4 URBANIZATION PROCESS IN DEVELOPED AND LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

Dr. Taruna Bansal

1. Introduction:

Urbanization, in very simple terms means the proportion of a national population living in urban places. Numerous attempts and approached have been put forward to understand this spatial dimension which is basically an outcome of the industrial and technological revolution. Urbanization is basically a process of population concentration; a phenomenon which results in change in the places where people reside due to changing condition in society at large. These changes occur in two ways – one through the multiplication of the sites where the population tends to concentrate and secondly by the increase in size of such population sites (Tisdale, 1942). For Fielding (1982) urbanization occurs in a place where there is a direct relationship between the urban system and its hinterland; resulting into a further association between the rate of net migratory growth of settlements and size of the urban centers. The study of urbanization in broader terms entails an examination of the factors which initiate and sustain this process and then even studies its implication on the society. In contrast, the study of cities and city life focuses on the product of the change introduced by the urbanization in a localized context regardless of the size of the urban system under study. One could suggest that the study of urbanization represents the macro-level and the study of cities and urban affairs the micro-level of interrelated phenomena along a continuum, rather than a single or two separate phenomena.

2. Meaning of Urbanization:

Urbanization as a concept is studied by all the social scientists and a review of these provide four interpretations of urbanization-

i.   Behavioural

ii.   Structural

iii.  Demographic

iv.  Geographical

i. Behavioural: This interpretation was basically given by sociologists and it started with the work of Louis Wirth who published a paper called “Urbanism – a way of life” in 1938. He said that all the urban studies were denoted to city level studies and it was very quantifiable work where they were measuring certain dimensions of the cities. The measurement of cities is not enough here rather there should exist a theory of cities which should be based on the behavior of social groups – over a period of time and how an individual behaves during this time within the city. There are three things within the city which affect the social groups-

a) Size (relations between the different members of the city): The city with a big size leads to and segregation of people from each other. Due to this the relationship between two persons becomes impersonal and is characterized by competition rather than complementary or friendly. As a result the city life leads to anomie i.e. one is lost in a crowd.

b) Density: Cities have very high densities and this leads to great contrasts where wealth and poverty live side by side, and, this ultimately leads to mutual exploitation.

c) Diversification: There are too many different types of people coming and living in the cities thus, breaking the caste and creed boundaries because the ability to earn is less rigid. But, it also leads to a lot of role confusion and conflict

Sociologists have taken these elements into consideration and developed many theories under the cover of Theories of Social Change. These theories basically opine that when rural population shifts to urban areas than the society in urban areas is characterized with industrialization, role differentiation and division of labour. Over the period of time the process of social change of rural population in urban areas has also attracted their attention.

ii. Structural: Urbanization is the process when agricultural communities are transformed into industrial communities and since all the industrial communities live in urban areas, it is also a process of urbanization. This is a result of industrialization and economic development. So they are trying to see how occupational structure takes place (agricultural to non-agricultural).

iii. Demographic: Rural settlements being transformed into urban settlements therefore, the scholars who interpret urbanization from this perspective try to understand it from the point of view of migration and thus, deal with population mobility. For them urbanization is a process which takes place because of- Growth of individual towns Multiplications of towns

iv. Geographical: The geographers do the spatial analysis of urbanization to understand all the phenomena occurring within the city in spatial framework and also look into their distribution.

These interpretations suggest that urbanization should be looked at from three aspects:

a) Urban centers as the hub of social and economic forces that directly affect the processes like industrialization, economic development and modernization.

b) Development of a system of cities – is a hierarchical arrangement of cities from higher to lower orders.

c) Growth of individual towns both in terms of population and physical expansion.

3. Theories of Urbanization:

The inclusion of the notion of “modernization” into the concept of development, cultural anthropologists, psychologists, and other behavioral scientists have expanded the interdisciplinary search for an improved understanding of urbanization and its impact on society. One of the first theories on urbanization was put forward in 1954-55 after a seminar was held in the University of Chicago. In their paper, Redfield and Singer divided the cities into two types based on the observations of the French historian Henry Pirenne. He divided the cities into orthogenetic and heterogenetic type; the former being the loci of traditions and were mainly pre-industrial cities while the latter ones were the seats of industrial capitalism.

Bert Hoselitz (1960) uses the review of other researchers as the basis to suggest that a great number of scholars, unfortunately, are expressing views in which they envisage the opinion that ‘the development of underdeveloped countries depends not merely upon adoption of the economic and technological procedures of the more advanced countries as well as also resembling them in the social structure’. He quotes that there are two types of cities as well as urbanization. Cities are either generative (contribute to the economic development of its hinterland) or parasitic (sucks the resources of the hinterland). Similarly urbanization is of two kinds – primary (which develops without being in contact with different cultures, therefore folk culture is transformed into urban culture) and secondary (develops as result of contact with other cultures thus local culture is shadowed).

Fred W. Riggs (1961) stressed on the necessity of recognizing the correlation between the progressive formalization of institutional arrangements in societies on one hand, and the level of economic development on the other, in the formulation of successful policies and programs.

Simon Kuznets (1963) emphasizes that there is no inevitable technical connection between industrialization and urbanization, suggesting that it is technically possible to combine the pursuit of agriculture with urbanization and the pursuit of modern industry with rural living.

Friedman (1973) cited that all cities were sites of innovation, organizers of political, economic and cultural space and demographic change. Therefore development of a system of cities will always lead to economic development.

All the above mentioned hypothesis lead us to understand that in what context the process of urbanization should be defined so that it becomes easier to understand the factors that generate and sustain urbanization as well as urban growth. It is of crucial necessity as even today when nearly 50 per cent of the population is residing in urban settlements throughout the world we lack an integrative theoretical framework on urbanization. As a result in most of the countries especially developing ones, the process of urbanization is guided through national development policies. The purpose of doing this is twofold – firstly this would channelize the process in such a manner that it would facilitate the processes of modernization and economic development and secondly, would also reduce the negative effects of rapid urbanization.

Usually the examples are cited from the experiences of the developed countries but one has to be cautious here, as before doing this one needs to seek answers to the following two questions. First does the fragmented knowledge of the unplanned processes of industrialization, urbanization and modernization in the developed world provide us with suffice theoretical base to formulate policies on urbanization and urban development. Second, if so, the models generated, are applicable to the situations and conditions found in the developing countries.

Before searching for these answers, we have to again do a retrospective study which clearly states that over the period of time the meaning of urbanization itself has changed. The concept of urbanization as a process of urban growth has been replaced by urbanization as an instrument of social change and development (Jacobson and Ved Prakash, 1971). In othermwords, now cities were no more agents of economic development and growth rather became agents of change, modernization and innovation. A strategic view of urbanization came forward which emphasized on urbanization as a positive element in the process of national development. This interpretation may provide a theoretical base for the formulation of urbanization policies as it has its roots in Fourastie’s (1963) Three Sector Theory.

The Three Sector Theory simply discusses urbanization as the process where there is occupation migration of the economically active population. In the current age of industrialization, urbanization denotes the transitory phase in the history of mankind where societies transform from primary (agriculture based) to tertiary (service based) civilizations. Jacobson and Prakash relate their concept of the process of urbanization with this theory and suggest that urbanization follows a rising S-curve from a level of 10 per cent or less urbanization to 80 per cent or more urbanization.

Figure 1

S-Shaped Curve of Urbanization

     The social scientists who were working in the third world countries gave a new perspective to the theory of urbanization. They said one should study-

International dependency relationship between the third world countries and the developed countries.

The impact of development in the advanced countries on the third world countries.

This came from the studies in Latin America, which was divided into a large number of third world countries with huge natural resources (Brazil, Argentina) and U.S.A was using these resources for its own development.

It was a neo-colonial situation after WW-II.

One of the most important theories in this regard was given by Terry Mcgee. His theory is known as the Dependency Theory of Urbanization. There are two postulates in this thheory which explain an elaborate pattern of urbanization-

Capitalist societies establish an outpost in the depended countries. These outposts are generally port cities which are established for three purposes:

To extract primary products

To expand market for goods and services produces by advanced countries To ensure a stable indigenous political system which will resist anti-Kist ideologies (anti-communism)

An urban system that develops consists of following:

Primate cities which are satellites of the advanced countries

Development of regional satellites which act as a point of transshipment for raw material and manufactured goods.

These theories clearly state that the process of urbanization has been experienced differently in developed and developing countries. Therefore, the models used to explain the process in developed countries cannot be replicated in the developing ones. In the next section we will be studying how is this process is different in two worlds.

4. A Comparative Analysis of Process of Urbanization in Third World Countries and Developed Countries (19th Century and First Half of the 20th Century)

Developed countries:

The process of urbanization in developed countries was characterized with the following components –

   Ø There was a high rate of increase in per capita product (15-30 per cent). This was because efficiency in production was increasing in the manufacturing sector.

Ø There was a substantial growth in population (10 per cent per decade), because death rate was declining as a result of medical advancements.

Ø There was structural change in the relative importance of different sectors of the economy.

decline in the proportion of workers in agriculture because production efficiency had increased maximum in this sector.

shift towards manufacturing and utilities (water supply, electricity, sewerage, transport, power generation) within manufacturing also there was a shift from production of the consumer to capital goods.

increase in people engaged in professions like doctors, engineers, architecture, scientists etc.

Ø  There was a high rate of expansion in foreign trade.

Ø  The change in the average size of production unit from small to big and from unorganized to organized.

Ø  There  was very significant  rural to urban migration because  of advancement  in  the agricultural sector and factory towns started developing.

Moreover, after the invention of coal, industrial towns developed near mines and raw material sources and started production of engineering goods and the invention of railways, made the industries foot-loose in nature. Port and coastal towns started developing. In 1920’s and 30’s, electrical goods industries became prominent and they preferred a location near the market and simultaneously services sector and professing became important. The electronic goods were also located near the market. The nature of the industries became predominantly foot-loose. The advancements in telecommunication further gave impetus to this process.

Kingsley Davis plotted levels of urbanization for many advanced countries and came to conclusion that all the advanced countries follow the S- shape curve path of the urbanization. They experienced three stages –

A. There were low levels of urbanization (10 – 12 per cent) when industries were near rivers in rural areas. Due to industrialization there was little increase in the levels of urbanization (15 – 18 per cent).

B. The invention of steam engine led to the development of factory towns with Iron and steel and textiles as important industries. Because of this level of urbanization started growing at very fast rate. Number of towns came up with industries like Iron and steel and textile, Engineering goods, Electrical and Electronics.

C. By 1920s the process of urbanization is changed by sub-urbanization but at a very slow pace; because the underground railways were set up in major cities. Moreover, after the 1920’s, automobiles especially cars became more affordable making it convenient to live in the suburbs.

In post 2000, there is a perceptible decline in the level of urbanization in these countries as people don’t even have to go to work places due to new work culture.

Less Developed Countries:

The countries that generally come came under this category were basically colonies. These countries were characterized with the following features –

Ø Development of only port cities with the rest of the country having very low levels of urbanization.

Ø In last 60 years population growth in developed countries has increased 2.7 per cent times while in third world countries it has increased by 6.5 per cent times.

Ø Major urbanization in the third world countries but this is taking place in the backdrop of low levels of economic development and industrialization.

Ø There were very low levels of life expectancy, education and energy consumption.

Ø  There is massive rural-urban migration but for different reasons.

When in 1960s scholars started analyzing the process of urbanization in the less developed countries they said that these countries were repeating the process which developed countries have undergone. But, Terry McGee (1979) in his works differed from this opinion and said that in the third world or less developed countries the process of urbanization may look the same to that of developed countries, in terms of statistic interpretation but in effect the process is not at all similar. He says that the differences can be carved out from three points of view-

1. Demographic: the process of population growth can be studied on the basis of the theory given by William Peterson (1975) which identifies three population types on the basis of birth rate. Death rate and infant mortality rate. These are:-

a) Pre- industrial phase: In this phase all the indicators of population growth were high, i.e. birth rate, death rate and infant mortality rate. Due to this there was slow growth of population and very little quantum change. There was stable and small population characterized with young population.

b) Early western phase: Here the birth rate was high but remaining two death rate and infant mortality rate were low. That was resulted a rapid population growth.

c) Modern western phase: In this phase birth rate, death rate and infant mortality rate was low and further reflected in overall population that was slow and stable. Population was large in number and especially older in nature.

Figure 2

Urbanization in Developed and Less Developed Countries

    Third world countries have rapid population growth with lower levels of urbanization. These countries are in the early western phase and this rapid growth is occurring both in rural and urban areas but more in urban areas. That’s why McGee argues that though there is very fast growth in both the cases but still the causes were different, so the process is not similar.

2. Economic: the shifting of population from agricultural activities to non-agricultural activities.

In developed countries, tertiary sector developed as people shifted to tertiary sector as individual was becoming capital intensive. In less developed countries remains more or less at par. Thus, industrialization process is a very slow and urbanization is not based on it, rather it is based more on unproductive tertiary sector. This is contrary to the process of developed countries as the process of urbanization was accompanied by shift from primary sector to secondary sector and the tertiary sector.

3.Sociological: in developed countries urbanization was accompanied by modernization through education, while in less developed countries this is not the case.

a) Socio-Cultural Milieu: In less developed countries, people do not come to cities leaving their milieu rather they move from rural setting to urban-rural setting. While in developed countries people moved from rural countryside to the modern world.

b) Literacy Rate: That is very much high in developed countries in compression to less developed countries. While high levels of education also help the people to move on towards better and secure life which is ultimately settle in urban areas.

Therefore, to conclude, it is wrong to say that the third world or less developed countries are repeating the historical process of urbanization of the west as the cause and consequences are very different (T. W. Mc Gee- 1972). The most important reason, being that the process of urbanization occurred simultaneously with industrialization and modernization. In the case of less develop0ed countries urbanization preceded industrialization resulting in lop-sided urbanization.

References

• Rosenstein-Rodan, Paul N. 1943. ‘Problems of industrialisation of Eastern and Southeastern Europe.’ Economic Journal, 53: 202-211
• Ginsburg, B. Koppel, T.G. McGee (Eds.), The extended metropolis: settlement transition in Asia, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu (1991), pp. 3-25
• http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/society/urbanization-in-developed-and-developing-countries-around-the-world/4678/