Abep in the political context and in the development of Demography in the 1960s and 1970s

Abstract

This article analyzes the context of the founding of ABEP in 1976 and the historical period during which this occurred, specifically, from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s, including the organization’s first national convention, held in 1978. To construct this context, the authors discuss several aspects of the debate that was going on in Brazil regarding the question of demographic growth, with emphasis on the political discussion occurring in the Brazilian Congress as of the second half of the 1960s. The authors also present a history of the emergence of technical and academic institutions that dealt with the field of Demography in Brazil at that time. The underlying objective of the article is to seek a clearer understanding of how an association based on stimulus and resources from abroad – in an international environment with great concern over demographic growth - and operating under an authoritarian military regime (although this latter was beginning to open up during the period studied) resulted in a broad and pluralistic organization of Demography in terms of the approaches used and the themes treated