Learning objectives
Knowledge and understading
The course aims at providing knowledge and comprehension skills of demographic processes and their natural and migratory components. The knowledge of not only qualitative models but also quantitative methods of analysis of demographic phenomena will give students the possibility to comprehend the evolution of demographic systems, their differentiation over time and space, and likely future demographic scenarios.
Applying knowledge and understading
The skills provided within the course will give students the chance to apply and use (quantitative) demographic methods in the determination of specific demographic indicators. Such indicators will allow students to analyze and interpret demographic processes, also in the light of factors and elements of economic, political, social, and biological nature. In particular, they will be able to use their learned skills for a better comprehension of the political debate about the most relevant issues on population and socio-economic development.
Making judgements
The skills students will learn during the course will allow them to form an informed opinion on the possible effects and effectiveness of the possible policies, both domestic and international, concerning the most relevant demographic issues, such as low fertility and immigration.
Communication skills
The students will have to show ability in making reports and analyses, even including quantitative analyses, on topics of demographic nature. They will have to prove their skills of communicating others such knowledge and evaluations in a clear and pertinent way, getting interlocutors to be able to comprehend their own considerations.
Learning skills
The students will have to show skills of foreseeing likely future trends and patterns of demographic evolution, interpreting them in a long-time perspective and understanding the strong connections with domestic and international policies, socio-economic factors, and constraints of biological nature.