Perspectives on Development and Population Growth in the Third World

Until the early to mid-1970s, social scientists in the fields of population and development were largely going their own ways. Demographers relied almost exclusively on demographic transition theory as their para­ digm for understanding the role of development in population change and fertility decline. Conversely, most development economists and other specialists were certainly aware of the constraints placed upon development objectives by population growth. However, the main development theories paid little attention to population and the implications of population growth for development. Indeed it was not until after the World Population Conference in Bucharest in 1974 that the interaction of population and development became a serious and pur­ posive theme for social scientific study. Accordingly, since about the mid-1970s, an extensive literature in the field of population and development has been generated. And in 1975, under the auspices of The Popu­ lation Council, the journal Population and Development Review was found­ ed, a journal which in the past decade has developed into the premier publication in the world for work in this area. But our understanding of development as it refers to change in Third World countries remained fragmented. Moreover, our understanding of the linkages and interac­ tions between population and development was very limited. It is in this regard that Ozzie Simmons's Perspectives on Development and Population Growth in the Third World will certainly have an impact.