Esther boserup theory on population

In such countries, production was almost in a deteriorated state of affairs.

Esther boserup theory on population: Her position countered the Malthusian

Consequently, in many countries, efforts were made to encourage the people to shift from the towns to villages. Boserup has referred to another change in which agriculture develops as a consequence of growing population. It is with regard to change in the make of tools. In agricultural development along with different tools employed in different stages, there also exist the change in their source.

The agricultural communities prefer to use tools by artisans or factories in towns. Apart from all this, it has also been noticed that some rural communities like that of Indonesia have changed to better tools without changing the kind of tools. Apart from all this, development of towns cannot take place smoothly, if population density was not reached a critical minimum.

The towns are to be connected with the villages for the supply of food.

Esther boserup theory on population: Ester Boserup developed the Boserup

Many economic historians have pointed out chat famines in medieval times occurred due to sparse population rather than due to over-population in the rural areas. The premature growth of towns accompanied by all inefficient transport system resulted in poor availability of food grains to urban areas. Boserup tries to establish that trend in agricultural development in the pre-industrial stage is greatly influenced by the trend in population growth.

At the same time she pointed out that even that social structure in pre- industrial economies is moulded by population growth. In a sense, growth of population affects the system of cultivation which in turn affects the social life of the people. For instance, forest fallow explains the tribal way of life prevalent in this period. The cultivators moved from one forest to another for burning it.

In the bush fallow period, life is more settled. Pedod of cultivating a piece of land is longer. Further, Boserup has attempted to show that the system of ownership of land is connected with the system of cultivation. In this context, she asserted that the attachment of individual farm ties to particular plots becomes more and more important with the gradual shortening of the period of fallow and the reduction of the part of the territory which is not used in rotation.

Finally, Boserup tried to emphasise the point that in the pre-industrial stage, growing population does not create any obstacle in the way of investment needed for agricultural development The investment like raising of new fields, minor irrigation work, digging of canals, drainage etc. Therefore, a growing population is welcomed in these stages of agricultural development.

Boserup maintained that her theory of agricultural development is valid even in the modern times for under-developed countries with undeveloped industrial sector. For instance, she remarked that the modest increases in output per man hour which can be obtained by the use of industrial products or scientific methods in such communities may not be sufficient to pay for every scarce esther boserup theory on population of skilled labour and foreign exchange which they absorb.

Therefore, it seems somewhat unrealistic to assume that a revolution of agricultural techniques by means of modern industrial and scientific methods will take place in near future in countries which have not yet reached the stage of urban industrialization. Unlike other agricultural development models, Boserup theory of agricultural development is also not free from criticism.

According to T. The major criticism levelled against Boaerup theory is that it is not applicable to those economies where the urban industrial sector is less developed, The U. Boserup has expressed the hope that in the present day underdeveloped economies, growing population can be absorbed in the agricultural sector. But, this idea is true in countries like U.

The farm problem in such economies has necessitated transfer of labour from agriculture sector to the non-agriculture sector. In fact, there are certain other significant factors which are quite important to bring urbanisation and industrialization in those countries. Though, Boserup has attempted to show that cultivation becomes more intensive when population increases and becomes extensive in character when population falls.

But, this assertion of Boserup is not fully convincing. It is due to the reason that the sequence of intensification of cultivation and accompanying technical, institutional and social set up enumerated by her is not fully reversible. In Indian context, the growing unemployment in the agricultural sector in the post-independence period is so conspicuous that it can be ignored.

In other words, disguised unemployment in traditional agricultural economies of South East Asia fails to recognise the fact that agricultural development has totally failed to absorb growing population. Boserup has absolutely ignored the unfavourable effects of growing population on agriculture. This meant that population growth was arithmetical, directly influenced by the number of resources.

Ester Boserup was a Danish economist who studied agricultural and economic development, focusing on agrarian change. Her population growth theory is the complete opposite of the theory proposed by Mathus. Boserup proposed that populations would intensify their agricultural output in response to changes in population. The primary point that she often made is quite simple: necessity is the mother of invention.

Many people follow the Malthusian approach to population change without realizing it. This causes them to believe that overpopulation is threatening the world. At some point, population size will strip the world of its agricultural resources and force population levels to decline. There will be a time when the food supply will be exhausted, which will cause people to die.

Boserup takes a different approach. Instead of continuing to develop new food resources, her population growth theory suggests that current food productivity simply needs to be enhanced. This could be accomplished in a number of ways. There is currently enough food being created right now to feed everyone. But what about the future?

Boserup also contributed to the discourse surrounding gender and development practices with her work Woman's Role in Economic Development. Boserup's work is widely credited as a motivation behind the United Nations Decade for Women. Boserup's text evaluated how work was divided between men and women, the types of jobs that constituted productive work, and the type of education women needed to enhance development.

Esther boserup theory on population: Boserup argues that.

This text marked a shift in the Women in Development WID debates because it argued that women's contributions, both domestic and in the paid workforce, contributed to national economies. Many liberal feminists took Boserup's analysis further to argue that the costs of modern economic development were shouldered by women. Woman's Role in Economic Development, too, has been republished many times, appearing in print in at least a half dozen languages.

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. Danish economist — CopenhagenDenmark. Biography [ edit ]. Work [ edit ]. Scholarly contributions [ edit ]. Boserupian Theory [ edit ]. Gender studies [ edit ]. Selected bibliography [ edit ].

Books [ edit ]. Chapters in books [ edit ]. Journal articles [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Library of Congress. Retrieved 12 August Women, development, and the UN: a sixty-year quest for equality and justice. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN Ester Boserup's Legacy on Sustainability. S2CID Retrieved 5 October Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.