Special issue  

The authors of this editorial call for a more consistent opening of population geography in epistemological, methodological and theoretical respects. They want to point out possibilities of connection to debates that have already found a firm place in other fields of human geography. At the same time, it is a concern to emphasize the necessity of continuously subjecting the discussion of the phenomenon of population to critical scrutiny, both within (human) geography and outside of it.

With this contribution (which is designed as a positioning), the author pleads for a more consistent consideration of structural influences in the discussion of mortality in (textbook) population geography, and for a critical discussion of these influences. He refers to various conceptions that already have fixed places in human geography – but not in population geography – and that offer starting points for corresponding discussions.

Population development of German municipalities is characterised by pronounced regional disparities. In recent years, we have witnessed population growth in most large cities and their suburban hinterlands and shrinkage in structurally weak rural areas. We shed new light on the patterns, trends and drivers of population development between 1990 and 2019. Using spatial autocorrelation and hot-spot–cold-spot analysis, we identify short- and long-term population trajectories.

Population geography shows a marked trend towards the increased relevance of qualitative research methods. The article discusses how the visualisation of qualitative research in particular has the potential to provide impulses for progressive developments of both theoretical and methodological dimensions of population geography research. The opportunities call for systematic exploration and exchange on qualitative visualisation and on the conditions for its further development.

Population geography presents a strong conceptual orientation on demography, a discipline which relies mainly on quantitative studies. Many of the concepts used in this field seem to have only very limited value for understanding ongoing processes of societal changes. Under the umbrella of family studies conceptual and methodical approaches are to be found that help reconsider established assumptions related to the term population, such as the notion of family.

The demographic dividend (DD) is one of the most important concepts within development cooperation. It was high time that the concept of the DD was put under scrutiny. Our findings reveal that simplistic demographic explanations for economic growth are appealing to political leaders and decision makers. We argue that the promotion of the DD to decision makers works as a low-level vehicle to achieve support for broader sets of multi-sectoral policies, which we call a positive demographization.

Im Sinne einer feministischen wissenschaftskritischen Intervention, formuliere ich in diesem Beitrag zwei Impulse für eine intersektionalen bevölkerungsgeographische Wissensproduktion über reproduktive Ungleichheiten. Dazu mobilisiere ich das von Schwarzen Feministinnen entwickelte Konzept der reproductive justice.

Based on a critique of statistical and cartographic analyses of migration patterns of young adults in rural areas of Central Germany, we conclude that there is an emergence of cultures of (out-)migration in some rural regions and discuss possible approaches from psychoanalytically informed migration research and complex systems theory that may help us to understand why, in these regions, adolescents often consider leaving the most viable option.

The field of population geography in the last few years has intensively focussed on populations that are on the move. While the topic of migration is of great interest and will also be in the future, researchers have also started to focus more on immobile populations. In this paper, literature on immobile populations has been collected and analysed. The paper concludes on what we already know about immobilities from extant research and makes suggestions for future research.