"How population change will transform our world" with Prof Sarah Harper

Past Event

Date
12 October 2016, 6:00pm - 7:30pm

Location
Lecture Theatre, Oxford Martin School
34 Broad Street (corner of Holywell and Catte Streets), Oxford, OX1 3BD

Event Recording:

Predicting the shape of our future populations is vital for installing the infrastructure, welfare, and provisions necessary for society to survive. There are many opportunities and challenges that will come with the changes in our populations over the 21st century.

Professor Sarah Harper, Director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, will dispel myths such as the fear of unstoppable global growth resulting in a population explosion, or that climate change will lead to the mass movement of environmental refugees; and instead considers the future shape of our populations in light of demographic trends in fertility, mortality, and migration, and their national and global impact.

This talk will be followed by a book signing and drinks reception, all welcome.


About the speaker

Sarah Harper is the Professor of Gerontology at the University of Oxford and Director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, a multi-disciplinary research unit concerned with the implications of population ageing, and director of the Clore Programme on Population-Environment Change.

Her research concerns globalisation and global ageing, and the impact of population change, in particular the implications at the global, societal and individual level of the age-structural shift from predominantly young to predominantly older societies. She has authored, edited and contributed to several books, including Families in Ageing Societies (Editor, OUP, 2004), Ageing Societies: Myths, Challenges, and Opportunities (Hodder Arnold, 2005) and Is the Planet Full? (Contributer, OUP, 2014). She is also the editor of the Journal of Population Ageing (Springer).

About the book

How Population Change Will Transform Our World looks at population trends by region to highlight the key issues facing us in the coming decades, including the demographic inertia in Europe, demographic dividend in Asia, high fertility and mortality in Africa, the youth bulge in the Middle East, and the balancing act of migration in the Americas. Harper concludes with an analysis of global challenges we must plan for such as the impact of climate change and urbanization, and the difficulty of feeding 10 billion people, and considers ways in which we can prepare for, and mitigate against, these challenges.