Interdependent Urbanization in An Urban World, An Historical Overview - David Clark.1997

Interdependent Urbanization in an Urban World: An Historical Overview
Author(s): David Clark

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Source: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 164, No. 1 (Mar., 1998), pp. 85-95
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The
Geographical Journal,
Vol.
164,
No.
1,
March
1998, pp.
85-95
Interdependent
Urbanization in an Urban World:
an Historical Overview
DAVID CLARK
Geography SubjectArea,
Coventry University, Priory St, Coventy
CV1 5FB. E-mail:
d.clark@coventsy.ac.uk
This
paper
was
acceptedfor publication
in
April
1997
The distribution of the world's
population
is now more urban than rural.
Contemporary
and historical urban
patterns
are identified and their causes are evaluated. Urban devel-
opment
was
largely
confined to
developed
countries before
mid-century
but has
spread
to
developing
countries since. Both outcomes are seen as
interdependent consequences
of the
growth
and
geographical
extension of
capitalism.
The merits of the
interdepen-
dency theory
are assessed. Recent urbanization in Africa and Asia is a locational
response
to the new
global
economic order. Cities have
grown
because of the influx of
manufacturing
and service
jobs
from the
developed economies,
and the
in-migration
of
workers
displaced by agricultural adjustment.
The
prospects
for further urbanization
are considered.
KEY WORDS: world urban
development, urbanization, capitalism, globalism, interdependency theory.
T
HE LAST DECADE OF the twentieth
century
marks a
major
watershed in the evolution of
human
settlement,
for it
encompasses
the
period
during
which the location of the world's
people
became more urban than rural
(Clark, 1996).
Variations
among
countries in the
quality
of their
census data and in the
ways
in which urban areas are
defined mean that it is not
possible
to be
exact,
but it
is
likely
that 1996 was the
year
in which the
figure
of
50
per
cent urban was achieved.
Despite
its
symbolic
significance,
this historical event went
largely
unre-
cognized
and
unreported.
More of the 5.4 billion
inhabitants of the
globe
now live in urban settlements
than in
villages
and hamlets.1 No
longer
are towns
and cities
exceptional
settlement forms in
predomi-
nantly
rural societies. The world is an urban
place.
Urban
development
on this scale is a remarkable
geographical phenomenon.
Instead of
being spread
widely
and
thinly
across the surface of the habitable
earth,
a
population
that is urban is one in which vast
numbers of
people
are clustered
together
in
very
small areas. Levels of
urbanization, however,
are far
from uniform
(United Nations, 1991). They
are
high
across the
Americas,
most of
Europe, parts
of west-
ern Asia and Australia
(Fig. 1).
South America is the
most urban continent with the
population
in all but
one of its countries
(Guyana) being
more urban than
rural. More than 80
per
cent of the
population
live
in towns and cities in
Venezuela, Uruguay,
Chile
and
Argentina.
Levels of urban
development
are low
throughout
most of
Africa,
South and East Asia
(Brunn
and
Williams, 1993).
Fewer than one
person
0016-7398/98/0001-0085/$00.20/0
in three in sub-Saharan Africa is an urban dweller.
The
figure
is below 20
per
cent in
Ethiopia, Malawi,
Uganda,
Burkina
Faso,
Rwanda and Burundi.
Despite
the
presence
of some
large cities,
levels of
urban
development throughout
South and South
East Asia are low
(Dogan
and
Kasarda, 1989; 1990;
Chen and
Heligman, 1994).
An estimated 41
per
cent of China's 1.2 billion
people
and 29
per
cent of
India's 0.96 billion lived in towns and cities in 1995.
The
Himalayan kingdom
of Bhutan is reckoned to
be the world's most rural
sovereign state,
with
only
six
per
cent of its
population living
in towns and
cities.
The urban world has
emerged only very recently.
Towns and cities have existed for over
eight
millen-
nia,
but fewer than three
per
cent of the world's
pop-
ulation lived in urban
places
in 1800.
According
to
Davis
(1965; 1969)
it was around 27
per
cent in
1950,
by
which time most of the countries in what is
now
regarded
as the
developed
world were
predomi-
nantly
urban
(Fig. 2).
Urbanization as a
phenomenon
that
encompasses
the
majority
of the world's
popula-
tion is a
consequence
of a massive rise in the
percent-
age
of the
population
that is urban in the
developing
world, especially
in Africa and Asia
(Gugler, 1988;
Gilbert and
Gugler, 1992).
This shift in the locus of
urban
development
raises
far-reaching questions
con-
cerning
the causes of recent and current urbanization
in
developing
countries and its links with that in
developed
areas. This
paper explores
and
attempts
to
explain
such
patterns
and
relationships
in an histori-
cal context. It overviews the
principal stages
in the
? 1998 The
Royal Geographical Society
Percentage
of
population
O
-
19.9
X,
urban in 1995
' _ B
20-39.9
I[
A
40 -59.9"
m,
60
-
79.9
80-100
0
Fs
c
C3
E
o4
Percentage
of
population
urban in 1950
0- 19.9 L
20 - 39.9
[
40 -59.9
Ir
60- 79.9
80-100
E
Fig.
2. The
percentage of
world's
population
that was urban in 1950
--il ~ ~ ~ ~ . ........
.. .. ... .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . .
.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
INTERDEPENDENT URBANIZATION IN AN URBAN WORLD
evolution of the urban world and
suggests
that
they
can be
explained by
an
interdependency theory
of
global
urban
development.
Interdependency
theoy
Urban
development
is the
consequence
of
deep-
seated and
persistent processes
that enable and
encourage people
to amass in
geographical space.
Historically,
two
separate prerequisites
were neces-
sary:
the
generation
of
surplus products
that sustain
people
in
non-agricultural
activities
(Childe, 1950;
Harvey, 1973),
and the achievement of a level of
social
development
that allows
large
communities to
be
socially
viable and stable
(Lampard, 1965).
Urban
historians
suggest
that these
changes
took
place
simultaneously
in the Neolithic
period
when the first
cities
emerged
in the Middle East
(Wheatley, 1971).
It is further
thought
that the volume of
surplus pro-
duct
imposed
a
ceiling upon
urban
development
in
the
pre-industrial society (Sjoberg, 1960).
A second
coincidence of economic and social
change
was asso-
ciated with the rise of industrial
capitalism
in the late
eighteenth century.
This initiated
powerful processes
of urban
growth
and urbanization that led to the
emergence
of urban societies in Great
Britain,
North
West
Europe
and North America
(Pred, 1977).
Although they
may
explain
the
principal
historical
turning points,
theories of
self-generated
urbaniza-
tion do not and cannot account for the recent urban-
ization of
developing
countries. This occurred in a
world that was
already partly urbanized,
and the
sheer scale and
pace
of the
changes
involved
point
to
the
operation
of
widespread
and
powerful
non-local
forces. Structuralist
interpretations
advanced
by
Wallerstein
(1979)
and Goldfrank
(1979),
and elabo-
rated
by
Chase-Dunn
(1989),
Dicken
(1992)
and
Taylor (1993),
link recent
changes
in the roles and
organization
of the economies of
developing
coun-
tries to the
growth
and extension of
capitalism
in an
emerging
world
system
of nations. Urbanization can
similarly
be seen as an internal locational
response
to
the
absorption
of such areas within an
integrated
global economy (King, 1990; Timberlake, 1984;
1987). Capitalism produces
urbanization
by
concen-
trating production
and
consumption
in locations that
afford the
greatest
economies of
scale, agglomeration
and
linkage,
and where control over sources and
sup-
ply
can be exercised with maximum
effectiveness,
at
least cost
(Johnston, 1980).
An
important
feature of
this structuralist
interpretation
is the
emphasis
that is
placed
on historical
continuity.
The urbanization of
the
developing
world since
1950,
and of the deve-
loped
world before this
date,
have the same basic
causes.
They
are
interdependent consequences
of the
growth
and
expansion
of
capitalism.
Structuralists see the
spread
of
capitalism
to the
developing
world as the most recent
stage
in the
development
of
capitalism
as an economic
system
(Chase-Dunn, 1989).
It is a result of
changes
in the
ways
in which wealth is
accumulated,
and the evolu-
tion of the
world-system
of nations
(Table I).
The
former is a
product
of the
sequential
evolution of the
prevailing
economic formation from
mercantilism,
through
industrial and
monopoly capitalism,
to
transnational
corporate capitalism (Castells, 1977;
Goldfrank, 1979; Chase-Dunn, 1989).
It has its own
momentum in the form of the drive for
ever-higher
levels of
output
and
profit through
the
development
of new sources of wealth and units of
production.
It
is
characterized, according
to
proponents
of the
'reg-
ulation school'
(Boyer, 1990), by
the
periodic
emer-
gence
of
powerful
social and cultural
norms,
such as
Fordism and
post-Fordism,
which serve to
regulate
the
inherently
unstable course of accumulation
(Jessop, 1990; 1992; Lipietz, 1992).
The latter struc-
tural
development
is concerned with
geopolitics
and
involves the division of the world into
progressively
larger spheres
of economic association and
exchange
based
upon changing space
relations and
systems
of
supply (Taylor, 1993).
It is associated with the rise to
economic and
political
dominance of a small
group
of core nations led
by
the USA as the foremost
hege-
monic
power.
Interdependency theory proposes
a
single explana-
tion or
interpretation
for
urbanization,
whether in
developed
or in
developing
economies. It has echoes
in
dependency theory
which
explores
and
attempts
to account for the links between
development
in core
regions
and
underdevelopment
in the
periphery
(Frank, 1967; 1969; Hette, 1990). Dependency theory
suggests
that
underdevelopment
is a result of the
plunder
and
exploitation
of
peripheral
economies
by
economic and
political groups
in core areas.
Interdependency theory argues
that urban
develop-
ment,
wherever it
occurs,
is one of the
spatial
out-
comes of
capitalism.
When seen from the
developing
world,
most recent urbanization
appears
to be
'dependent',
in the sense that it is introduced or
imposed by
the
developed
world. From a
global
perspective, however,
all urbanization can be held to
be
interdependent
in that it stems
centrally
from
cap-
italism and its
spatial
relations. This is not to
say
that all urbanization has arisen in an identical
way
and
is, therefore,
the same in all countries.
Capitalism
has
adopted
different forms at different
times,
and is
regulated
in different
ways,
so
producing spatially
differentiated
patterns
of urban
development
at the
global
scale.
The
of
global
urban
development
can be criticized on four
principal
grounds.
The
first,
in common with structuralist
interpretations generally,
is that it is
stronger
on
sug-
gested
associations than on causal
linkages.
This is
especially important given
the debate between struc-
turalists who see such links as
arising directly
from
the mode of
accumulation,
and
regulationists
who
88
TABLE I
Principal stages
in
global
urban
development
1780-1880 1880-1950
Mode
of
accumulation
Economic formation
Source of wealth
Representative
unit of
production
World-system
characteristics
Space
relations
System
of
supply
Hegemonic powers
Urban
consequences
Level of urbanization at start of
period
(%)
Areas of urbanization
during period
Dominant cities
Industrial
capitalism
Manufacturing
Factory
Atlantic basin
Colonialism/imperialism
Britain
3
Britain
London
Monopoly capitalism
Manufacturing
Multi-national
corporation
Interational
State
imperialism
Britain,
USA
5
North-western
Europe,
the
Americas,
coasts of
Empires
London,
New York
Corporate capitalism
Manufacturing
and services
Transnational
corporation,
global factory
Global
Corporate imperialism
USA
27
Africa and Asia
New
York, London, Tokyo
trace their
origins
to social and cultural norms
through
which accumulation is
regulated (Roberts,
1995; Painter, 1995).
The fact that
capitalism
changed
at a time of massive urbanization does not
necessarily imply
a functional connection. Coincidence
is not the same as causation and the mechanisms
involved,
which
may vary
over time and
space,
are matters for detailed
empirical investigation
and
elaboration.
A second reservation is that urbanization in the
developing
world
lagged
so far behind that in the
developed
world that it cannot be
regarded
as
part
of
the same
process.
Britain was an urban industrial
society
for
three-quarters
of a
century
before
any
ter-
ritory
in what is now the
developing
world
passed
the
50
per
cent urban
threshold,
and the urbanization of
most of the
developing
world did not
gather
real
momentum until after 1950. It is
important,
how-
ever,
to
place
urbanization in its context of
space
and
time. Global urbanization involves massive shifts in
the distribution of
population
over a wide area and is
inherently
a slow
process.
It is
perhaps
no accident
that
self-sustaining
urban
development
first occurred
in Great
Britain;
a
very
small
country
where forces of
urban
growth
were concentrated
(Carter
and
Lewis,
1991).
A sense of
perspective
is also
important.
When
looking
back over the last two centuries from the
present, lags
of a few decades
appear
to be of
major
significance.
In the context of
eight
millennia of
urban
history they
are trivial.
A third criticism is that
undervalues the rich traditions of urban
development,
supported by non-capitalist
economic
systems
that
existed in
many developing
countries.
Highly
success-
ful urban civilizations existed in ancient
Egypt, India,
China, Cambodia, Peru,
Mexico and
Nigeria
in
states and economic
systems
that were
religious,
military
or feudalistic in formation.
Independency
theory, however, recognizes
the achievements of
non-capitalist economies, although
it is
argued
that
they
were incidental to
global
urban
development.
Levels of
productivity
and
surplus
in
early
urban
hearthlands were never
high enough
to facilitate self-
sustaining
urban
development,
and so their
impor-
tance was localized. Rather than
denying
and
devaluing
their
contribution, interdependency theory
provides
a
powerful explanation
as to
why
non-
industrial urban economies were not more successful.
The final criticism is that
capitalist
theories do lit-
tle more than state the obvious and often in a lan-
guage
that serves to obscure rather than to
clarify.
Capitalism
is the
prevailing
economic formation in
most countries. To
say
that it causes urbanization is
to advance
explanation
and
understanding very
little
as all social
outcomes,
both structural and
spatial,
are
the
products
of
capitalism.
Such
arguments
have
some
validity
at the most
general
level but
they
fail to
distinguish
between
capitalism
as an
underlying prin-
ciple
and
capitalism
as a
specific
and
evolving
eco-
nomic formation. The value of
interdependency
theory
lies not in its foundations in
capitalism per se,
but in the links that it
proposes
between successive
stages
in the evolution of
capitalism
and urban deve-
lopment
across the world.
The urbanization
of
the
developed
world
The extent to which urbanization in the
developed
and
developing
worlds is an
interdependent
conse-
quence
of the evolution of
capitalism
and its
chang-
ing space
relations becomes clear with historical
analysis.
A useful
starting point
is Weber's classic
work on The
growth of
cities in the nineteenth
century
(1899). Mapping
data of
questionable quality,
relat-
ing
in some cases to
long-forgotten countries, pro-
vides
only
the crudest of
indications,
but the limited
extent of urbanization at the
global
scale is clear
(Fig.
3). Only
three areas in Great
Britain,
North-West
Europe
and the USA were more than 20
per
cent
89
1950-
c
0
3
0O
L
o0
?0 cn 0 0 0 0
o
co .
o
T-
c
s
cn o
0) CO 0 ) 0
r3
D)
a-
90
urban in 1890. With less than three
per
cent of the
world's
population living
in towns and
cities,
there
was little or no urban
development
in most other
territories.
Urbanization in the
developing
world was
restricted to concentrations of
population
around
points
of
supply.
The industries of the
developed
economies used domestic coal and iron ore to build
and
power
machines to
process cotton, sugar, jute,
rubber, tobacco, wheat,
tea and rice
imported
from
imperial
territories. The accumulation of these
agri-
cultural commodities led to limited urban
develop-
ment in
developing
countries that was not detectable
at the
global
scale. 'Sao Paulo
grew
on the basis of
coffee,
Accra on
cocoa,
Calcutta on
jute,
cotton and
textiles,
and Buenos Aires on
mutton,
wool and cere-
als'
(Gilbert
and
Gugler,
1992:
47).
Urban
develop-
ment in association with
agricultural supply similarly
took
place
in the West Indies and
Indonesia,
Malaysia
and the Far East
(King, 1990). Although
cities were established
along
the coasts of
empire,
these
developments
did little to
change
the over-
whelmingly
rural distribution of the local
population.
Industrial
capitalism
was succeeded
by monopoly
capitalism
towards the end of the nineteenth
century
(Wallerstein, 1979).
It was
distinguished by
a
vastly
increased scale of economic
activity
and the domina-
tion of
newly-created
international
markets,
within
state-controlled
empires, by
a small number of
pro-
ducers in each sector.
Monopoly capitalism emerged
in
response
to the demand for
products
that was
gen-
erated
by
the
rapidly growing population
of the
industrial nations. This stimulated manufacturers to
diversify
from
making heavy,
crude
products
into the
mass
production
of a wide
range
of consumer
goods
and services. Increased
output
occurred both because
the core economies in
Europe
became more
produc-
tive,
and because the
manufacturing
belt of the USA
attained core status
alongside Britain, France,
Germany
and the Low Countries
during
the 1880s
(Chase-Dunn, 1989).
It was achieved
through
the
consolidation of
many factory enterprises
into multi-
national
corporations
that
typically engaged
in
many
functions in
many areas,
both at home and in the
periphery.
Monopoly capitalism
involved the ruthless
exploitation
of
peripheral
areas. The
larger
scale of
industrial
activity required
the international
sourcing
of raw materials and
marketing
of manufactured
products,
so the success of the core
regions
became
dependent
on their
ability
to dominate and control
overseas territories. This was either
through
formal
imperialism,
or else
through corporate power
and
influence. Britain established itself as the
leading
imperial power
after about
1880,
when it increas-
ingly
drew its industrial raw materials
including ores,
oil and rubber from around the world and in return
supplied
its overseas
possessions (in India, Africa,
the
Far East and other
territories)
with
railways, ships,
machinery,
arms and motor vehicles.
Similarly,
the
USA
rapidly
became a
major
international
player
after 1909
when, symbolically, Selfridges
store was
opened
in Oxford
Street, London,
at the
very
centre
of the dominant
power
in the world
economy (King,
1990). Thereafter, many major
US
corporations
developed
international
spheres
of
operation.
Monopoly capitalism produced
further urban
growth
and urbanization in an
expanded core,
although
urban
development
in the
periphery
remained limited. Precise
comparison
of the urban
world in 1890
(Fig. 3)
with that in 1950
(Fig. 2)
is
inappropriate
because of the
quality
of the
data,
but
the broad
pattern
of
change
is clear. Urbanization in
the first half of the twentieth
century
occurred most
rapidly
and
extensively
in
Europe,
the Americas and
Australasia. Most of the rest of the world was unaf-
fected.
Urban
development
between 1890 and 1950 is
explained by processes
of
population
concentration
that were associated with the economic and
political
imperialism
of the United
States, Russia,
the United
Kingdom
and France.
High
levels of urban
develop-
ment in
Canada,
South and Central America were a
legacy
of British trade
and,
more
recently, corporate
links with the USA. Limited urban
development
existed across the Russian
empire
in
Asia,
Central
and Eastern
Europe.
Urbanization elsewhere in the
periphery
was
largely
a localized
product
of British
and French
imperialism. Although only
a
quarter
of
the
population
lived in urban
places,
the
principal
feature of the urban
world,
in
1950,
was that the
cycle
of urbanization in the
developed
countries
was,
or was
very nearly, complete (Davis, 1965).
In most
developing
countries it had
hardly begun.
The new economic order
The
developing
world has urbanized since 1950 as a
consequence
of a new economic order
resulting
from
the
reorganization
of
production, labour, finance,
service
provision
and
competition,
on a transnational
basis. Over the
past
half
century,
an
increasing
share
of
production
has been
organized globally
rather
than within the narrow confines of nation-states or
empires (UNCTC, 1993).
Much
production
has
shifted to the
developing
world both as a means of
penetrating
local markets and in order to use
cheap
labour to make
goods
for sale in the core economies
and elsewhere
(Frobel
et
al., 1980; Sit, 1993). Examples
include electronic
goods, drugs,
motor
vehicles,
clothing,
machine tools and domestic
appliances.
At
the same
time,
several countries in the
developing
world have
expanded
their
manufacturing capabili-
ties,
and the firms in these
newly-industrialized
economies have
captured
markets for their
products
in the
developed
world
(Lo, 1994).
The
production
of some foodstuffs has also been
reorganized
on a
91
commercial basis so that it can be
exchanged globally.
Domestic
agricultural production
in
many develop-
ing
countries has been
replaced by production
for
export,
a beneficial
consequence,
as far as
global
capitalists
are
concerned, being
that it
generates
cur-
rency
that can be used to
purchase
more
imports
and so increase external
dependency.
The transnationalization of
production
involves
the manufacture of
global products,
with
global
brand
names,
which are assembled across the world
from
components
made in a number of countries
(Dicken, 1992; Dunning, 1992).
It is achieved
by
direct investment
by
firms from the core economies
in
developing
countries where
they
can take advan-
tage
of
large pools
of
very
cheap
labour. A new
pat-
tern of
specialization
has
emerged
that owes less to
traditional distinctions between core and
periphery
and more to the
jobs
that workers
perform
within
transnational
corporate empires.
The basis of the
new international division of labour is the direct
employment
of
large
numbers of workers in low-cost
overseas territories to
perform
standard
production
tasks
(Cohen, 1981; Feagin
and
Smith, 1987).
Rather
than
peripheral supply
and core area
processing,
which was the
pattern
under industrial and mono-
poly capitalism,
the new economic order is one of
peripheral production
and
manufacturing,
and core
area
research, development, design,
administration
and control
(Castells, 1992).
This
pattern
was made
possible by,
and in turn
gave
rise
to,
a new
pattern
of international finance. A
global system
of
supply
and circulation has
emerged
in recent
years
in
place
of the bilateral
funding
arrangements,
tied to
trading
blocs and dominated
by governments,
that existed at
mid-century.
The
new
system
is directed and controlled
by
the
economies of the
developed
world
through
a small
number of
powerful banks,
finance houses and
exchanges
which rank
alongside
transnational
corpo-
rations as
global
institutions
(Thrift, 1987;1989).
The world cities in which
they
are located are the
command and control
points
of the
global economy
(Sassen, 1994;
Knox and
Taylor, 1994).
Developments
in
production
and finance are
sup-
ported by
the
growth
of the international service
economy (Daniels, 1991; 1993).
Service activities that
were once
domestically
bound have
reorganized
on
an international basis in order to serve the needs of
businesses
operating
across the
globe (Warf, 1989).
This trend is reflected in the rise of the advanced
producer
services
sector,
which includes
insurance,
accountancy,
real
estate, legal, advertising,
research
and
development, public
relations and
management
consultancy
firms. Global business is further facil-
itated
by
means of the
organization
of
employee
services, including
hotel
accommodation,
car hire
and
personal finance,
on an international basis.
The new economic order
emerged alongside,
as
part-cause
and
part-consequence,
of a new
political
geography (Taylor, 1993). By
far the most
important
feature was the
ending
of
imperialism by Britain,
France, Belgium
and the Netherlands and the attain-
ment of
political independence by many
colonial
territories in Africa and Asia between 1950 and 1980
(Corbridge, 1993).
This added further
changes
to the
political map,
which had been transformed
during
the 1940s
by
the
post-war redrawing
of boundaries
in
Europe
and
by
the withdrawal of the British from
the Indian sub-continent.
Together
these
develop-
ments
produced
a
large
number of new nation-states
that were keen to
participate
in the world
economy
in order to
enjoy
the benefits of trade and Aid. The
new
pattern
was created in conditions of relative
peace
and
prosperity, certainly
in
comparison
with
those that
prevailed
in the
previous
half
century
with
its two world wars and numerous
regional
conflicts.
The urbanization
of
the
developing
world
The new economic order is
principally responsible
for the recent
rapid
urbanization of the
periphery
(Timberlake, 1984; 1987).
Transnational
corporate
capitalism produced
and is
producing
urbanization
in the
periphery
both
directly,
as a
consequence
of
urban
growth
in
response
to localized
investment,
and
indirectly, through
its
impact
on traditional
pat-
terns of
production
and
employment.
The former
arises because economic
exchanges
between core
and
periphery
are
spatially
focused and so lead to a
concentration of
globally-related
economic
activity
in
urban
places. Cities, especially
national
capitals
and
those with
major ports
or international
airports,
offer
overwhelming advantages
for
profitable investment,
affording
wide access to
cheap
labour and to domes-
tic markets. Such
places
are
typically
the
major
and
in some cases the
only
centres in the
country
for
large-scale
industry, hospitals, universities,
media
services and facilities for
sport
and the arts. As
cosmopolitan
centres with
good
external connections
they
are attractive to
corporate managers
and
spe-
cialist workers on overseas
postings. They
are
likely
to be the home base of local elites that
shape
behav-
iour and
consumption patterns
towards which others
in the
country aspire.
The urban concentration of
foreign
investment-led
economic
activity
is
high
across much of the
peri-
phery.
In
Indonesia,
Forbes and Thrift
(1987)
found
that overseas investment was
largely
restricted to the
area aroundJakarta where all
major foreign corpora-
tions had their
headquarters. Abidjan,
the
capital
of
the
Ivory Coast,
has 15
per
cent of the national
pop-
ulation but accounts for more than 70
per
cent of all
economic and commercial transactions in the coun-
try. Bangkok
accounts for 86
per
cent of Gross
National Product in
banking,
insurance and real
estate,
and 74
per
cent of
manufacturing,
but has
only
13
per
cent of Thailand's
population. Lagos,
92
with 5
per
cent of
Nigeria's population,
accounts for
57
per
cent of total Value Added in
manufacturing
and has 40
per
cent of the nation's
highly
skilled
labour
(Kasarda
and
Parnell, 1993).
Urbanization is also
taking place
as an indirect
consequence
of the
impact
of transnational
corporate
capitalism upon
the economies of
developing
coun-
tries. The central
argument
here is that
adjustments
in economic structure are enforced as the
price,
or
penalty,
for
incorporation
within the world
economy.
These lead to the release of
large
numbers of workers
from traditional
occupations,
who flock into the
towns and cities and so contribute to urban
growth
and urbanization. Peasant farmers are foremost
amongst
those whose livelihoods are undermined
by
the drive for
production
of
goods
that will
generate
foreign currency,
both to
help
reduce national
indebtedness and to enable
governments
to
acquire
the
symbols
of statehood such as
grand presidential
palaces
and national airlines.
Many
have been
displaced
from their traditional lands and means of
subsistence
by
the introduction of commercial
agri-
culture that is
geared
to the
production
of exotic
fruits,
flowers and out-of-season
vegetables
for devel-
oped
world consumers
(Susman, 1989). They
include
large
numbers of the
very poor
who have no alterna-
tive sources of
employment
and must look to the
city
for survival.
Droughts
and civil
wars, especially
in
parts
of Africa have further undermined the
viability
of traditional
farming, leading
to increased rural -
urban
migration.
The
policies
of
post-colonial governments
stimu-
late urban
growth by
further
enhancing
the attrac-
tiveness of towns and cities at the
expense
of rural
areas
(Auty, 1995).
One
way
is
through
the
exagger-
ated bias of
government expenditures
on infrastruc-
ture and services in favour of urban areas. Another is
the
higher wage
rates and better
employment protec-
tion that exist in cities because urban workers are
organized
into trade unions. A third is the decline in
the demand for
locally-produced staples
as urban
consumers
develop
a taste for
imported
food items.
Such
policies
are
creating
'backwash urbanization'
by destroying
the
vigour
of rural areas and suffocat-
ing
the cities with the burden of the human casualties
this
process
creates. The
implications
are seen in the
rapid growth
and dire social and environmental
conditions of
many
cities and others in the develo-
ping
world that are
swamped by large
numbers of
in-migrants looking
for work and welfare
(Berry,
1973).
Many
of the urban
consequences
of the
absorption
into the
global economy
are
exemplified by
Zimbabwe,
a
country
that attained formal sover-
eignty
in 1980 after 15
years
of
unilaterally
declared
independence (Drakakis-Smith, 1992).
The modern
urban
system
in Zimbabwe
emerged
under settler
colonialism to facilitate the
export
of various
commodities and the
import
of consumer
goods.
Cities were dominated
by
the White
minority
in the
country,
and other than those
employed
in domestic
service and a
very
small number in
industry
and ser-
vice
activities,
Blacks were
prohibited
unless
they
had
a
job
and accommodation. In the
countryside,
some
Blacks worked for White farmers but most were
engaged
in subsistence
agriculture.
The
population
was 17
per
cent urban in 1970. The
favouring
of the
White
colonialists, however,
meant that social and
health care services were
city-based,
and
significant
differences in standards of
provision
existed between
urban and rural areas.
This basic
pattern
was transformed
during
the
1970s as a
consequence
of increased
foreign
invest-
ment and the
opening up
of external markets for the
products
of Zimbabwe's farms and factories.
Urbanization occurred
through
net
in-migration
to
jobs
in
cities,
as the
manufacturing
sector increased
its contribution to the Gross National Product from
10
per
cent in 1965 to 24
per
cent in 1980
(Stoneman, 1979).
At the same
time,
the mechaniza-
tion of
many
of the
larger
commercial
farms,
and
their increase in
size, generated
a
surplus
of Black
labour in rural areas. Movement into the cities
increased
significantly
after 1980 when the
legislation
permitting ownership
and residence in cities was
relaxed and removed.
Many traditionally
White
areas of Zimbabwe's cities
rapidly
became Black
(Cumming, 1990).
Urban
growth
was
compounded
when families were reunited and birth rates rose.
Some 31
per
cent of the
population
was
thought
to
live in urban
places
in 1995 and the
population
of
Greater Harare was in excess of 1.5 million. The
recent
rapid
urbanization in
Zimbabwe,
in common
with
many
African and Asian
countries,
is a conse-
quence
of structural and associated
spatial changes
that are associated with the transformation of a rural
subsistence into an urban-based and
politically
inde-
pendent
commercial
economy,
which is
incorporated
within the
global
economic
system.
Detailed evidence on the links between
global
production
and urbanization in
developing
countries
is
presently fragmentary.
The research that has been
undertaken
points
to the existence of a
general
relationship
between
incorporation
within a
global
corporate capitalist economy
and urban
growth,
but
with wide variations from
country
to
country.
Taiwan, Singapore
and
Korea,
where there is a clear
connection,
and
China,
where urban
development
is
largely
a
consequence
of rural
changes
associated
with economic
liberalization, perhaps represent
the
extremes. It is
important
also to
distinguish
within
the
periphery
between
experiences
in South
America,
where levels of urban
development
are
historically high,
and Africa and
Asia,
where
they
are
low. Both
regions
have been affected
by
the same
adjustments
associated with the
emergence
of the
93
new economic
order,
but with different conse-
quences.
The effects in the former have
largely
been
to consolidate
existing
urban
patterns by compound-
ing growth
in
existing
centres. In Africa and Asia
they
have created and accelerated urban
develop-
ment where little existed before.
Conclusions
This
paper
has identified and
attempted
to account
for the
processes responsible
for the creation of the
contemporary
urban world. The urbanization of
developed
countries took
place
before
mid-century,
and in the
developing
world has occurred
since,
but
it is
argued
that the causes are similar and related.
Both stem
interdependently
from the advance of
capitalism
and its
spatial
relations. The settlement
patterns
in most
developing
countries have been
transformed in recent
years
as external investments
have created
jobs
in cities and as
workers, displaced
from the land because of the switch from subsistence
to commercial
agriculture,
have
migrated
to urban
areas. Such
changes
are seen as
consequences
of the
progressive incorporation
of their economies within
the
global corporate capitalist economy.
Attempts
to
explain global patterns
raise
many
contentious issues that merit wider consideration.
Theorists will debate the
concept
of
'underdevelop-
ment',
the reasons for the rise and
reproduction
of
capitalism,
and the extent to which individual coun-
tries or
parts
of countries in Africa and Asia are
incorporated
within the
global economy
and world
system
of nations.
They may suggest
that the mode
of
regulation
is a more
important
factor in urbaniza-
tion than the
stage
of
capital
accumulation.
Associations between
global change
and urbaniza-
tion have been
explored
for evidence of the
validity
of the
interdependency theory,
but further research
is
required
before the links can be
regarded
as con-
crete and causal rather than
ephemeral
and coinci-
dental.
Empiricists
will
query
the
reliability
of urban
data,
the definition of urban
places
and the extent to
which urbanization is a localized or
widespread phe-
nomenon within countries.
Urbanization
represents
the
largest
shift in the
distribution of
population
in
history.
Such are its
complexities
that
many
will
question
the
purpose
and
value of
trying
to make
meaningful
statements about
the location of over 2.7 billion
people.
The need for
high-order generalization
and
explanation, however,
is
likely
to increase as the
pace
of urban
change
quickens, especially
in Africa and
Asia,
with far-
reaching implications
for environmental sustainabil-
ity
and social welfare. It took over
eight
millennia for
half the world's
population
to become urban. Present
predictions
suggest that it will take less than 80
years
for this
process
to
encompass
most of the remainder.
Endnote
1This
paper
is based on estimates of urban
popula-
tions abstracted from the United Nations 1991
report
on World urbanization
prospects.
The
highly
variable
quality
and
reliability
of world urban data
are
emphasized
in the United Nations'
Demographic
yearbook
for 1994 and in the World Bank's World deve-
lopment
report
for 1993. For a
general
discussion see
Goldstein
(1994).
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Interdependent Urbanization in An Urban World, An Historical Overview - David Clark.1997

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