The Urban World, 9 th Ed.

1. The Urban World, 9th Ed. J. John Palen

2. Chapter 14: Developing Countries • Introduction: The Urban Explosion • Developing-Country Increases • Rich Countries and Poor Countries • Global Cities • Characteristics of Third World Cities • The 21st Century • Summary

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. Figure 14.1 Population age of Developed Countries vs. Less Developed Countries, 2010

7. 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 “have-nots” • Less-developed country (LDC) status is not necessarily permanent since some former “developing” nations have moved to the developed category

8. 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

9. 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 one-quarter of the workforce

10. 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

11. 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

12. The 21st 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