From the Malthusian myth to that of reciprocal relations – the interdisciplinary constitution of the Population and Environment field

Abstract

A review on the Population and Environment (P-E) field, mainly carried out in the 1990s, is accomplished through: 1. Prospecting articles indexed in international databases; 2. Identifying the structuring instances of the field, essential for its identity and for validating the produced knowledge; 3. Indicating the relationship of the field with the themes of Population, Development and Environment included in the UN conferences. As a result, we notice that the scientific production published in the major journals and events of population studies progressively distanced themselves from the Malthusian myth, aiming toward the search for reciprocal relations between population and environment, a second myth. The existence of characteristic issues, axes, and identities, treated by a well-defined set of scientists can also be found. Among the two essential myths, P-E has expanded as an interdisciplinary field under the effects of dialogues with the social and environmental sciences. Noncompliant to disciplinary limits, it faces the theoretical-epistemological and empirical difficulties of a field still under construction, while experiencing tensions with demography, an important discipline of its program matrix.

Key words
Population and Environment; Demography; Research; Researchers; Field