The need for a multidisciplinary approach

Demography, as well all disciplines focusing on man such as economics, sociology, epidemiology or medicine, face the same dilemma: its units of observation (individual or collective) are multidimensional systems, whose many components define a single entity, which takes decisions, experiences events and influences its environment. The various disciplines as we currently know them are simply different points of view from which we observe these units. As a consequence, in order to explain the behavior of and events lived by each unit studied, all dimensions of that unit must be taken into account, and no single dimension considered as exclusive (or more important than the others). The need for a multidisciplinary approach is not, therefore, unique to demography. It is, perhaps, simply more apparent, more acute in this discipline, for reasons that can be seen as constraints, but also as opportunities.The future demographer would be able not only to describe reality correctly, but also to explain it, highlighting causal processes, as well as the relationships between variables, and, when interpreting results, to reorganize their macro and micro dimensions within a coherent framework. This is without doubt an ambitious project, liable to involve considerable time and resources. Demography could thus become the first of the social sciences to revitalize its teaching practices, aiming for a better grasp of complexity, and thereby making the demographer of the future a true “population specialist”.