Why Poor People Stay Poor: Urban Bias in World Development
Abstract
Why have growth and development in poor countries failed to improve the welfare of the poorest people? This question was raised by Michael Lipton in 1977. He then argued that poverty persists mainly because development was designed by and for people in urban areas. Most poor people lived in rural areas, but the towns and cities got a far larger share of national resources. This, he argued, was not only unjust but also inefficient.
In this book, Lipton presents the theory of ‘urban bias’ arguing that the development of urban areas and industrialisation in poor countries has been at the expense of rural areas. During this time usual theory and practice saw development as a process of transformation from the rural and agricultural towards the urban and industrial, through fast and artificially stimulated resource transfers from village to city. Rural areas were not normally seen as a potential source of economic progress.
The book shows that public spending in poor countries has been concentrated on the development of urban areas and on industrial growth. Governments tend to favour allocating resources to towns and cities as opposed to villages. This is mainly because people in urban areas have more political power to convince governments to make taxation and spending choices that favour their interests.
Key findings include:
The 60 to 80 percent of people in poor countries who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods are typically allocated less than 20 percent of development spending.
Urban areas get a disproportionately and inefficiently high share of public spending, particularly in health and education.
Poor people in rural areas are disadvantaged in terms of nutrition, education, health, technology and access to financial services.
Government policies keep goods and services from rural areas (for example, food) under-priced and those from urban areas over-priced.
Urban bias has resulted in a rural skills drain as educated younger workers leave to work in towns and cities.
Urban bias has prevented the formation of valuable rural-urban links.
Lipton argues that comparisons being made with the economic history of the industrialised countries were misleading: the gap between urban and rural wealth and power was much bigger in poor countries than it had been in rich countries during the early stages of their development. Successful pro-poor development would require a much larger share of resources for rural areas and farming.
Key recommendations include:
Development normally requires industrialisation but both are impeded when countries seek to industrialise too early, too quickly or by artificial resource extraction from rural areas.
Resources should be initially directed towards developing the agricultural sector: growing farm productivity has almost invariably been a pre-condition of successful development in other sectors.
Investment in small-scale agriculture would be the best way to raise incomes quickly in poor countries, with high ratios of labour to capital, because it is labour-intensive farming, especially on a small scale, and rural activity in general, uses less capital (directly and for infrastructure) per unit of labour than does urban industry.
Rural and agricultural enterprises need better – but not normally subsidised – access to loans and investment.
Incentives are needed to encourage public sector workers, particularly in education and healthcare, to work in rural areas.
Governments should set and monitor targets for the share of public spending on farming and rural areas.
... The urban-rural income gap in developing countries is evidence of regional inequality (Lagakos, 2020). The theory of urban bias, which attributes the urban-rural income gap in developing countries to a systematic bias against agriculture and rural economies, is the most common explanation (Bezemer & Headey, 2008;Lipton, 1977;Yang, 1999). Some find that this is because the urban class has more influence on the policy process than the rural class (Lipton, 1977). ...
... The theory of urban bias, which attributes the urban-rural income gap in developing countries to a systematic bias against agriculture and rural economies, is the most common explanation (Bezemer & Headey, 2008;Lipton, 1977;Yang, 1999). Some find that this is because the urban class has more influence on the policy process than the rural class (Lipton, 1977). Other scholars, however, argue that the difference is dictated by governments' industryfirst development strategies (Krueger, 1991). ...
... In addition, developing countries, facing a distinctly dualistic rural-urban economic structure, usually adopt an industrial-or heavy industry-first development strategy in their early years to transfer resources from rural areas to complete the primary accumulation of capital. Therefore, industrial structures also reflect an urban-biased development strategy in terms of industry, which affects the urban-rural income gap (Chen & Lin, 2014;Lipton, 1977). This study calculates the industrial structure as the added value of secondary and tertiary industries, divided by local GDP. ...
Developing countries tend to exhibit evident urban-rural income divergence as urban areas rapidly expand into adjoining land. However, Western-centric urban theories and studies of spatial inequality have not paid sufficient attention to the connection between income divergence and urban expansion. This paper employed a panel quantile regression model to investigate this relationship in 220 prefecture-level Chinese cities in 2006-2014. To identify potential spatiotemporal effects, we conducted additional robustness checks using the spatial Durbin model and geographical and temporal weighted regression. The results show that a 1 % expansion of urban land decreases the urban-rural income gap by 0.005 % to 0.011 %. This narrowing effect is particularly prominent in the eastern and central regions and in areas that are less urbanized overall. It also varies within regions that have a more pronounced difference between the lowest and highest quantiles in northeastern China and cities with urbanization rates of >50 %. Finally, we find evidence for an inverted U-shaped relationship between urban expansion and the urban-rural income gap. Our results entail suggestions for improved urban-rural development policies aimed toward greater integration and efficiency in urban expansion.
... Hence it is inferred as a policy implication that anti-rural poverty policies should not in any way block or reduce migration and, as a further corollary, should not outlaw, restraint or in any way disrupt the growth and functioning of the urban informal sector. It implies that the presumed inevitability and progressive nature of urbanization (Wallich 1960) and its symbiotic relationship with the rural sector are inferred, paradoxically, from what Lipton calls "leaving farming alone" approach at stage I in the evolution of development policy (Lipton 1988), will benefit the ruralities through presumed trickle-down. Thus there is little point in discouraging the growth of urban population. ...
... There has been both in theory and practice a fairly strong tendency to ignore a direct and frontal attack on rural poverty by adopting industrialization-urbabnization strategies. The analysis of the four stages of evolution of policies in this respect, though intended to correct the anti-rural bias by assigning it a relatively high priority, basically hinges on the complementarity of the two in the long run (Lipton 1988). ...
... The paper looks at some general characterizations about the causes, in recent years, of the informal sector's growth in Africa. As argued by Lipton (1977), certain development policies pursued by some African government were merely urban bias, hence devoting a lot of resources toward their development at the expense of rural areas [29]. Also, Schneider & Klinhmair (2004) noted that the labor laws in the urban areas have been a contributor to the growth on the informal economy [30], as the minimum wage laws tend to hinder the expansion of firms and deter them from moving into the formal sector. ...
... As argued by Lipton (1977), certain development policies pursued by some African government were merely urban bias, hence devoting a lot of resources toward their development at the expense of rural areas [29]. Also, Schneider & Klinhmair (2004) noted that the labor laws in the urban areas have been a contributor to the growth on the informal economy [30], as the minimum wage laws tend to hinder the expansion of firms and deter them from moving into the formal sector. Furthermore, consequences of war is another reason to the increase in informal business activities, Sethuraman (1997) noticed a reasonable increase in the movement mostly young people from rural to urban centers of war torn Angola and Mozambique in the 1980s in search for jobs [31], which later took up to informal activities for survival as result of inadequate formal employment. ...
... como ineficientes y no competitivos (Appendini y Torres-Mazuera, 2008). En buena medida, son las élites urbanas quienes forjan y difunden las creencias colectivas dominantes (Picciani, 2016;Dirven y otros, 2011;Lipton, 1977). ...
Volumen colectivo editado por Yannick Gaudin y Ramón Padilla, cuyo capítulo VI se refiere a la medición y caracterización de los espacios rurales en Costa Rica a partir de estadísticas nacionales
... In these models, generally, the high end of the urban hierarchy receives the most support. Thus, these Sustainability 2023, 15, 6223 4 of 32 models are controversial because they have increased the urban bias [43] in economic development policies. ...
In Sub-Saharan Africa, unprecedented population growth, concomitant with limited industrialisation and job creation, have changed the configurations of rural-urban linkages in recent decades. Indeed, as primate cities do not act as strong engines of growth, territorial dynamics are rapidly being reshaped by renewed flows of people, goods, services and information within and between economic sectors, and between rural and urban areas. Rural densification and the fast expansion of small and medium-sized cities is one manifestation of these changes. As a result of silo thinking about rural and urban in most national strategies, plus the widespread informal economy and limited available statistics in the region, these new rural-urban linkages and their contribution to socioeconomic dynamics remain underexplored. Contributing to fill this gap, the aim of this paper is to present and test a method to assess rural-urban linkages and their possible role in territorial development in southern countries. We use a holistic approach and adopt an original posture, taking rural areas as the point of reference. Our method sets proxy indicators for specific information that is missing on rural-urban linkages. These indicators are then used to build a typology of territories according to potential rural-urban linkages, using a multivariate analysis and clustering. When applied to the case of Zimbabwe, the results reveal three types of districts, which differ in terms of the nature, intensity, direction and potential of rural-urban linkages for territorial development. We discuss the method’s suitability in a diagnostic phase and how it could feed strategic thinking to mainstream rural-urban linkages in territorial development actions.
... A large strand of the literature starting with Lipton (1977) has identified an "urban bias" in the post-independence policies (see literature review in Bezemer and Headey 2008). This bias is traduced by the discriminatory macroeconomic, sectoral and trade policies that increasingly favored urban consumers at the expense of farms households, taxing exportable crops in order to develop industries and setting low prices to crops, principally food crops, in favor of urban consumers, either explicitly or implicitly through exchange rate distortions and marketing boards. ...
This dissertation aims at contributing to the comparative analysis of trade and agricultural policies in Sub-Saharan Africa from a policy coherence for development point of view. The framework is established by reviewing the policies historically implemented in the region, linking them to the history of economic thought. The debates on the role of agriculture for development and on the use of public intervention and trade policies to promote development strategies are explored justifying the need to prioritize potential policy reforms based on their impacts on agriculture and economic growth, and the choice of computable general equilibrium modeling. Chapter I highlights the main challenges and opportunities for Sub-Saharan African agricultural trade stemming from the changes in the global agricultural markets and the trade agreements currently negotiated. Chapter II and III show that global computable general equilibrium provides a useful tool to compare regional integration to multilateral integration, in terms of their impacts on gross domestic product, welfare and sectoral growth distribution. Chapter III is a case study on Malawi. The global model is linked to a national model including household data to compare the distributional impacts of trade policies and agricultural policies on poverty. This dissertation highlights that regional integration could bring substantial economic gains to Sub-Saharan Africa, together with more diversified and more processed agricultural exports than multilateral integration. Not all policy reform is found to equally reduce the poverty of the small-scale farmers, the majority of the poors and vulnerable in Sub-Saharan Africa.
... The study can be significant both theoretically and policy-wise, as India is one of major economies of the world and empirical evidence, as such, may matter for theory and policy. In recent years, governments across the global South have increasingly focussed on the potential of cities for accelerating economic growth (Datta and Shaban, 2017) diverting scarce resource from rural to urban areas creating thereby significant rural-urban inequalities (Lipton, 1976). The Government of India has been investing significant share of resources, especially, since liberalization of Indian economy in 1992 on urban centers in the hope that urban centers will help in accelerating the economic growth (Shaban et al., 2020), specifically through manufacturing and services. ...
There is an abundance of studies on the urban-rural dichotomy. In the mainstream economic and regional science literature, the urban centers have usually been described as growth machines, growth poles, or growth foci, and urbanization as a driver of economic growth. It is commonly assumed that the assemblage of factors of production in urban centers will create economies of scale, and that economic growth will trickle down from these centers to the periphery. Most of these studies hypothesize a mono-directional causal relationship between urbanization and economic growth. However, there are ample possibilities of reverse causalities in regions where the propulsive powers of urban centers are weaker and where social overhead capital (SOC) is not adequately developed in non-urban regions. In this situation, even minor economic changes in non-urban economies will cause the growth of the urban population. The present paper attempts to examine the relationship between urbanization and economic growth in India at the state level during 1971–2020 by employing a bootstrap panel Granger causality test. It is found that in India the majority of the states display a unidirectional Granger causality from economic growth to urbanization. This finding indicates not only a lower propulsive power of urban centers, but also an unbalanced development of SOC between urban centers and rural areas, hence causing a migration of people to cities with a rise in their income in order to take advantage of the urban facilities.
... A dinámikusán féjlődő vidéki gázdáságok ézéknél áz országoknál élőségítétték á szégénység csökkéntését, ázáltál, hogy mágásább bérszínvonálát és vásárlóérőt is teremtett. Az állámi béruházások pédig ösztönözték á stábil árák és á mágásább bérék kombinációjávál á városiádásból kiálákult torzulásokát, ámély á vidéki és á városi jövédélémélosztás közötti különbségékből fákád (Lipton, 1977). Váláménnyi sikérésén félzárkózó országnák ázonbán még kéllétt tálálniá á sáját önálló módját, hogyán stábilizáljá á gázdáságot, és né vészélyéztéssé á folyámátos béruházásokát (Anderson és Hayami, 1986). ...
Az élelmezésbiztonság biztosítása alapvető, de gyakran elhanyagolt célkitűzés a fenntartható fejlődést és kiegyensúlyozott gazdasági teljesítményt szolgáló intézkedések között. A tanulmány az élelmezésbiztonságnak az egy munkavállalóra jutó kibocsátás (termelékenység) növekedésére való hatását vizsgálja, miközben figyelembe veszi az országok fejlettségét. A dinamikus panel regresszió alapján kijelenthető, hogy az élelmezésbiztonság pozitív hatást gyakorol a termelékenység növekedésre, azonban a fejlettebb országok esetén ez a hatás erősebb. Az eredmények rávilágítanak az alacsony jövedelemszinttel rendelkező országok gazdasági problémáinak összetettségére, hiszen a fejlődésükhöz láthatóan nem elégséges az élelmiszerfogyasztás egyoldalú növelése.
... The initial urban bias of formal social assistance could be interpreted in this vein (Lipton 1977). For example, for most of Indonesia's history, the main social safety net has been a public guarantee that rice would be available in urban markets at affordable (and stable) prices. ...
... The urban-rural inequality is one of the major concerns of development. Many developing and socialist countries experienced an urban bias and created an urban-rural gap during early industrialization (Lipton, 1977;Bates, 1981). In China, the urban-rural inequality has been profound and often coincides with the income inequality between the rich and poor. ...
It examines how land commodification has changed the dynamics of hukou policy innovations in China. The increasing demand of local governments for land to fuel industrialization and urbanization creates appreciating land values, which in turn lead villagers to update their belief about the value associated with their rural hukou. This is perhaps especially the case in economically more developed areas where rural benefits, many of which involve land, induce villagers to value their rural hukou and to be more resistant against land expropriation. This leads local governments, many of which are fiscally dependent on land, to provide more generous land-taking compensation, including an urban hukou. Drawing on an original survey experiment, we find that villagers are less willing to give up their land and change their hukou status from rural to urban when they are not provided with pension benefits and when their collective yearly dividends are discontinued.
... The first three essays deal directly with the classic debates in agrarian political economy involving ideas by Marx, Lenin and Chayanov, among others, and the ways in which these have influenced rural development in theory and practice, past and present. The next contribution, by Cristo´bal Kay, transitions from this set of classic thought and jumps to the 1970s-80s (now classic) debate around the 'urban bias' thesis that was largely provoked by the 1970s work of Michael Lipton (1977), and criticised by several scholars; see, for example, contributions to Harriss (1982). Kay re-examines the debate between 'agriculture first' versus 'industry first' positions (see also Saith 1990). ...
Agrarian transformations within and across countries have been significantly and dynamically altered during the past few decades compared to previous eras, provoking a variety of reactions from rural poor communities worldwide. The changed and changing agrarian terrain has also influenced recent rethinking in critical inquiry into the nature, scope, pace and direction of agrarian transformations and development. This can be seen in terms of theorising, linking with development policy and politics, and thinking about methodologies. This collection of essays on key perspectives, frameworks and methodologies is an effort to contribute to the larger rethinking. The following paper introduces the collection.
... 71 Indeed, many previous studies suggest that politicians privilege urban interests over rural counterparts. Lipton (1971) and Bates (1981) describe how urban elites are able to solicit policy concessions from their governments that view them as an immediate threat to their grip on political power. In addition, urban residents are often better informed about the role and performance of their government authorities "due to greater average wealth, higher education, better access to the media as well as a stronger urban focus in media coverage" (Majumdar et al., 2004, p. 139). ...
In spite of rising inequality within countries, policymakers often fall into the trap of evaluating progress from the top-down, rather than the bottom-up. Bilateral aid agencies and multilateral development banks tend to use national-level indicators (e.g., GDP per capita, child mortality rates) to select the countries and sectors where they will work. These national aggregates mask hotspots of deprivation within countries, which appear to be widening.
Over the past five years, AidData and its partners have worked with numerous governments and development partners to help close this evidence gap. With generous financial support from the United States Agency for International Development’s Global Development Lab, they have identified the geographical locations of nearly 70,000 development projects worth approximately $1.23 trillion across the globe. As a result, there is now an abundance of geographically disaggregated data we can use to assess: who is funding what, where, and to what effect at the subnational level?
In the Beyond the Tyranny of Averages report, we draw upon this body of work to shed light on two critical questions:
Targeting — To what extent is the international community channeling resources to the least developed regions within countries?
Effectiveness — Under which conditions does this assistance help local communities reduce spatial inequality – the uneven distribution of public services, infrastructure, wealth, and opportunity?
Based on our findings, we present a roadmap for countries and their development partners to fully harness the subnational data revolution to "leave no one behind".
Funding: This research was conducted with generous support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Global Development Lab (through cooperative agreement AID-OAA-A-12-00096). The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government. This study also supports AidData’s commitments as an anchor partner of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data.
... There is therefore a mismatch between the diagnosis of problems, and the solutions proposed. The urban bias in political decision in low-and middle-income countries has been known for decades [59]. Domestic political interests may probably explain why the health insurance policy are high in the political agenda of the Presidents of both Benin and Senegal. ...
Background:
Equity seems inherent to the pursuance of universal health coverage (UHC), but it is not a natural consequence of it. We explore how the multidimensional concept of equity has been approached in key global UHC policy documents, as well as in country-level UHC policies.
Methods:
We analysed a purposeful sample of UHC reports and policy documents both at global level and in two Western African countries (Benin and Senegal). We manually searched each document for its use and discussion of equity and related terms. The content was summarised and thematically analysed, in order to comprehend how these concepts were understood in the documents. We distinguished between the level at which inequity takes place and the origin or types of inequities.
Results:
Most of the documents analysed do not define equity in the first place, and speak about "health inequities" in the broad sense, without mentioning the dimension or type of inequity considered. Some dimensions of equity are ambiguous - especially coverage and financing. Many documents assimilate equity to an overall objective or guiding principle closely associated to UHC. The concept of equity is also often linked to other concepts and values (social justice, inclusion, solidarity, human rights - but also to efficiency and sustainability). Regarding the levels of equity most often considered, access (availability, coverage, provision) is the most often quoted dimension, followed by financial protection. Regarding the types of equity considered, those most referred to are socio-economic, geographic, and gender-based disparities. In Benin and Senegal, geographic inequities are mostly pinpointed by UHC policy documents, but concrete interventions mostly target the poor. Overall, the UHC policy of both countries are quite similar in terms of their approach to equity.
Conclusions:
While equity is widely referred to in global and country-specific UHC policy documents, its multiple dimensions results in a rather rhetorical utilisation of the concept. Whereas equity covers various levels and types, many global UHC documents fail to define it properly and to comprehend the breadth of the concept. Consequently, perhaps, country-specific policy documents also use equity as a rhetoric principle, without sufficient consideration for concrete ways for implementation.
... Developed countries have achieved mature results in theoretical research on urban-rural relations. Western urban-rural relationship theory mainly includes three kinds of urban and rural development views [30][31][32][33]: urban bias, rural bias, and urban-rural linkage. There are roughly four major development stages of urban-rural relations. ...
With the socio-economic transformation, the recombination of regional development factors and the followed reconstruction of the rural development elements system have profoundly changed the rural landscape of the Kashgar region in Northwest China. The factors affecting the rural production and lifestyle interact with each other, shaping different types of rural development. Accordingly, basing on the main factors influencing the rural development ability and long-term development potential, the assessment indicator system of rural comprehensive development (RCD) was established to reveal the differentiation of rural development and identify the dominant factors affecting rural development. The principal component analysis method and the cluster analysis method was used to distinguish the different types. The results show that the high-level rural development areas are mainly concentrated in the center of the region, while the low-level areas are mainly distributed in the periphery, with significant spatial differentiation characteristics. We divided the rural development into three categories and 11 zones for which the basic natural conditions and external challenges are different. The categories reflect three possible results of rural development: grow, decline, and vanish, which is in the industrialization development stage. With the transformation of human society and the change of urban–rural relationship in its mode and content, the external economy, society, and changing environment has put pressures on rural areas. Therefore, according to different rural development types, it is necessary to take measures to strengthen the rural areas to cope with external environmental challenges.
... Beginning in the 1950s, many developing country governments embraced economic policies that systematically discriminated against agriculture in favor of the urban sector. A key objective was to appease politically restive urban dwellers by providing low-cost food through the disproportionate taxation of the rural sector (Lipton 1977). State agencies used several tools to ensure the price paid to farmers was lower than the world price-high rural export taxes, overvalued exchange rates, and price controls. ...
... Existing studies show strong evidence that policy makers in low-income countries exhibit a tendency to favor urban interests over rural counterparts. 6 Lipton (1971) and Bates (1981) both explain this urban bias as a function of the urban elites holding greater bargaining power to solicit policy concessions from the government. Urban residents are also better informed about the role and performance of their government authorities "due to greater average wealth, higher education, better access to the media as well as a stronger urban focus in media coverage" (Majumdar et al. 2004: 139). ...
... Urban voters were better educated than their rural counterparts and were more likely to have a better understanding of democracy (Heo and Stockton 2005, p. 678). While urban bias (i.e., political leaders favoring urban interests over rural interests) is prevalent in developing countries (Lipton 1977;Bates 1981), East Asian polities, including South Korea, practiced rural bias (Moore 1993). The rural population was generally engaged in primary industries such as farming, fishing, and mining that required significant government subsidies. ...
This study examines the effect of investment in transportation infrastructure on regime support in an electoral authoritarian regime. Using a difference-in-difference analysis of neighborhood-level panel data on a subway system from 1971–1985 in urban South Korea, we find that incumbent vote share increased in neighborhoods surrounding the newly constructed subway stations. We show that subway construction was effective at boosting regime support, especially in neighborhoods where people are more likely to read about the government propaganda of subway construction from newspapers. We also provide anecdotal evidence of private economic gains contributing to the increased support for the ruling party. The results suggest that investment in welfare-enhancing goods and services such as public transportation may help autocrats of developing countries to retain political power by increasing electoral support for their ruling parties.
... Others are behind such as the Soviet bloc, North Korea, Cambodia, and Papua, New Guinea. [185][186][187][188][189][190][191][192][193][194][195] Land and agrarian reform whether internally or externally driven (as happened in Japan) with reversion to small-holding mixed farming and later encouragement of export-led manufacture all improving diet was key to success. The tension between rural and town is striking with the latter being motivated to keep food and meat prices low: support for rural peasants in the form of land reform drives local innovation and efficiency and seems to work. ...
Good health and rapid progress depend on an optimal dose of nicotinamide. Too little meat triggers the neurodegenerative condition pellagra and tolerance of symbionts such as tuberculosis (TB), risking dysbioses and impaired resistance to acute infections. Nicotinamide deficiency is an overlooked diagnosis in poor cereal-dependant economies masquerading as ‘environmental enteropathy’ or physical and cognitive stunting. Too much meat (and supplements) may precipitate immune intolerance and autoimmune and allergic disease, with relative infertility and longevity, via the tryptophan-nicotinamide pathway. This switch favours a dearth of regulatory T (Treg) and an excess of T helper cells. High nicotinamide intake is implicated in cancer and Parkinson’s disease. Pro-fertility genes, evolved to counteract high-nicotinamide-induced infertility, may now be risk factors for degenerative disease. Moderation of the dose of nicotinamide could prevent some common diseases and personalised doses at times of stress or, depending on genetic background or age, may treat some other conditions.
... Our research area is related to a vast literature. The agglomeration of the population in the nation's largest city has been explained by many mechanisms, often related to political institutions (Lipton, 1977;Bates, 1981). In countries where urbanization goes hand in hand with industrialization, capital accumulation in the industrial sector can lead rent seeker' governments to favor scal centralization and as a consequence, the agglomeration of the population in the largest city (Davis and Henderson, 2003). ...
By analyzing the population growth at the top of the urban hierarchy, we test two hypotheses explaining the rise of mega-cities: trade and political institutions. We find that democratic institutions are the main factor behind the concentration of a nation's urban population in the main city. Contrary to the literature, we find that extractive institutions reduce the size of the biggest city.
... The term 'distorted development' or 'misguided development' seems to have been in common use to connote such development trends (Cox, 1996;Cox & Pawar, 2006;Isbister, 1991;Korten, 1990;Midgley, 1995;UNDP, 1995UNDP, , 1996. Even in the past, what should be the meaning of development has been frequently questioned every time development was misspelt by increasing economic growth but without significant benefits to wide range of ordinary people (Chambers, 1984;Cox, 1996;Isbister, 1991;Korten, 1990;Lipton, 1977;Midgley, 1995;Myrdal, 1970Myrdal, , 1972Seers, 1969;Singer, 1979;Todaro, 1979;Ul Haq, 1976). The international community has also unanimously accepted that development does not mean only economic growth, and it should be a process of addressing all aspects of people's satisfactory living (UNDP, 1993(UNDP, , 1995(UNDP, , 1996. ...
Existing knowledge shows a positive link between migration and national level development in developing countries. This article examines whether such a positive link exists between the benefits from labour migration and the families of labour migrants and the communities they originate from in Sri Lanka. The great majority of labour migrant families are from relatively lower income groups in the society; their family resource base is relatively low, and they are mostly from a community belonging to a relatively less improved socio-economic environments. Although they bring resources to the country and contribute to the national economy, a large number of these families have not been able to show any significant socio-economic progress using the resources provided for migration. Similarly, the communities from which they originate often do not show any significant socio-economic improvement, though these communities can access these resources through these families. The implication is that whether migration benefits contribute to family and community progress is determined by the existing level of family and community resources of pre-migration situations. When these resource bases are relatively low, it is less likely to acquire a reasonable and long-lasting family and community-level progress from migration because migration has simply become a survival strategy for the majority of these families.
... ONU-Habitat en particulier a identifié les méga-régions, corridors urbains et ville-régions (megacity et mega-city region) comme espaces majeurs pouvant contribuer de façon significative à la production économique mondiale (ONU-Habitat, 2012 : 6). La théorie du « biais urbain » développée par Michael Lipton (1977), qui envisageait les villes comme des entraves au développement des campagnes n'est plus à l'ordre du jour. Bien au contraire, par effet de ruissellement (théorie du trickle down), la croissance économique et son corolaire la croissance urbaine seraient censées agir comme levier de développement. ...
City-Making in West Africa: the urban corridor from Accra to Lagos under construction
This paper aims to give some key entries to grasp the production of the Urban in West Africa. Along the Gulf of Guinea that links Accra to Lagos (500 km), one of the most important megacity region is under construction. Focusing on this coastal urban corridor, this paper proposes to analyze the unfolding urban forms, characterized by extended urbanisation and linked to globalization and metropolisation phenomenon. It also discusses the crucial issues of governance and planning, shedding light on the links between public stakeholders, private investors and urban dwellers who are involved in the contemporary urban fabric.
... De este modo una reforma agraria podría basarse en varios procesos simultáneos: a) una adquisición obligatoria de la tierra normalmente por el Estado con una compensación parcial a los grandes terratenientes; b) el cultivo de las tierra redistribuidas para aumentar y superar los beneficios anteriores a la adquisición de la misma. El Estado puede dar, vender o arrendar esta tierra para el cultivo privado en unidades más pequeñas de producción (reforma redistributiva); o la tierra puede ser cultivada de manera conjunta y su usufructo compartido a través de cooperativas, granjas colectivas o estatales (reforma colectivista) (Lipton, 1977(Lipton, , 2009 Por tanto la reforma agraria redistributiva supone cambios en la estructura agraria que mejoren y aumenten el acceso y control sobre la tierra por parte de los pobres rurales que por tanto aseguren la tenencia para los trabajadores agrarios (Ghimire, 2001: 7). Un proceso para empoderar a los campesinos pobres y alterar la estructura agraria de clases de la sociedad rural y por ende, un concepto políticamente revolucionario más que uno meramente reformista. ...
The Cuban case shows paradigmatic questions and different drivers to promote land reform in the global era. In the throes of the worst crisis in its history, the ‘Special Period’, Cuba was faced with a predicament: how to sustain its population without strategic food imports from the Soviet-Bloc trading system? The island implemented a set of strategies to overcome the depression with a ‘wartime economy style austerity program.’ Structural adjustment measures in agriculture were implemented to halt its negative pattern of growth during the crisis. The alternative agriculture model was based in three pillars: food import substitution (e.g. urban agriculture), internal market liberalisation (under Decree Law No. 191/94 to authorise free agricultural markets where farmers and cooperatives could sell their surplus production at free-market prices, after fulfilling their commitments to Acopio) and finally, decentralisation of production and land management. The government enacted Decree Law No. 142 to establish a new form of cooperative and authorise the distribution in usufruct of small plots of land (UBPCs and parcelas). This model implied a dramatic shift from a model based on trade dependency (sugar exports providing most of the foreign currency required to import food) to one prioritising food import substitution. This alternative also brought about major transformations in the country’s agriculture. It revolutionised food production patterns and decentralised land ownership and the markets.
In this context, land reform in Cuba (though initially a temporary experiment) seems to have become a consistent project shared by the peasantry (grouped together in the National Association of Small-Scale Farmers) and the State (e.g. Decree-Laws 259 and 300). This process has been accelerated by the need to reduce food import dependency. Raul Castro’s administration (2008-2018) gave clear recognition of the importance of small farming and import substitution, and the relation between the two phenomena (Machín Sosa et al., 2010). In light of the recent wave of land reforms enacted by pink tide governments in Latin America, post-soviet Cuba (though it is not a pink tide) at least shows key elements in the significant agrarian reform (in both quantitative and qualitative terms) that began in 1959 and still continues in 2018. Without idealising the Cuban experience (as a replicable alternative to the market), this paper seeks to analyse this ‘laboratory’ of land reform based on the dichotomy between market (or individual) and collective (or State) forms of production and consumption. The article also discusses some arenas in which small-scale farmers have gained the opportunity to get access to land and produce food for domestic consumption in contemporary Cuba.
... China's rural-urban dual system can be defined as a mechanism of governance through which the country is officially divided into an urban system and a rural system, between which free migration is strictly prohibited (Cai and Yang, 2000;Chan, 1994Chan, , 1999Whyte, 2010) 19 . It can be compared to what Michael Lipton calls "urban bias" (Lipton, 1977) in general but comes with certain unique characteristics as well. 20 Accordingly, China has been governed by a double standard even though there has only been one central government and ruling party since 1949. ...
The rural-to-urban migrant children’s education predicament in China’s major cities is well known. While the hukou system has been widely criticized for depriving many migrant children of quality education in recent years, we suggest that this is only the tip of the iceberg. The principal obstacle faced by the migrant children is China’s rural-urban dual system, which is the foundation of contemporary Chinese development. This article intends to shed light on the plight of these migrant children by elaborating on the relationship between the Chinese rural-urban dual system and the practice of development in China. The article concludes that these migrant children, stranded between the two systems, are the de facto victims of Chinese development, which has been based on a long-maintained “one country, two societies” strategy since the 1950s
... This change may be due in part to the emerging industrial policies 6 and the availability of cheap food reducing the costs of labor. In addition, push factors such as the spread of labor-saving technologies in agriculture (De Janvry 1981;Köymen 2008), the destruction of 'z-goods' production 7 (Hymer and Resnick 1969), and an urban bias in national policies (Lipton 1976;Williamson 1988) might have stimulated urbanization in developing economies. A variety of models (Cole and Sanders 1985;Fields 1975Fields , 2005 following the approach of Harris and Todaro (1970) explain the migration through differences in expected incomes. ...
This paper examines the impact of agrarian structures on the migration behavior and destination of rural household heads and individuals in Kenya. To explore the complexity of migration we extend the standard Harris-Todaro framework to account for land inequality and size as well as type of destination. Using probit regressions, we show that Kenyan household heads born in districts with higher land inequality, smaller per capita land and lower per capita rural income are more likely to migrate. We show that for individuals whose incomes are squeezed by larger land inequality, migration from villages to smaller cities, and villages in different districts could be a preferable strategy to migrating to Greater Nairobi. The impact of land inequality is larger for male than female migration and insignificant for females’ rural-to-rural migration. Moreover, the level of education, age, marital status, gender, religion and distance to Nairobi play a role in migration behavior.
... Persistent underemployment and poverty in Africa's expanding cities, however, challenged these traditional models and thus contributed to a growing negative view of the role of cities in development. These negative associations were cemented by Lipton's 1977 notion of "urban bias," which argued that since power continued to reside in cities, policymakers systematically under-allocated and over-extracted resources from rural areas (Lipton, 1977). Since the 1970s, urban bias theory has come under heavy criticism on both theoretical and methodological grounds, and little conclusive empirical evidence has been established to support the position (Byres, 1979;G. ...
Sub-Saharan Africa has been slowly urbanizing for many generations. Push factors like conflict and rural poverty have sometimes driven the process; other times pull factors like better educational opportunities and higher urban wages have been the primary driver (Jedwab, Christiaensen, & Gindelsky, 2014). Over the past few decades, the rural-to-urban transition has dramatically accelerated. By many estimates, the region is now urbanizing at the fastest rate globally (Saghir & Santoro, 2018). Between 2018 and 2035, all 10 of the fastest growing cities in the world will be located in sub-Saharan Africa (Patel, 2018). As a result, by 2050 most sub-Saharan countries will have surpassed the tipping point where more than 50% of their populations live in urban areas (Ritchie & Roser, 2018). There will inevitably be differences between countries, but the differences will be more of degree than of type. Sub-Saharan Africa’s transition to the so-called “urban age” will be unprecedented in its swiftness.
To help manage this unprecedented shift, the distinction between rural and urban areas is often a useful policymaking tool. Unfortunately, this distinction can also obscure the deep complexities and interconnections in the demographic, economic, and political shift that is taking place. In every country, urban and rural areas are interdependent to varying degrees, and rely on flows of individuals, capital, and information to sustain distinct ways of life (Mylott, 2009). In sub-Saharan Africa, where development policy has fluctuated between an overriding focus on either one or the other of these two categories, the linkages are particularly relevant for household wellbeing (Djurfeldt, 2012). The Uganda National Academy of Sciences therefore undertook this consensus study on the nature of urban-rural linkages in the sub-Saharan region, and how they can be best leveraged for balanced regional development.
Urban-rural linkages can be defined as the economic, social, cultural, and political relationships maintained between individuals and groups in urban and rural environments (Ndabeni, 2016). Importantly, these relationships can often have distributional consequences, leading to a distinction that is frequently made between “virtuous” and “vicious” urban-rural linkages (Djurfeldt, 2012). In general, virtuous linkages refer to those relationship that contribute to a positive cycle of household accumulation and expanding opportunities across both rural and urban spaces (Djurfeldt, 2012). For instance, agricultural intensification might lead to increased rural incomes, which is used for some family members to attend school in urban areas, leading them to secure formal employment and remit earnings back to rural areas, leading to further agricultural intensification. Vicious linkages, by contrast, lead households to distribute resources too scarcely across urban and rural spaces, to the point that neither can successfully kickstart the process of accumulation and development (Djurfeldt, 2012). For instance, rural to urban migration might result in insufficient available rural labour, while at the same time urban migrants are unable to secure stable, formal employment. As a result, neither rural nor urban dwellers can leverage their comparative locational advantages, and both become trapped in cycles of poverty. Local, national, and regional policy contexts can help determine the type of rural-urban linkages that form, and the degree to which they reinforce vicious or virtuous cycles of development.
Urban-rural linkages have received unprecedented attention in recent years with their canonization in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the New Urban Agenda (NUA). This renewed focus is largely the result of the Common African Position (CAP) on the SDGs, which emphasized the importance of moving beyond “siloed” thinking on cities, and embracing their development within the frame of a wide, cohesive vision (Pieterse, Parnell, & Haysom, 2018). To shift the regional dialogue on urbanization towards the connections between sectors, the UNAS Urbanization Expert Committee identified a basic framework for policymakers at all levels to bring insights from the evidence on urban-rural linkages more closely into their work. The Expert Committee identified three “streams” of evidence related to urban-rural linkages: (1) productivity and livelihoods, (2) socio-cultural perceptions, and (3) power and accountability. Bringing insights from these three streams of evidence into policy and practice at all levels will help encourage the formation of virtuous urban-rural linkages. To enable policymakers at all levels to bring insights from these three streams more closely into their work, higher levels of government (central and regional) should focus on securing the enabling policy framework, which includes resolving tensions in the property tenure system, establishing realistic planning practices, and ensuring health and wellbeing, specifically in urban areas.
... If luminosity in the largest cities is more responsive to population changes, it suggests that positive agglomeration effects are being reaped. But if primary cities are systematically brighter than the rest and relatively inelastic to population changes, other factors might play a role, such as wasteful political spending (Lipton, 1977). Going further, our paper exploits the geo-spatial structure of the data and decomposes city size, in terms of both light and population, into the product of area and density. ...
We provide new insights on the city size distribution of countries around the world. Using geo-spatial data and a globally consistent city identification scheme, our data set contains 13,844 cities in 194 countries. City size is measured both in terms of population and night time lights proxying for local economic activity. We find that Zipf's law holds for many, but not all, countries in terms of population, while city size in terms of light is distributed more unequally. These deviations from Zipf's law are to a large extent driven by an undue concentration in the largest cities. They benefit from agglomeration effects which seem to work through scale rather than through density. Examining the cross-country heterogeneity in the city size distribution, our model selection approach suggests that historical factors play an important role, in line with the time of development hypothesis.
... The study of agriculture policy making in developing countries is marked by a wide diversity of approaches ( Birner and Nethra, 2006;Birner and Resnick, 2010). Of note, Lipton (1977) and Bates (1981), explained agricultural policy making among post-independence African states in terms of urban bias. Briefly, this approach sought to explain why African states in their pursuit of economic modernization followed economic policies that were heavily biased against agriculture, in particu- lar smallholder agriculture. ...
Political economy analyses of agricultural and food security policies in Malawi have emphasized the role played
by domestic politics and, more specifically, the centralization of power in the executive. This paper builds on
this perspective by exploring the view that such policies are in fact negotiated outcomes of interactions at
the state–donor interface. Using interview data gathered from expert key informants and a review of publicly
available data, the paper explores how certain policy drivers have interacted to shape agricultural and food
security policies in Malawi. The results reveal that policy processes in the recent past have been driven and
mediated by fiscal considerations, sociopolitical pressures, and pragmatism which accounts for the unique
and complex peculiarities of the Malawi context.
China’s urbanization has garnered increasing attention worldwide, especially the contemporary development mode of urban–rural integration. However, existing literature has been inadequate in explicating the relationship between China’s urbanization and capitalist urbanization, specifically planetary urbanization. This paper serves as a dialogue between the two, arguing that given the subjectivity and situatedness of planetary urbanization, it may be ineffective in unravelling China’s urbanization, at least in predicting the future condition of urbanization. The authoritarian state proactively exercises its powerful planning intervention in development through the macro policy rhetoric of urban–rural integration. In this sense, it is imperative to propose a new conceptual framework to capture urbanization in China under a socialist market economy. This research adopts a case study approach and uses secondary data sources such as official statistics, news reports, published papers, and research reports from local planning institutes. Based on the case of Hangzhou’s urban–rural integrated development, we show that the rural realm has not diminished as seen in capitalist urbanization but regained centrality and has been prioritized in addressing development issues such as rural poverty. The proposed framework of “planetary urbanization in China” can be supplementary to the planetary urbanization analytical framework, and most importantly, it can be instrumental to a comprehensive understanding of how urbanization unfolds across the globe.KeywordsPlanetary urbanizationUrban–rural integrationGlobal southChinaHangzhou
This dissertation assesses the direct links between fiscal decentralisation, economic growth, and multidimensional poverty; and further explores the indirect links between the two variables through the four pro-poor sectoral outcomes, which include, education, healthcare, agricultural productivity, and infrastructure in Kenya. Our thesis, first, reviews literature related to key components of fiscal decentralisation and multidimensional poverty to develop a solid theoretical model that explains the linkage between the two variables. In this first part, the thesis also discusses the political economy of the link between fiscal decentralisation and multidimensional poverty in Kenya with a focus on the approaches, measurements, and trends of these variables. Owing to the inconclusive nature of the empirical literature on the fiscal decentralisation-poverty nexus, this thesis was motivated to empirically analyse whether there is any significant statistical relationship between fiscal decentralisation and multidimensional poverty in Kenya using FE, RE, and GMM-IV estimations. We used cross-county panel data from 2006 to 2019 published by government agencies, United Nation Development Programme, Society for International Development, World Bank, and other publications to carry out these estimations. These empirical estimations intended to find out the effects of revenue decentralisation, vertical fiscal (im)balances, intergovernmental transfers, and expenditure decentralisation on multidimensional poverty – proxied alternatively by FGT indices (headcount poverty, poverty gap and severity of poverty), food poverty incidence, overall child poverty, Human Development Index (HDI), and Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). This research also estimated the effect of fiscal decentralisation on subnational economic growth as an initial and instrumental way through which fiscal decentralisation affects multidimensional poverty. Our estimation results reveal that the impact of fiscal decentralisation on multidimensional poverty measures and economic growth depends on the nature and extent of fiscal decentralisation. Our estimation results on the effect of fiscal decentralisation on subnational economic growth showed that all FD indicators are growth-enhancing but highly dependent on the level of fiscal decentralisation. However, for poverty reduction, on the side of money-metric poverty measures, revenue decentralisation and vertical imbalances were found to reduce poverty headcount at low levels below 61.31 per cent and 53.54 per cent respectively while intergovernmental transfers and expenditure decentralisation were found to increase poverty headcount at low levels below 9.92 per cent and 0.801 per cent respectively beyond which they would reduce poverty headcount. Conversely, on the side of the non-money metric poverty, revenue decentralisation and vertical imbalance were found to increase Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) at low levels below 51.94 per cent and 0.955 per cent respectively while intergovernmental transfers and expenditure decentralisation were found to reduce MPI at low levels below 9.07 per cent and 0.811 per cent respectively beyond which they would increase multidimensional poverty. However, there are differences in the effects of fiscal decentralization and multidimensional poverty across regions and counties. Additionally, our results show the major role played by the devolution reforms of 2013 in increasing the overall decentralisation that improved subnational growth and poverty reduction through pro-poor expenditures. Lastly, we empirically explored the indirect channels through which fiscal decentralization affects multidimensional poverty through four sectors (education, basic healthcare, agricultural extension, and infrastructure services) as dictated by the reviewed literature. Here, our results revealed different effects of fiscal decentralisation on pro-poor sectoral outcomes due to the nature and extent of decentralisation in these functions.
KEY WORDS: Fiscal decentralization, Devolution, Multidimensional poverty, Local development and governance, Counties, Kenya.
Few topics have been addressed through as large a range of perspectives and interests as urban agriculture (UA), yet the literature has been loosely characterized by a divergence and disconnect between research conducted in the global north (GN), and that in the global south (GS). In cities of the global south, UA is widely analyzed through a productivist lens, focusing on food production and individual or household-level contributions of urban farming to food security, household income, and livelihoods. Meanwhile, in cities of the global north, engagement with UA also speaks to food production and food security but is just as often focused on environmental and social movements, civic engagement and justice, and more recently urban sustainability and resiliency. We argue that productivist and post-productivist dichotomies are somewhat displaced as differences between the GN/GS are becoming less pronounced. Furthermore, such a dichotomy reinforces assumptions about the nature of urbanization itself, eliding both the commonalities among urban spaces and specificities that come from each place. By examining how UA is approached and written about in different contexts, we hope to highlight the gaps, but also to illustrate convergent themes, particularly those that increasingly characterize contemporary UA research. After elaborating on these tensions, we will build on the increasing relevance of the convergences by suggesting some potentially fruitful future directions for UA research. We conclude with ideas about how novel theoretical concepts might be used to identify overlapping themes in useful and insightful ways, and to increase the significance and reach of UA research.
This paper aims at describing urban sprawl driven land use changes during the last decades in Greece as well as analyzing the major regional and economic development implications. Particular attention is given to the analysis of possible driving forces with economic and social origin that contribute to the sprawl of urban forms in the suburbs and into the countryside. We employ an ordinal regression model in order to investigate the likely driving factors of urban sprawl across NUTS-III municipalities in Greece. Ordinal regression is a variation of ordinary regression which is used when the dependent variable is categorical and the explanatory variables are continuous or categorical ones. The results of the empirical analysis bring up some important issues relevant to the theoretical framework of the study. The degrees of influence of the individual factors as well as their level of significance vary considerably. Accessibility, informal housing practices, direct population potential and the existence of coastal natural resources seem to fuel urban sprawl. Overall, we think that this empirical research can provide decision-makers with important information concerning the major factors which influence urban sprawl. In the context of planning a sustainable regional development policy the major driving factors and the spatial patterns generated by urban phenomena such as urban sprawl and illegal housing are of crucial importance. Urban sprawl phenomenon has hardly been analyzed at the regional level in Greece. Most existing studies focus on the periphery of great metropolitan areas. Yet, an overview of urban sprawl patterns at a broader scale can give valuable information on the basic trends of the phenomenon across the country and uncover certain spatial differences in the magnitude of sprawl between locations.
Venezuela, a Latin American rentier state, went from experiencing 11 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 1983 to 44 in 2002. My dissertation project examines why this significant increase in social violence took place by analysing the relationship between slum development and the withering of institutions of social control in the country after the 1970s. This article however only discusses the conceptual framework behind the dwindling of institutions of social control. The hypothesis of this article (and that of my dissertation) is that a Durkheimian anomic gap was fomented in the Venezuelan slums because transition to modernity (rural-to-urban migration) did not allow recreating institutions that promoted norms of social interaction, which reduce the possibility of violent conflict between people. It concludes by reviewing the tentative methodology that will be applied in my dissertation to confirm or dismiss the aforementioned hypothesis.
Abstract
As urbanization has occurred without the attendant growth and development spillovers in underdeveloped nations including Ethiopia, the phenomenon brought undesirable social and economic consequences. This paper investigates the influences of urbanization on food insecurity in Amhara metropolitan cities controlling income-generating capacity limitation as a mediating variable. A total of 622 households were selected from three metropolitan cities; 248 households from Gondar, 148 households from Dessie, and 226 households from Bahir Dar. The return rate of the questionnaires was 80.39%. An analytical model is developed to provide insights into such effects. Structural Equation Modeling was used to run a mediation analysis through decomposing the direct and indirect effects of one variable on the other. Regression analyses were also carried out to
measure the direction and magnitude of the effect of the independent variable on the dependent. Results provide evidence that urbanization has a significant impact on food insecurity. The study also depicts the mediating role of income-generating capacity limitations in the relationship between urbanization and food insecurity. Accordingly, the indirect effect of urbanization on food insecurity (0.313), is greater than the direct effect (0.021). Therefore, the study concludes as
income-generating capacity limitation mediates the relationship between the two variables. Henceforth, the study recommends policymakers to manage urbanization by dealing with rural-urban
migration, unplanned outward expansion, and the natural growth in the urban as well as rural areas which is not consistent with urban economic growth.
Keywords; urban, urbanization, food security, income-generating capacity.
Yoksulluk ve eşitsizlik; sosyal, ekonomik, etnik veya herhangi bir sebeple günümüzdeki kadar şiddetli olmasa da hep var olmuş, bilimsel literatürde de önemli bir araştırma konusu olarak yer bulmuştur. Buna karşın hem sosyal hem de ekonomik politikada, genellikle yoksul alanlardan ziyade yoksul insanlara odaklanılmıştır. Başka bir ifade ile kalkınmanın ayrılmaz parçası olan mekân göz ardı edilmiştir. Günümüzde ise kalkınma araştırmalarında mekânı ön plana çıkaran bakış açıları önem kazanmıştır. Bu süreçte coğrafyacılar tarafından yapılan kalkınma konulu araştırmaların sayısı artmaktadır “Coğrafyada Kalkınma Araştırmalarının Kısa Tarihi” isimli bu çalışma, “Kalkınma konusunda coğrafi yaklaşımla yapılan araştırmalar ve temel araştırma konuları nelerdir, bu araştırmaların başlangıç tarihlerini ne zamana kadar götürmek mümkündür?” sorularına yanıt aramaktadır. İlgili soruların cevaplanmasına yönelik kalkınma kavramının sorunsallaştırılması da gerekmektedir. Bu nedenle kalkınma coğrafyası çalışmalarına geçmeden önce kalkınma literatürü, ana eksenler etrafında irdelenmiş ve kavramın günümüzdeki kullanımı açıklanmıştır. Coğrafya alanında yapılmış kalkınma araştırmaları ise 1940’lı yıllardan günümüze kadar ele alınmıştır. Bu inceleme tarihsel okuma perspektifinden “ne ve ne zaman” soruları üzerine temellendirilmiştir. İlgili yayın dizinin incelenmesi sonucu coğrafya biliminde, kalkınma araştırmalarının gelişiminde dört farklı dönem ayırt edilmiştir. Birincisi 1960’lı yıllara kadar hakim olmuş bölgesel coğrafya araştırmalarından oluşmaktadır. İkinci dönem 1960’lı yıllardan itibaren nicel devrimin etkisi altında gelişmiş, mekansal modellemeler ile karakterize edilen dönemdir. Üçüncü dönem 1970’li yıllardan itibaren Marksist anlayışın coğrafi düşünceye olan etkisi ile eleştirel araştırmaların ortaya çıkmaya başladığı dönemdir. Dördüncüsü ise 1990’lı yıllardan itibaren gelişmeye başlayan post yapısal yaklaşımlar sonucu ortaya çıkan ilişkisel çalışmalar ile karaterize edilebilecek dönemdir.
Indigenous communities of northeast India remain isolated from the mainland and
live in a distinct cultural setting with their environment. Because of their high degree
of exposure to and connections with the environment, they have rich traditional
knowledge about predicting and adapting to climate change. We accessed and illustrated
the traditional knowledge on fish and fisheries from the region through a participatory
rural appraisal (PRA) approach. Our study revealed that ecological and climatic
circumstances are maintained through the traditional system of governance and local
self-government. Local skills, tools, techniques, wisdom, beliefs and customs of the
Indigenous people act as a buffer during disasters and successfully build resilience to
climate hazards. Most of this knowledge was transferred over successive generations
and has become a part of living, cultural and religious sustenance. Adaptation strategies
at the community level for fisheries help to reduce vulnerabilities to extreme weather,
such as drought, floods, and unpredictable rainfall patterns. Adaptation to climate
change in fisheries is delivered through strategies at fine-scale spatial and grassroots
levels. Mainstreaming climate change adaptation efforts can only be achieved through
extensive assessment, research, recognition, and promotion of local skills, culture,
Indigenous knowledge and community-based fisheries.
The commonly-used satellite images of nighttime lights fail to capture the true brightness of most cities. We show that night lights are a reliable proxy for economic activity at the city level, provided they are first corrected for top-coding. We present a stylized model of urban luminosity and empirical evidence which both suggest that these 'top lights' follow a Pareto distribution. We then propose a simple correction procedure which recovers the full distribution of city lights. Applying this approach to cities in Sub-Saharan Africa, we find that primate cities are outgrowing secondary cities but are changing from within.
Food demand, an increasingly urban consumer base, food safety and risks of disease transference from domestic livestock, define much of the fundamentals for development in Asia. Food security for the populous region relies on small farmers, continuous research breakthroughs and an appreciation of the integrated nature of development, which in turn provides a broad understanding of the intent behind the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Agriculture’s impact on the natural environment in meeting food demand, sometimes misunderstood to have been avoidable, forms part of the ongoing research focus that seeks to balance human and environmental well-being. As the major source of basic food production, small farmers with diverse food outputs support their own lifestyles in rural regions, and thereby reduce the rate of urban poverty growth, while also providing marketable surpluses. This chapter argues that a holistic view of development indicates that food security continues as it has through history to be central to good governance, which ipso facto renders reliance on free trade in food to be a risk for food-importing nations. Continual reliance on research has become more critical with an increased global awareness of the link between food deficits and migration, and with the poorly appreciated decline in international research spending specific to developing nations. The lead in such research and development is shifting to China and India, yet much still focuses on large-scale production. Research which focuses on small farmers is catered for through the efficient if underfunded Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which has made substantial contributions to world stability and food through innovations across agricultural intensification, environmental sustainability, market reform, food safety and zoonotic disease mitigation. The chapter concludes that where food and nutritional security are responsibly managed, population-induced environmental degradation decreases and opportunities for other developments are created such as conservation, education, health and gender equity.
Lack of infrastructure to meet basic life needs has been identified as a significant driver for rural youth to leave their indigenous identities and knowledge so that they may seek opportunity in cities, and global trends toward urban migration signal a significant threat to preservation of place-based values, beliefs and skills. Large development agencies attempt to address basic needs such as sanitary drinking water, improved sanitation, and safe transportation modes, but economic optimization frequently drives them to focus on serving population centers, leaving rural communities further and further behind. Filling the infrastructure gap are less resourced, sometimes inadequately trained, and often special-interest organizations seeking to promote agendas or follow practices that may conflict with the objectives of the society they support. As a result, efforts to stabilize rural populations through development-engineered infrastructure often are ineffective, as evidenced by the number of abandoned or neglected infrastructures that litter the global countryside. A new, place-based engineering approach to infrastructure design that separates technical intervention from global development is warranted to provide rural societies with relief, reduce the imperative for urban migration, and preserve rural identity and contextual knowledge. Contextual Engineering provides the methodology for merging technical infrastructure design with societal understanding and recognition of rural identity.
Public preferences for redistribution are important for policymaking in authoritarian countries such as China, where political legitimacy has relied heavily on improving the population’s well-being and is likely to be impaired by growing levels of social inequality. What are ordinary Chinese preferences for government redistribution? Do they differ from the public preferences observed in advanced industrialized economies, or are they similar to those found in other developing or post-communist countries? Drawing on the World Values Survey of China for 1990 to 2012 and a multilevel data analysis, I find that Chinese preferences for government redistribution vary significantly with income, occupation, and place of residence as existing studies of advanced industrialized democracies and other developing countries predict. Moreover, Chinese preferences notably fall along state-private sectoral and labor market insider-outsider cleavages generated by the country’s state socialist legacy and its newly developed market economy. These findings suggest that in contemporary China, multiple social cleavages coexist and interweave in such a way as to fragment society without fracturing it along a single and deep class line. This study helps advance understanding of the societal foundations of redistributive policies and politics in China and in transitional societies with newly developed market economies in general.
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