Multimedia and Discussion Questions

Chapter 13: Demographic Dynamics: Population Trends

- Video Links
  - Living Old
    With advances in science and technology, people in the U.S. are living longer and the “old” account for a large and growing segment of the population. This will present new challenges for society, in particular how we will care for those who are physically frail and who may have diminished mental and/or physical capacities and so need assistance. This program considers the increasing demand for caregivers and the decline in the number of those able and willing to assume these roles

Discussion Questions:
1. Caring for an aging person is often considered the responsibility of the individual’s immediately family members. Is this a personal trouble or a public issue?

2. What are some strategies for addressing the matter?

3. Have you given thought to what you would do if an aged loved one was no longer able to live independently/could not care for himself/herself without assistance?

- Can you Afford to Retire?
  Many Boomers are entering what they had once believed would be their retirement years only to find that they are financially ill-prepared to quit working. This Frontline special examines the economic realities of retirement for Boomers at both the micro and macro levels.

Discussion Questions:
1. Describe the problem Boomers—and society—are facing.

2. Use your sociological imagination: is this a personal trouble or a public issue? Both?

3. Was this foreseeable? Could it have been predicted? Explain your answer.

4. Have you given thought to your retirement? Why or why not?

- New Rules in the Workplace
  Millennials are now beginning to join the job force. In this segment, Doug Akin who has studied Millennials, talks about this generation’s work habits. It is a decidedly upbeat assessment of the traits this generation brings into the marketplace.

Discussion Questions:
1. Why do Millennials switch jobs?

2. With respect to products, what do Millennials value?

3. How do Millennials believe that decisions should be made?

4. Are Akins’s findings consistent with what you have observed of Millennials?

5. If Akins’s characterization of The Millennial Generation is accurate, how might this generation’s work habits, priorities, and values come into conflict with those of other generations, such as The Boomers and Gen Xers?

- The Age of the Millennials
  Morley Safer reports for 60 Minutes about the characteristics of Millennials and connects these to the cultural environment in which they grew up. It’s a decidedly curmudgeonly view of the generation.

Discussion Questions:
1. According to this report, how are the attitudes and values of this generation incompatible with the current workplace environment?

2. How are Boomer and Gen Xer bosses told to “handle” the Millennials in the workplace?

3. What do “coddling” and the stress on being “special” have to do with the characteristics found in Millennials?

4. Do you agree with the assessment of Millennials offered in this segment? Explain your response.

- A Right to Die, A Will to Live
  This New York Times video (produced in connection with a feature in the NYT Sunday Magazine) profiles Peggy Battin, a bioethicist, who has advocated for the rights of people who are gravely ill and/or seriously debilitated to legally end their own lives. The topic is now very close to home given her husband’s physical incapacitation. It is an emotional and provocative look at the issue of assisted suicide/euthanasia. 1. Did you have a firm position on the matter before watching the video? Did the video cause you to reconsider that position? Explain your answers.

Discussion Questions:
1. Is this a matter that should be decided publicly or privately?

2. The debate about legal euthanasia has intensified in recent years. How have medical/technological advances contributed to the increasing frequency with which this topic arises (in the media, in political discussions…)?

- Audio Links
  - This American Life 179: Cicero
    This program tells the story of a town that time forgot, or more accurately, a town that tried to forget the times. It's the story of what at one time was one of most notoriously racist and corrupt suburbs in America. In the 1960s, Cicero residents reacted so violently to threats of integration that officials told Martin Luther King, Jr.'s supporters that marching there would be a suicide mission. Today, two-thirds of the population is Mexican-American, but the political machine from decades past still holds power. A parable of racial politics in America, of white Americans not wanting change, not wanting to let in the outside world, and what happens when they have no choice.

Discussion Questions:
1. What is the effect of migration on this city?

2. Explain the demographic transition of the city.

3. Can you find a period effect in this story?

- This American Life 124: Welcome to America
  This program reveals stories of people moving to this country: what they see and hear about America that those of us who were born here don't necessarily see. Act Two is about Juan Zaldivar, who was born in Cuba. Juan has spent the past four years shooting a movie about his father, to try to reassure him that he did the right thing to leave Cuba with his family in the 1980s and come to America. His father, so far, is not reassured.

Discussion Questions:
1. How would a demographer view these stories as compared to a lay person?

2. Do the international migrations discussed in this program lead to conflict for the larger society?

3. What social responses are apparent about the immigrants mentioned in the program?

- Popularity of Western-Style Weddings in Japan Creates Demand for White Officiants
  Western/U.S. style marriage ceremonies are increasingly popular in Japan. This segment explores the exportation of the cultural rituals surrounding the marriage ceremony.

Discussion Questions:
1. What role does race play in this story?

2. Why do you think these marriage services have become popular?

3. Do you think that this is simply a novelty or fad that will die out?

4. Do you think traditional Japanese ceremonies will change as result of these services?

- The Way You Learned Math is so Old School
  As result of society’s changing needs, schools have changed the way they teach students to do maths. They now stress algebraic thinking. Because the “steps entailed in calculations are now so different than those taught in the past, teachers can no longer assume that parents can help their children with their maths homework.

Discussion Questions:
1. Why have schools changed the way they teach students to do mathematical calculations?

2. What assumption can teachers no longer make when they send a child home with homework?

3. How do such changes contribute to the “divides” that separate the generations

- Web Resources
  Professional Resources
  - Sociology of Population
    Sociologists who study population dynamics are organized in the American Sociological Association Sociology of Population Section.
  - Within the group that studies populations in general, there are sociologists who study more specific issues:
    Aging and the Life Course
    International Migration
    Population Association of America
    Demographers also have their own separate professional organization, the Population Association of America (PAA)which sponsors the leading professional journal in this field, Demography.

> Data Resources
> Demographers specialize in the analysis of large-scale data sets, including population censuses like that which the United States government undertakes every 10 years. Consequently, there are far more important sources of demographic data than can be listed here. Some of the more popular sources of data, however, include the following:

- U.S. Bureau of the Census
  The Population Division of the U.S. Bureau of the Census offers socioeconomic and demographic data in nationally representative surveys.
- The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)
  The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Data Dissemination Branch makes available its latest data in published form and electronically.
- National Institute on Aging (NIA)
  The Behavioral and Social Research (BSR) Program of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) supports basic social and behavioral research and research training on aging processes and the place of older people in society. It focuses on how people change with aging, on the interrelationships between older people and social institutions (e.g., the family, health care systems), and on the societal impact of the changing age composition of the population.
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
  The Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) supports large-scale data collection activities that contribute to research on the determinants and consequences of demographic change.
- The Health Retirement Study
  The Health Retirement Study is a nationally representative, longitudinal study that provides insights into why people retire and how they cope with declining health in later life.
- “The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
  “The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education” (). Here you can find demographic statistics about students all over the U.S. The NCES Kids' Zone is a great place to start looking at interesting facts about education.” The NCES Kids' Zone provides information to help you learn about schools; decide on a college; find a public library; engage in several games, quizzes and skill building about math, probability, graphing, and mathematicians; and to learn many interesting facts about education”

> Other Resources

- American Demographics
  A degraded rendition of the demographic trade—demography as marketing research--can be found in the magazine American Demographics.
- The Population-Environment Research Network
  The Population-Environment Research Network seeks to advance academic research on population and the environment by promoting online scientific exchange among researchers from social and natural science disciplines worldwide [self-characterization].
- The Population Reference Bureau
  The Population Reference Bureau informs people around the world about population, health, and the environment, and empowers them to use that information to advance the well-being of current and future generations [self-characterization].