Bücher der Reihe Publications of the Netherlands Interuniversity Demographic Institute (NIDI) and the Population and Family Study Centre (CBGS)

This cohabitation rate is about twice as low when compared to rates in countries like Sweden and Denmark where they are 16 percent (the highest rate in Europe) and 13 percent (Trost, 1979), but still about twice as high when compared to the 3 percent estimate for the United States (Macklin, 1980).

The Netherlands Interuniversity Demographic Institute (N.I.D.I.) and the Population and Family Study Centre (C.B.G.S.) evidence the growing importance attached to the field of social gerontology. The two institutions are designed to coordinate and to stimulate all kind of re search in the field of population and family. Long-run trends in demographic processes of mortality and fertility have had consequences for the kin network. The increasing nurober of aged peo le in the total population and the reduced number of descendants to whom an older person may turn for assistance is becoming a real problem in Western .society. The problem of the Elderly is too im portant in order to be neglected. Volume VIII of the N.I.D.I.-C.B.G.S. publications contains a number of articles concerning the family life in Old Age. The European Social Research Committee on Ageing held two colloquia on this topic. The papers presen ted at the Dubrovnik meeting, Yugoslavia 1976, and at the Ystad meeting, Sweden 1977, are published in this volume. The editors hope that this volume, the eighth in their yearly publication series, will serve to give more insight in the complex problem of the elderly in our society and hope that more cross cultural research will be undertaken."

Since 1972 there has been a close contact through their pUblications between the Netherlands Interuniversity Demographic Institute at The Hague and the Population and Family Study Centre at Brussels. This co-operation has resulted in the joint pUblication of the journal BevoLking en Gezin (Population and Family) in the Dutch language.

The Netherlands Interuniversity Demographic Institute (N.I.D.I.) and the Population and Family Study Centre (C.B.G.S.) evidence the growing importance attached to the field of social gerontology.

Those who have sought information on the extent of divorce in the modern world will know that the most accessible sources lie in international yearbooks, (1) and that from these it is possible to make certain broad comparisons of a historical or geographical kind.

Since 1972 there has been a close contact through their publications between the Netherlands Interuniversity Demographic Institute at The Hague and the Population and Family Study Centre at Brussels. GODEFROY A graphic representation of the process of population renewal - a demographic teaching aid .

Proceedings of the Second European Population Seminars, The Hague/Brussels

1. Population, politics and policy.- 1.1. On Method.- 1.2. Population Policy.- 1.3. Migration.- 2. Population, power and the state.- 2.1. Total Population and the Power Inventory.- 2.2. Population Density, Social Organization and Power.- 2.3. Population, Production and the Dependency Burden.- 2.4. Population Optima.- 2.5. Population and Economic Development.- 2.6. Population and Power.- 3. Population and war.- 3.1. Population and the Causation of War.- 3.2. The Malthusian Explanation.- 3.3. Some Hypotheses on Population and War.- 3.4. Population Growth and Density, Resources and Subsistence: Man-Land Relationships and Their Relevance for the Study of War.- 3.5. Crowding, Social Pathology and Aggression.- 3.6. Population Growth, Domestic Conflict and War.- 3.7. Demographic Consequences of War.- 3.8. Human Losses and the Termination of Conflict.- 3.9. Conflict and Catastrophic Population Decline.- 3.10. The Causation of War: A Review of the Hypotheses.- 3.11. Does War Have a Demographic Function?.- 3.12. Population, Aggression and the State.- 4. Population, social morphology and international relations.- 4.1. The Regulation of Human Populations.- 4.2. The Perception of Population Trends.- 4.3. Population and Collective Action.- 4.4. Population and Future International Politics.- References.

In the first part, comprising Chapters One to Four, an examination of historical and contemporary models of population growth led to the decision to study changes in fertility by means of a biological micro simulation model.