Introduction

There can be no doubt that population changes and environmental changes influence one another. Within the last few decades, this commonsensical observation has given rise to hundreds of scientific articles and reports and the flow shows no sign of abating. The premise of this volume is that this literature forms the groundwork for a new and interdisciplinary field of studies that we call P-E analysis.
This volume on the methodology of P-E analysis is motivated by two factors. First, because P-E analysis is a new field of studies it needs like any other field of studies-to develop its own set of methods and analytical tools in order to arrive at meaningful substantive results. The second factor motivating this volume is the somewhat disappointing lack of consistent and generalizable findings after hundreds of P-E studies in different parts of the world over the past 15-20 years. We attribute this lack of more general findings not only to the inherent complexity of the issue but also to the lack of broadly accepted reference methodologies and standards that in other disciplines make it possible to compare one study to another and eventually obtain more general insights. Without such common points of reference, there is confusion and individual studies can at best be of anecdotal importance. This is where the present volume hopes to make its contribution. It presents some key approaches that have proven useful in P-E analysis and hence moves the field a bit further toward methodological consolidation....

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