Interdependent Urbanization in an Urban World, An Historical Overview.david Clark.1997

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1/12

Interdependent Urbanization in an Urban World: An Historical OverviewAuthor(s): David ClarkReviewed work(s):Source: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 164, No. 1 (Mar., 1998), pp. 85-95Published by: Wileyon behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)

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2/12

The

Geographical

ournal,

Vol.

164,

No.

1,

March

1998,

pp.

85-95

Interdependent

Urbanization

in an Urban

World:

an

Historical

Overview

DAVID CLARK

Geography

ubjectArea,

oventry

niversity,

riory

t,

Coventy

CV1

5FB. E-mail:

[email protected]

This

paper

was

acceptedforublication

n

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, nterdependency heory.

T

HE

LAST DECADE OF the twentieth

century

marks a

major

watershed

in

the evolution of

human

settlement,

or 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

This content downloaded on Mon, 4 Feb 2013 20:53:20 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/12

Percentage

of

population

O

-

19.9

X,

urban n

1995

' _

B

20-39.9

I[

40 -59.9

m,

60

-

79.9

80-100



4/12

Percentage

of

population

urban

n

1950

0- 19.9

L

20 - 39.9

[

40-59.9

Ir

60- 79.9

80-100

E

Fig.

2.

The

percentage

f

world's

opulation

hatwas

urban

n

1950

--il

~ ~ ~ ~

.

.....

.. .. ... .. ... . . . . .

. . .. . . . . .

.

.

.

. .

. .

. . . .

. .

.

.

.

. .

. .

. . . .

. . .

.

.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. .

. . . . . . . . . . . .

.

.

. . .

.

.

.

. . .

. . .

.

. . .

.

.

.

.

. .

. . .

. .

. .

.

. . .

.

.

.

. .

. .

.

. .

.

.

.

. . .

. . . .

.

.

. .

.

.

. .



5/12

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

heoy

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

nterpretation

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

interdependency theory

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



6/12

INTERDEPENDENT

URBANIZATION IN AN URBAN

WORLD

TABLE I

Principaltages

n

global

urban

evelopment

1780-1880 1880-1950

Mode

f

accumulation

Economicformation

Source

of

wealth

Representative

nit of

production

World-system

haracteristics

Space

relations

System

of

supply

Hegemonic

powers

Urban

onsequences

Level of

urbanization t startof

period

(%)

Areasof

urbanization

duringperiod

Dominant cities

Industrial apitalism

Manufacturing

Factory

Atlanticbasin

Colonialism/imperialism

Britain

3

Britain

London

Monopoly capitalism

Manufacturing

Multi-national

orporation

Interational

State

mperialism

Britain,

USA

5

North-western

Europe,

the

Americas,

coastsof

Empires

London,

New

York

Corporate apitalism

Manufacturing

nd

services

Transnational

orporation,

global factory

Global

Corporate

mperialism

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

mply

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

interdependency

theory

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

f

the

developed

orld

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

entury

(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-



7/12

INTERDEPENDENT

URBANIZATION

IN AN

URBAN

WORLD

c

0

3

0O

L

0

?0

cn 0

0

0 0

o

o

.

o

T-

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o

0) CO

0

)

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90



8/12

INTERDEPENDENT URBANIZATION IN

AN

URBAN

WORLD

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.

Theneweconomic

rder

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



9/12

INTERDEPENDENT URBANIZATION IN AN URBAN WORLD

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

n

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.

Theurbanization

f

the

developing

orld

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



10/12

INTERDEPENDENT

RBANIZATION

N

AN

URBANWORLD

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

historicallyhigh, and Africa and Asia, where they are

low.

Both

regions

have been affected

by

the

same

adjustments

associated

with

the

emergence

of the

93



11/12

INTERDEPENDENT URBANIZATION

IN

AN URBAN WORLD

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

rospects.

The

highly

variable

quality

and

reliability

of world urban data

are

emphasized

in

the United Nations'

Demographic

yearbookor 1994 and in the World Bank's Worlddeve-

lopment

eport

or

1993. For

a

general

discussion see

Goldstein

(1994).

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Documents

Interdependent Urbanization in an Urban World, An Historical Overview.david Clark.1997