[BLOG] Some social science links

• Writing at io9, George Dvorsky argues that extreme human longevity won’t destroy the planet.
• Behind the Numbers’ notes that fertility in Senegal remains high while rates of family planning use are low.
• The Burgh Diaspora’s Jim Russell links to numerous of his articles. Is Italy becoming stagnant because its levels of social capital are too high, inhibiting migration to and from? How does San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighbourhood survive the city’s wealth and avoid gentrification? How can the world, or even the United States, deal with the pressing need of the poorest to migrate along with their inability to do so?
• Crooked Timber had two posts in November taking a look at the risks faced by migrants, one on overland Mexican route and one on the overseas route to Australia.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog examined a few different subjects. Peter Kaufmann wondered what choice, including an overabundance of choice, meant. Sally Raskoff traced sociological concepts in history. Karen Sternheimer examined the complexities surrounding death.
• Geocurrents was unimpressed with a poor map by the DEA of the underground marijuana trade.
• At Lawyers, Guns and Money, Dave Brockington examined the contradictory rhetoric used by British politicians concerned about migration from Romania and Bulgaria. (They fear brain drain from these countries but claim these people will be parasites?)
• Marginal Revolution took a look at a few interesting subjects, including a new history of the British industrial revolution, examinations of inequality in Singapore and that city-state’s very low birth rate (I think there’s a connection), and the economic issues of Ukraine. Just beware the comments.
• Naked Anthropologist Laura Agustín takes issue with abolitionist laws and rhetoric on prostitution, which, as usual, does not take realities into account.
• Savage Minds’ Matt Thompson suggests that there could be more in common between the foraging strategies of hunter-gatherers and the proper use of libraries than one might think.
• Strange Maps’ Frank Jacobs examines the multiple contradictory maps of the disputed South Asian region of Jammu and Kashmir, and takes a look at poor parched Karakalpakstan (western Uzbekistan, by the Aral Sea).
• Towleroad linked to research demonstrating a correlation between anti-gay legislation and psychological issues of non-heterosexuals.
• The Volokh Conspiracy linked to a study suggesting that 27% of Jewish children in the United States lived in Orthodox homes, suggesting that Orthodox Jewish birth rates are such that the Orthodox share of the Jewish community will grow sharply.
• Window on Eurasia has a lot of interesting posts. Paul Goble noted that projected populations for most of the former Soviet republics made two decades ago are vastly overstated, the Central Asian republics being the big exception, and arguing that Russia has only a short time to deal with its, temporarily stabilized, demographic disequilibrium. (The Chechen birth rate is reportedly quite high, although statistics from the North Caucasus are often questionable.
• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell, meanwhile redesigns the United Kingdom into regions each with the population of London and gets interesting results, and notes significant methodological and political problems with British statistics on unemployment.