Chapter 14
The Urban World, 9
th
Ed.
J. John Palen
Chapter 14: Developing Countries
• Introduction: The Urban Explosion
• Developing-Country Increases
• Rich Countries and Poor Countries
• Global Cities
• Characteristics of Third World Cities
• The 21 st Century
• Summary
Introduction: The Urban Explosion
• Roughly 90 percent of world population growth is taking place in cities
• Megacities
– Designated urban agglomerations with a population of 8 million or more
– In the 1990s the threshold was raised to 10 million
– Currently the United Nations lists 21 megacities and projects an additional 13 megacities by 2015
– Of the 414 million-plus cities, three-quarters are in the developing world
• Plan of Organization
– Particular cities may differ from the general pattern of urbanization
• Common or Divergent Paths?
– The ecology-modernization approach implies that there is a general pattern and that developing countries will in time follow the western model
– Contemporary urbanizaton in less-developed countries differs from that of North America and western Europe
• The pace of change has accelerated
• Industrialization often trails behind the rate of urban growth
• Having continued high rates of growth by natural increase
(births) as well as in-migration
• Still reflect the legacy of colonialism
Developing-Country Increases
• Roughly 70 percent of the world’s urban population of 3.5 billion live in developing countries
• The Population Reference Bureau projects that the world population in 2025 will be 8 billion people
• The combined population of the various developing countries is currently increasing by 73 million a year
• This population increase greatly exacerbates already serious problems, including those of economic development
• Exposure to alternatives and nontraditional ways of life create more demands
Figure 14.1
Population age of Developed Countries vs. Less Developed Countries,
2010
Rich Countries and Poor Countries
• Classification as a developing country, modernizing country, less-developed country, and third world country are polite ways of saying “poor country”
• The major distinction is that one category includes the “haves” and the other the “havenots”
• Less-developed country (LDC) status is not necessarily permanent since some former
“developing” nations have moved to the developed category
Global Cities
• Until roughly 50 years ago cities largely operated each within their own national market, rather than an international market
• Urban based multinational corporations now dominate the world economy
• This is the era of global cities; cities that wherever they are located, are oriented more to the needs of multinational corporations than to the needs of the city’s inhabitants
Characteristics of Third World Cities
• Youthful Age Structure
– LDCs had young age structures with between 30 to 40 percent of the population age 15 or younger
– The consequence is that their fewer resources have to be stretched to cover double the proportion of young dependents
• Multinationals
– In developing countries workers flood into the cities, not so much because of the availability of jobs, but because of the lack of opportunity in the rural areas and small villages
– Urban unemployment rates commonly exceed onequarter of the workforce
• The Informal Economy
– Refers to the small enterprises without access to credit, banks, or formally trained personnel
– Provides a safety net for workers when times are tough
• Squatter Settlements
– Decaying central-city slums and new squatter settlements often house one-third of the entire urban population
– Shanty towns that are “illegally” occupying the land on which they are built cannot demand city services
– Demolishing settlements and relocating the urban poor in new fringe settlements is often disastrous for the poor
• Primate Cities
– A primate city is a principal city overwhelmingly large in comparison with all other cities in the country
– Most primate cities owe their development to
European colonialism
– A primate city dominates the rest of its nation economically, educationally, politically, and socially
• Overurbanization?
– A loaded term that suggests that, for the nation’s level of economic development, there is too large a portion of the nation’s population residing in cities
– It can be argued that the rapid growth of cities is a positive sign of the social and economic development of an area
The 21
st
Century
• Cities in the developing world are going to continue to grow
• Squatter settlements are unavoidable
• Urban infrastructure will remain inadequate
• Political instability may be a serious problem in some countries
