Wereldbevolkingscongres Rome 1954

Samenvatting

A report on the World Population Congress in Rome (Aug/Sep 1954). It was not a merely demographic congress; the participating institutes included, in addition to the International Demographic Union, 15 other international bodies dealing with statistics, biometry, economics and econometry, anthropology and ethnography, geography, gerontology, sociology and political science. However, demography dominated the 31 sessions. Little attention was given to the structures and cultures of the populations whose movements were studied. There was also a tendency to treat each pop as a whole, neglecting its strata and groupings. The sociological aspects were also largely ignored in the papers on migrations. The organizers of the Congress expected the nondemographic sciences to offer contributions on the problem of overpopulation. 2 views of overpopulation did emerge: one considered it as a 'state of mind,' the other concentrated on its economic aspects. The 2nd view prevailed at the Congress. Of special interest to sociologists was the section on the family, esp the papers of Alva Myrdal and Frank Lorimer. Counter to the intentions of the sponsors, an element of political propaganda was present in many papers, esp those from the Soviet block. It is stated that only propaganda, no factual data, was offered about planned industr migration in the USSR. Western contributions remained free from propaganda, though the French participants clearly followed a national line. I. Langnas.