between Arabs and Jews since 1948, including population projections should Israel retain its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the relationship between modernization and demographic structure, the containment policies of successive Israeli governments toward the Arab population, and the ideological bases of Israeli-Jewish discourse regarding the Arab population as revealed in public opinion data on issues related to population transfer, expulsion, and political disenfranchisement. 
The paper concludes by pointing out that the population debate is driven by three factors: exaggerating the size of the Arab population in Israel through counting the Arabs of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights as part of Israel, the inapplicability of the modernization thesis to demography as long as socio-economic policies towards the Arab sector remain discriminatory in their essence, and the tendency to solve the demographic issue by espousing population transfer and land exchange in the name of national security. - mada-research.org/review/issue1a1.pdf 

Demography as both a cause and a consequence of armed conflict