Populations, Volume 1, Issue 4 (December 2025) – 5 articles

This review examines how demographic knowledge is framed and reimagined within a Scottish widening access higher education programme. Drawing on my positionality as a former international student and widening access graduate, alongside over 15 years of community-based work with disadvantaged Roma populations, I reflect on how notions of population “need” are often shaped by national policy priorities and narrow imaginaries of populations—typically white, Scottish, and urban. While these narratives reflect lived realities, they risk overlooking multilingual, racialised, and globally mobile populations increasingly present in both the student body and the communities that graduates will serve. Based on my work since 2021 in placement coordination and teaching, I outline how applied changes to placement partnerships, thematic content, and assessment practice can challenge and reframe these dominant narratives. Drawing on Foucault’s concepts of population, discipline, and control, and Esposito’s theorisation of community, immunity, and exclusion, and coupled with anti-oppressive pedagogies, I argue for a reorientation of demographic literacy toward more plural, critically engaged, and globally attuned understandings of population. In reframing demographic literacy as a site of justice, I move it beyond a technical skill of interpreting population data toward a critical practice of interrogating how populations are constructed, which groups are rendered visible or invisible, and how imaginaries of “need” shape inclusion and exclusion in higher education. Such a shift positions international students not only as beneficiaries of widening access but as active population actors whose experiences and knowledges expand the terms of justice and belonging in higher education. Full article

Despite global progress toward gender parity in education, Ghanaian girls continue to face systemic barriers rooted in entrenched parental gender norms. This paper explores how parental gender norm beliefs and attitudes perpetuate disparities among school-aged, particularly disadvantaging girls in access to and retention in education. Using a desk review methodology, we analyzed peer-reviewed social science and development literature, legal documents, and international reports from organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank to explore the structural and cultural dynamics affecting girls’ education in Ghana. Anchored in Social Impact Theory, Parental Ethnotheories, and Expectation States Theory, the study provides a multi-theoretical lens to understand how gender norms, cultural expectations, and parental beliefs converge to influence educational outcomes for girls. Analysis of sociocultural norms, economic trade-offs, and safety concerns reveals how parents—often guided by love and pragmatism—prioritize sons’ education while withdrawing daughters for caregiving, early marriages, or income-generating labor. The study highlights three critical dimensions: (1) the economic reasoning behind gendered investments in children’s schooling, (2) sociocultural gender norms limiting girls’ retention in school, and (3) the transformative potential of educated women as community leaders challenging these patterns. Evidence shows that educating girls yields broad benefits, from improved health outcomes to economic growth, yet systemic inequities remain. Findings underscore the need for interventions to move beyond school access to address the familial and cultural ecosystems shaping parental decisions. By disrupting entrenched gender norms, Ghana can advance SDGs 4 and 5 and promote long-term societal change. Full article

This paper evaluates the Enhancing Mobile Populations’ Access to HIV and AIDS Services, Information and Support (EMPHASIS) programme implemented by CARE International across Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. Using individual-level data, we estimate the programme’s impact on HIV-related knowledge and preventive behaviours among migrant workers. Results show that participation in EMPHASIS significantly increased correct knowledge of HIV transmission, reduced misconceptions, and improved partner communication. These informational gains translated into higher condom use and fewer unsafe sexual practices, with stronger effects among women. The findings provide evidence that peer-led, information-based interventions can improve health behaviours among mobile populations. Integrating such approaches with gender empowerment and mobile health services offers a promising model for addressing HIV vulnerability in cross-border migration settings. Full article

This article examines European policies blocking migration. It outlines a theory of borders and bordering that conceptualizes both as being far more complex and consequential than the mere regulation of conventional national frontiers. Although due attention is paid to efforts at the formal frontiers of Europe, the bulk of the analysis focuses on the effective externalization of Europe’s borders into African and Asian states that European governments pay (in kind or cash) to stop migrants from ever reaching Europe’s shores. The essay goes on to introduce the notion of Anglo-European hegemony to explain why postcolonial states, despite having achieved formal independence from colonial rule, continue to contribute to and even emulate patterns of blocking migration that originate in the Global North. Blocked migration casts doubt on Europe’s democratic credentials—so much so that efforts to reduce, end or evade blocked migration should be reinterpreted as necessary steps in the ongoing decolonization and democratization of European politics. Full article

Depression is one of the most prevalent mental health conditions in middle and late adulthood, contributing substantially to morbidity, mortality, and reduced quality of life. However, limited research has examined the mechanisms linking genetic predisposition and early protective environments to long-term mental health trajectories. Guided by a life course health development perspective, this study investigated how depression polygenic scores (G) and protective childhood family environments (E) interplay to shape depressive symptom trajectories from mid- to late adulthood. We analyzed longitudinal data of 14 waves from the Health and Retirement Study (1994–2020; N = 4817), estimating linear mixed-effects models of depressive symptoms using the validated CES-D scale. Early protective environments were measured by indicators of family structure stability, non-abusive and substance-free parenting, positive parent–child relationships, and parental support. Results showed that genetic predisposition and protective family environments jointly influence depression trajectories across the life course. Specifically, individuals with both low genetic risk and high environmental protection had the lowest depressive symptoms over time. Importantly, when only one favorable factor was present, protective family environments offered a stronger lifelong benefit than low genetic risk. These findings extend prior research by demonstrating that supportive childhood environments can mitigate genetic vulnerability, shaping healthier long-term mental health trajectories. This work underscores the need for early family-based interventions to reduce depression risk, enhance resilience, and promote longevity. Full article