Disciplining anthropological demography

Abstract

This study furthers the epistemological development of anthropological demography, and its role in understanding the demography of Europe. We sketch out broad issues to stimulate new productive interactions and understanding in order to initiate discussion around the overall research agendas of European anthropological demography. We situate anthropological demography against the context of an evolving world of research in which boundaries between academic disciplines have become much more permeable. This is achieved via an overview of recent theoretical debates about the role and nature of disciplinarity, including interdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity. In order to understand the current state of the art, we sketch out the evolution of anthropological demography, paying particular attention to the different knowledge claims of anthropology and demography. We conclude by summarising the potential disciplinary benefits of interdisciplinarity between anthropology and demography. © 2007 Coast, Hampshire & Randall.