More than any other, this moment in history is one of urban transition. Almost half the world's population currently lives in urban settlements, and the last phase of this momentous transformation is now occurring in the less developed countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This edited volume presents regional studies of Third World urbanization, documents of unprecedented change in an ever-changing world. These records of historical, sociological, and demographic import will interest both professional planners and academics in the social sciences who are concerned with the many issues arising from urbanization. The studies in The Urban Transformation of the Developing World provide thorough investigations and telling comparisons of the major regions now experiencing rapid urbanization. Considerable attention is given throughout to the patterns of global transition, and to the social, political, and economic consequences in store for these regions.
Chinese urbanization, including the daily life, migration strategies, and life choices of villagers and townspeople, is the focus of this study by Chinese and North American scholars. From Tianjin in the north, to Tibet in the West, and to Guangdong and Fujian on the southeast coast, a tale is told of transforming countrysides, regional disparities, and the prospects of a fully urbanized China as the twenty-first century dawns. This first broad-scale anthropological investigation of Chinese urbanization captures both the dynamic essence of the urbanizations process and the remarkable vitality of post-reform Chinese society.
These papers represent a series of important contributions on the history of urbanization. As well as offering a clear and instructive discussion of fundamental concepts, processes, and measurement problems, the introduction summarizes findings in the latest research and proposes new topics. The papers focus on four principal areas of contemporary research on urbanization: urban networks, town-country economic links, migration, and demographic patterns. New areas of analysis, such as the study of migration flows by age, gender, or social group, and the comparative east/west approach of several of these papers will serve to broaden the international scope of research and stimulate further work in this field.
This groundbreaking book explores the relationship between the impact of urbanization on the working class in Latin American cities & the variety of responses by that group in the years between 1870 & 1930. Unlike urban geographies or political histories, the chapters of this collaborative volume focus on the people of these cities, especially the working women & men who were faced with the ramifications of the transformations taking place around them. The case studies demonstrate how studying the patterns of working class' response provides the key to understanding the political process of the urban social reform.
This volume provides extensive information on the urban experience in Latin America. Following a general overview, the work includes chapters devoted to urbanization in specific countries. Each chapter begins with an introduction providing geographic information and a survey of the nation's urban development, and then includes historical profiles of ninety selected cities, as well as maps. Thus, the work provides both national and city-specific perspectives. Chapters also provide a list of bibliographic resources, and the work is fully indexed.