European Social and Population Issues
Practical info
Evaluation:
1) Written exam (closed book exam) (15/20)
• consists of questions related to the lectures: slides = base, articles → contextualisation
• concerning the topics of the lectures
• example:
- Comment the following statement : “Immigration is a good solution for ageing in
Western societies”
2) Essay (5/20)
• Team work: 2 students
• Write an essay on a lecture of choice
• Post your essay on Canvas by the 20th of June 2022
- Word-format
- Name of the document: Essay_firstname_lastname
- 4 pages minimum, 8 pages maximum
- HOW TO WRITE AN ESSAY : dia 14-32 introduction course
1
,Inhoud
Practical info ........................................................................................................................................... 1
1. Public opinion towards immigration and vote for far right parties in Europe.................................... 4
1.1. Article: Public Opinion toward Immigration and the EU: How are Turkish Immigrants Different
than Others? ....................................................................................................................................... 5
1.2. Article: When economic and cultural interests align: the anti-immigration voter coalitions
driving far right party success in Europe............................................................................................. 6
2. Climate change and health ................................................................................................................. 7
2.1. Concepts: weather vs climate, global warming, climate change, greenhouse effect and gases…
............................................................................................................................................................ 7
2.2. Anthropogenic origin? ................................................................................................................. 8
2.3. Health effects ............................................................................................................................. 11
2.4. Mitigation and adaptation strategies ........................................................................................ 12
2.4.1. Mitigation ............................................................................................................................ 12
2.4.2. Adaption: Adaptative strategies ............................................................................................. 13
2.5. Studies about suicide mortality and climate-change related factors in Belgium ...................... 14
3. The societal impact of university research (=SIUR) .......................................................................... 15
3.1. How do we evaluate research? .................................................................................................. 15
3.2. The origin of the debate ............................................................................................................ 15
3.3. Why and how to evaluate research impacts ............................................................................. 17
3.4. What does scientific literature say about SIUR? ........................................................................ 17
3.5. Four approaches to evaluate SIUR ............................................................................................. 18
3.6. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 19
4. Inequality and inclusion in educational systems .............................................................................. 20
4.1. Facts and figures on the schooling system ................................................................................ 21
4.2. PROBE Surveys, 1996 and 2006 (about 200 villages/schools in north India) ............................ 22
5. Lecture no longer considered for exams due to technical issues ..................................................... 24
6. The Climate Migrant: A Genealogy of Malthusian Fears ................................................................... 24
6.1. Introduction................................................................................................................................ 24
6.2. A History of Malthusian Fears .................................................................................................... 25
6.3. Populationism : POPULATION ALARMISM .................................................................................. 27
6.3.1. A Neo-Malthusian reflex in the climate debate: CRISIS - CLIMATE NARRATIVES ................. 27
6.4. The Climate Migrant ................................................................................................................... 28
6.5. The Persistence of Malthusian Narratives: MALTHUSIAN PROBLEMATIZATIONS..................... 29
7. Benefits and Challenges with Big Data for Social Research .............................................................. 30
7.1. What is Big Data? ....................................................................................................................... 30
2
, 7.2. Big Data applications.................................................................................................................. 32
7.2.1 Big Data Applications: Health............................................................................................... 32
7.2.2. Big Data Applications: Migration and Mobility ................................................................... 33
7.2.3. Big Data Applications: Humanitarian Aid ............................................................................ 33
7.2.4. Big Data Applications: Crime Prevention ............................................................................ 33
7.3. Big Data Challenges.................................................................................................................... 34
8. From Plague to Corona: Epidemics in Belgium ................................................................................. 35
8.1. Mortality through the ages: Which epidemics? ........................................................................ 35
8.2. Epidemiological transition ......................................................................................................... 37
8.3. Specific measures that were taken ............................................................................................ 39
8.3.1. Covid-19 measures.............................................................................................................. 40
8.4. Vaccination in Belgium............................................................................................................... 41
8.5. History of vaccination ................................................................................................................ 43
8.6. Conclusions ................................................................................................................................ 44
9. Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe ......................................................................... 45
9.1. Modernisation and slow secularisation ..................................................................................... 45
9.2. Very rapid migration transformation of Poland – from the country of emigration towards the
country of immigration ..................................................................................................................... 47
9.3. Case study of YouTube Monk .................................................................................................... 48
9.4. Case study of Halal certification tensions .................................................................................. 50
10. Everyday (racialized) sexism in the ivory tower: The experiences of women academics at belgian
universities ............................................................................................................................................ 55
10.1. The university: A gendered and racialized institution ............................................................. 56
10.2. How do women academics from ethnic majoritised and minoritised backgrounds experience
everyday gendered racism and sexism at dutch-speaking universities in belgium? ........................ 58
10.3. Diversity policies: why are they ineffective? ........................................................................... 62
10.4. How do women academics resist these oppressive structures? ............................................. 65
10.5. What’s next? The move towards a fair and just university ..................................................... 69
11. Data Science, micro-level conflict and social media data ............................................................... 70
11.1. Introducing Agent-Based Modelling of Civil Wars Project ....................................................... 71
3
, 1. Public opinion towards immigration and vote for far right parties in
Europe
Public opinion = an opinion that concerns a group of people = a decision that is related to a group of
people e.g. « everyone should wear white ». Usually it’s about issues related to general public,
economy, societal issues, politics,…
Turnout studies show that:
1) All over the world election participation is in decline. People are voting less and less. Sometimes
that’s because they use alternative methods of participation in politics but sometimes also
because they lose interest in politics.
2) The European continent is still a place where turnout is considerably high except for European
Parliament elections.
How do people vote? What informs people’s votes?
A) The utilitarian theory (the economic voting models): This theory explains the role of economic
concerns in people’s votes. These concerns can be retrospect (=related to the past performance of
the party in power) or prospective (= related to future economic concerns e.g. “this is how the world
is changing economically and I don’t know if this party has a competitive economic program”)
There are two strands of utilitarian voting:
1) Pocketbook or egotropic voting: When voters are solely interested in how they as
individuals or as a household can benefit from a certain party being in power. For example:
- You’re unemployed and the party promises they’re going to increase unemployment
benefits so you vote for them.
- You’re an affluent business owner and the party promises less taxes on your business so
you vote for them.
2) Sociotropic voting: Taking society into consideration. These voters are concerned about the
financial wellbeing of a larger community and not just their own. E.g. “since this party has
been in power, the inflation in our country has decreased so I am voting for them”.
When we analyse public opinion, we take the utilitarian perspective into consideration. We can not
ignore economic voting in public opinion studies. Even if you’re looking at people’s attitudes towards
abortion, you have to consider if it is economically good for them or not. But this model of voting
fails to capture variation in how people vote. We also have to look at other models (ideology, values
and social identity).
4
Practical info
Evaluation:
1) Written exam (closed book exam) (15/20)
• consists of questions related to the lectures: slides = base, articles → contextualisation
• concerning the topics of the lectures
• example:
- Comment the following statement : “Immigration is a good solution for ageing in
Western societies”
2) Essay (5/20)
• Team work: 2 students
• Write an essay on a lecture of choice
• Post your essay on Canvas by the 20th of June 2022
- Word-format
- Name of the document: Essay_firstname_lastname
- 4 pages minimum, 8 pages maximum
- HOW TO WRITE AN ESSAY : dia 14-32 introduction course
1
,Inhoud
Practical info ........................................................................................................................................... 1
1. Public opinion towards immigration and vote for far right parties in Europe.................................... 4
1.1. Article: Public Opinion toward Immigration and the EU: How are Turkish Immigrants Different
than Others? ....................................................................................................................................... 5
1.2. Article: When economic and cultural interests align: the anti-immigration voter coalitions
driving far right party success in Europe............................................................................................. 6
2. Climate change and health ................................................................................................................. 7
2.1. Concepts: weather vs climate, global warming, climate change, greenhouse effect and gases…
............................................................................................................................................................ 7
2.2. Anthropogenic origin? ................................................................................................................. 8
2.3. Health effects ............................................................................................................................. 11
2.4. Mitigation and adaptation strategies ........................................................................................ 12
2.4.1. Mitigation ............................................................................................................................ 12
2.4.2. Adaption: Adaptative strategies ............................................................................................. 13
2.5. Studies about suicide mortality and climate-change related factors in Belgium ...................... 14
3. The societal impact of university research (=SIUR) .......................................................................... 15
3.1. How do we evaluate research? .................................................................................................. 15
3.2. The origin of the debate ............................................................................................................ 15
3.3. Why and how to evaluate research impacts ............................................................................. 17
3.4. What does scientific literature say about SIUR? ........................................................................ 17
3.5. Four approaches to evaluate SIUR ............................................................................................. 18
3.6. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 19
4. Inequality and inclusion in educational systems .............................................................................. 20
4.1. Facts and figures on the schooling system ................................................................................ 21
4.2. PROBE Surveys, 1996 and 2006 (about 200 villages/schools in north India) ............................ 22
5. Lecture no longer considered for exams due to technical issues ..................................................... 24
6. The Climate Migrant: A Genealogy of Malthusian Fears ................................................................... 24
6.1. Introduction................................................................................................................................ 24
6.2. A History of Malthusian Fears .................................................................................................... 25
6.3. Populationism : POPULATION ALARMISM .................................................................................. 27
6.3.1. A Neo-Malthusian reflex in the climate debate: CRISIS - CLIMATE NARRATIVES ................. 27
6.4. The Climate Migrant ................................................................................................................... 28
6.5. The Persistence of Malthusian Narratives: MALTHUSIAN PROBLEMATIZATIONS..................... 29
7. Benefits and Challenges with Big Data for Social Research .............................................................. 30
7.1. What is Big Data? ....................................................................................................................... 30
2
, 7.2. Big Data applications.................................................................................................................. 32
7.2.1 Big Data Applications: Health............................................................................................... 32
7.2.2. Big Data Applications: Migration and Mobility ................................................................... 33
7.2.3. Big Data Applications: Humanitarian Aid ............................................................................ 33
7.2.4. Big Data Applications: Crime Prevention ............................................................................ 33
7.3. Big Data Challenges.................................................................................................................... 34
8. From Plague to Corona: Epidemics in Belgium ................................................................................. 35
8.1. Mortality through the ages: Which epidemics? ........................................................................ 35
8.2. Epidemiological transition ......................................................................................................... 37
8.3. Specific measures that were taken ............................................................................................ 39
8.3.1. Covid-19 measures.............................................................................................................. 40
8.4. Vaccination in Belgium............................................................................................................... 41
8.5. History of vaccination ................................................................................................................ 43
8.6. Conclusions ................................................................................................................................ 44
9. Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe ......................................................................... 45
9.1. Modernisation and slow secularisation ..................................................................................... 45
9.2. Very rapid migration transformation of Poland – from the country of emigration towards the
country of immigration ..................................................................................................................... 47
9.3. Case study of YouTube Monk .................................................................................................... 48
9.4. Case study of Halal certification tensions .................................................................................. 50
10. Everyday (racialized) sexism in the ivory tower: The experiences of women academics at belgian
universities ............................................................................................................................................ 55
10.1. The university: A gendered and racialized institution ............................................................. 56
10.2. How do women academics from ethnic majoritised and minoritised backgrounds experience
everyday gendered racism and sexism at dutch-speaking universities in belgium? ........................ 58
10.3. Diversity policies: why are they ineffective? ........................................................................... 62
10.4. How do women academics resist these oppressive structures? ............................................. 65
10.5. What’s next? The move towards a fair and just university ..................................................... 69
11. Data Science, micro-level conflict and social media data ............................................................... 70
11.1. Introducing Agent-Based Modelling of Civil Wars Project ....................................................... 71
3
, 1. Public opinion towards immigration and vote for far right parties in
Europe
Public opinion = an opinion that concerns a group of people = a decision that is related to a group of
people e.g. « everyone should wear white ». Usually it’s about issues related to general public,
economy, societal issues, politics,…
Turnout studies show that:
1) All over the world election participation is in decline. People are voting less and less. Sometimes
that’s because they use alternative methods of participation in politics but sometimes also
because they lose interest in politics.
2) The European continent is still a place where turnout is considerably high except for European
Parliament elections.
How do people vote? What informs people’s votes?
A) The utilitarian theory (the economic voting models): This theory explains the role of economic
concerns in people’s votes. These concerns can be retrospect (=related to the past performance of
the party in power) or prospective (= related to future economic concerns e.g. “this is how the world
is changing economically and I don’t know if this party has a competitive economic program”)
There are two strands of utilitarian voting:
1) Pocketbook or egotropic voting: When voters are solely interested in how they as
individuals or as a household can benefit from a certain party being in power. For example:
- You’re unemployed and the party promises they’re going to increase unemployment
benefits so you vote for them.
- You’re an affluent business owner and the party promises less taxes on your business so
you vote for them.
2) Sociotropic voting: Taking society into consideration. These voters are concerned about the
financial wellbeing of a larger community and not just their own. E.g. “since this party has
been in power, the inflation in our country has decreased so I am voting for them”.
When we analyse public opinion, we take the utilitarian perspective into consideration. We can not
ignore economic voting in public opinion studies. Even if you’re looking at people’s attitudes towards
abortion, you have to consider if it is economically good for them or not. But this model of voting
fails to capture variation in how people vote. We also have to look at other models (ideology, values
and social identity).
4
