RESUMO
I argue that non-demographers engage in "counter-demography" - repurposing demographic tools as they interpret and manage local, individual expressions of complex population-level issues. I explore this through a focus on population aging in Peru. Like many developing countries, Peru is in a delicate demographic position where sometimes violent efforts to reduce fertility, and broader processes of modernization and education, have resulted in population aging. In the urban Andes, professional aging-workers (those who labor to support aging individuals) informally reference statistics and data visualizations to highlight their own complex and holistic efforts to support aging people on the ground.
Assuntos
Países em Desenvolvimento , População Rural , Idoso , Antropologia Médica , Demografia , Humanos , Peru , Dinâmica Populacional , Fatores SocioeconômicosRESUMO
Migration from Peru has increased dramatically over the past decade, but the social and relational repercussions of these transnational movements have not yet been fully explored. Examination of the way migrants manage their responsibilities to dependent kin in Peru reveals that child fostering makes it possible for adults to migrate in search of better work opportunities by ensuring care for their children and company for their older relatives. For Peruvians engaging in labor migration, child fostering tempers some of the challenges of continuing to participate in established social networks from a distance.