Kingsley Davis

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Kingsley Davis (August 20, 1908 – February 27, 1997), identified by the American Philosophical Society as one of the most outstanding social scientists of the twentieth century, was a Hoover Institution senior research fellow and internationally recognized American sociologist and demographer. He led and conducted major studies of societies in Europe, South America, Africa and Asia,^[1] coined the term "population explosion," ^[2], and played a major role in the naming and development of the demographic transition model ^[3]. He is also credited with coining the term "zero population growth" ^[4][5] although George Stolnitz claimed to have that distinction ^[6].

Davis received his Ph.D. from Harvard University and taught at Smith College, Clark University, Pennsylvania State University, Princeton University, Columbia University, the University of California at Berekeley and the University of Southern California. ^[7]

The demographer was internationally recognized for his expertise in world population growth and resources, the history and theory of international migration, world urbanization, demographic transition and population policy.^[8]

Among his other accomplishments, Davis

• served as president of the Population Association of America and the American Sociological Association
• represented the United States on the United Nations Population Commission
• member of the Advisory Council of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Advisory Committee on Population for the U.S. Bureau of the Census
• was the first sociologist in the United States to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1966).

Davis won the Irene B. Taeuber Award for outstanding research in demography (1978), the Common Wealth Award for distinguished work in sociology (1979), and the Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award from the American Sociological Association (1982). ^[9]

Kingsley Davis was a prolific scholar who published numerouis research articles, book chapters and books. The latter include

• "Youth in the Depression" (University of Chicago Press, 1935)
• "World Population in Transition" (merican Academy of Political and Social Science, 1945)
• "Human Society" (MacMillan, 1949)
• "Modern Society" (Rinehart, 1949)
• "The Population of India and Pakistan" (Princeton University Press, 1951)
• "Population and Progress in Puerto Rico" (Council on Foreign Relations, 1951)
• "The American Class Structure" (with J. Kahl; Rinehart, 1959)
• "A Structural analysis of Kinship" (Arno, 1960)
• "India's Urban Future" (with R. Turner; University of Michigan, 1961)
• "Population Policy and Economic Development" (Stanford Research Institute, 1961)
• "The Sociology of Human Fertility" (Basil Blackwell, 1963)
• "The Populatiln Impact on Children in the World's Agrarian Countries" (Institute of International Studies, 1965)
• "Cities" (Knopf, 1965)
• "California's Twenty Million" (with F. Stylkes; University of California, 1971)
• "World Urbanization 1950-1970" (Institute of International Studies, 1972)
• "Cities: Their Origin, Growth and Human Impact" (Freeman, 1973)
• "Below Replacement Fertility in Industrial Societies" (with others; Cambridge University Press, 1987)
• "Population and Resources in a Changing World" (with others; Morrison Institute for Population and Resource Studies, 1989)
• "Resources, Environment, and Population" (with M. Bernstan; Oxford University Press, 1991"

In the popular press, Davis' work appeared in "Scientific American," "Science," the "New York Times Magazine," "Commentary," "Foreign Affairs" and numerous newspapers.^[10]

In 1957, Davis predicted that population of the world would reach six billion by the year 2000. He was remarkably close; that population figure was reached in October 1999.^[11]

Reading

David Heer and Kingsley Davis. "Kingsley Davis: A Biography and Selections from His Works" (Transaction Publishers, 2005)

References

External links

• Kingsley Davis at Encyclopædia Britannica
• Obituary at Stanford News
• Biography at the American Sociological Association
• Biography from Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society