Studies that focus on contemporary fertility trends, particularly the social, cultural, economic and political factors that influence childbearing behaviour (delayed childbearing, number of children, work family balance, gender parity in the dynamics of couples, single parenthood, e.g.).

Studies on marriage as a social institution and on conjugality, including the new forms of partnership and their implications for family structures, also fall within this thematic area.

More generally, papers on the family, including here also a historical perspective, will belong to this thematic area.

coordinators: Maria Filomena Mendes, Vanessa Cunha, Sónia Cardoso, Lara Tavares

Work focused on mortality in general, integrating more specific approaches to life expectancy, infant mortality, causes of death.

Papers on morbidity, including health perception issues, risk factors, disease determinants, disability and dependency, and other papers on public health will be integrated in this thematic area, where epidemiological studies fit in.   

Public health (indicators, effects of public policies, organisation of health care) as an object of study also fits into this theme.

coordinators: Paula Santana, Maria da Graça Morais, Alice Delerue

Works that focus on transnational migratory movements, including their causes, their practical modalities, the challenges of integration of immigrant populations and the discrimination problems.

Identity issues arising from transnational migratory processes, including the socio-demographic dynamics of minority social groups, also fall within this thematic area.

coordinators: Jorge Malheiros, José Carlos Marques

Papers on residential mobility throughout the life cycle, in different social contexts (whether deprived or by choice), on the development of gentrified, peripheralized, ghettoized urban environments, the creation of new urban centralities, settlement in non-urban territories - all these papers fit in this thematic area. More specific questions on urban sub-systems (transport, education, other social equipment networks) may be appropriate, depending on the emphasis given to the population variable in the respective approaches. The social problem of homelessness is also included in this thematic area.

coordinators: Alda Azevedo, Paulo Machado

Works that deal in depth with the phenomenon of demographic ageing (through studies of population dynamics) and the phenomenon of individual ageing in contemporary societies and its different consequences (family, group and community). Also included are the themes realted to the concept of longevity.

coordinators: Stella Bettencourt da Câmara,Maria João Valente Rosa,José São José

Papers that reflect on what can be generally understood as interactions between demography and economics, namely the demographic and economic behaviour of families, in relation to their reproduction, consumption, intergenerational transfers, among other aspects of family dynamics as a productive unit and economic agent, including the impact of public social incentives on individual or family behaviour.

Work on the relations between the structure of the population and the labour market, on wage levels, professional mobility and discrimination is also considered, specially that on retirement and pension issues.

coordinators: Paula Albuquerque, Amilcar Moreira

Work aimed at studying the internal population movements, of settlement or departure, which have shaped the regions and their population, spatial, economic, social and cultural dynamics. Broad-ranging disciplinary studies, such as those on territories with low demographic density, demographic sustainability, settlement dynamics resulting from the creation of agro-industrial, industrial and technological centres, with emphasis on new regional centralities, and studies that address the emergence of new identities associated with these population movements fit in this area.

Work on local policies to support the settlement of families may also be appropriate here.

coordinators: Maria João Guardado Moreira, Maria Cristina Sousa Gomes

Both empirical studies and more theoretical reflections on the relationship between population and environmental conditions, particularly on the impact of climate change and environmental degradation on the lives of populations.

Studies on displacement resulting from environmental crises (natural or technological disasters), extreme meteorological phenomena, among other processes with high disruptive potential (rising average sea level, desertification, loss of biodiversity), and their differentiated impact on the lives of populations, generating adverse population dynamics, will be welcomed by this thematic area.

Likewise, works that reflect the role of the environment/environmental issues (and/or public environmental policies) in development processes (regional, rural).

coordinators: Susana Clemente, João Craveiro

Trabalhos que versam abordagens teóricas à população enquanto objeto científico e à Demografia enquanto sistema de produção científica, e de exploração de conceitos e métodos de diferentes campos e disciplinas científicas conexas com a ciência demográfica. Inclui ainda trabalhos de demografia histórica, de demografia política, de política demográfica, e estudos demográficos em perspetiva e comparação internacionais.

coordinators: Teresa Rodrigues, Ana Fernandes

The identification of thematic areas, which in some cases constitute scientific fields already recognised in Demography, has great advantages in terms of the organisation of an event such as the VI Portuguese Conference of Demography.
But, inevitably, it brings some risks, such as the difficulty in contemplating some papers, which are undoubtedly important, but whose characteristics are not easily framed. The development of demographic science itself will dictate, in the future, whether the creation of new thematic areas is justified, which may, perhaps, accommodate some of these papers.
A própria evolução da ciência demográfica ditará, no futuro, se se justifica a criação de novas áreas temáticas que, porventura, venham a acolher alguns destes trabalhos, que agora se poderão considerar, até, emergentes.