Urbanization in Southeast Asia

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Urbanization in Southeast Asia

• Concepts, Processes and Comparisons

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Nature of Urbanization in Development Process

• Development inevitably entails an increase in
  urbanization- why?
• Because by and large impetus for economic growth
  lies in the cities
• Urban populations are capital accumulating
  whereas rural populations are capital consuming
• Search for regularities in urban systems has
  revealed several important distinctions

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Urbanization Distinctions Between DCs and LDCs

• Urbanization began earlier in the DCs and by 1900
  a reduction in mortality occurred as well as a
  reduction in birth rates
• In the LDCs urbanization began later
• Urban mortality lower than in rural areas then
  declining urban mortality but high birth rates
• Stronger surge of in-migration compared to DCs
  industrialization lags behind urban growth

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World Urban Population
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Patterns of Urbanization

• Distinction between DC and LDC is 75 percent
  versus 40 percent urban
• However striking variations exist across the LDCs
  in proportion of urban population
• Sub-Saharan Africa 30 Latin America Caribbean
  75 Asia (excl China) 30
• Yet South Africa 50, North Africa 45 and East
  Africa 20
• Central America 68 and South America 79
• West Asia 62 and Southeast Asia 38
• Why these variations in levels of urbanization?

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Urban Pattern in Southeast Asia
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Levels of Urbanization in Southeast Asia
Country Population Urban 90-95 00-05
Southeast Asia 548 mil 38 3.83 3.44
Cambodia 13.1 16 4.19 4.30
East Timor .8 8
Indonesia 219 42 3.96 3.24
Laos 5.8 19 5.45 4.77
Malaysia 25.6 62 3.87 2.77
Myanmar 50.1 28 3.21 3.84
Philippines 83.7 48 3.71 3.32
Singapore 4.2 100
Thailand 63.8 31 4.02 3.70
Vietnam 81.5 25 4.16 4.38
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Southeast Asian Cities Growth
City 1960 1980 2000 60-00 Growth
Jakarta .3 mil 6.5 12.5 300
Bandung 1.0 1.8 3.4 240
Surabaya 1.0 1.7 3.2 220
Hanoi .9 2.5 3.4 278
HCMC 2.3 3.4 5.0 117
Manila 2.4 5.9 11.5 379
Singapore 1.6 2.4 3.0 87
Bangkok 2.3 4.7 10.3 348
KL conb .4 1.3 3.8 850
Yangon 1.0 2.2 4.5 354
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Some Answers to Varying Rates of Urbanization

• Is population size related to level of
  urbanization?
• Some variation in levels of urbanization simply
  produced by varying levels of industrialization
• Most important is the stronger tradition of
  urbanization in some areas
• Especially true of Middle East (the birthplace of
  cities) and Latin America where Spanish
  colonialism produced a deeper urban pattern-
  Philippines
• Other areas the weakness of the rural
  agricultural base and hostile environment means
  urban places are more dominant

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Concepts in Urbanization

• Urbanization- process which leads to a higher
  proportion of the total population of an area to
  live in cities and towns
• Urban growth- absolute or simple growth in the
  number of urban dwellers
• Urbanism-characteristic way of life of urban
  dwellers
• Exceptional is not so much the increased
  proportion of urban growth, but the absolute
  growth of urban population
• Rapid growth of cities in the developing world
  has produced several distinctive forms and
  processes

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Concepts in Urbanization

• Rapid urbanization has been accompanied by
  explosive growth of very large cities
• Primate city is used to identify cities that
  dominate the urban pattern of their respective
  countries
• Such cities are much larger than next largest
  city and account for much of the political and
  economic activity as well as services Examples
  Bangkok
• The growth of such large cities has produced
  mega-cities which exceed 10 million Examples
  Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila

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Largest Cities in The World
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Cities Over 5 Million
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Growth of Cities Real or False Urbanization

• The rapid growth of cities has been fueled by
  rapid in-migration in addition to natural
  increase
• Natural increase and internal migration each
  account for 50 percent of urban growth in the
  LDCs
• Must distinguish however between true
  urbanization where there is a concurrent
  expansion of non-agricultural activities and
  false urbanization where people live in cities
  but do not really have fulfilling jobs
• The latter produces an urban involution whereby
  city feeds on itself

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Urban Involution

• Rapid urbanization brings chronic un- and
  underemployment, over crowding and inadequate
  housingwhy not revolutionary movement?
• Contention is that the persistence of intensive
  traditional and often rural originated activities
  provide a sense of employment
• These labor intensive activities such as food
  vendors and self employed repair occupations
  provide minimum income
• Thus the service or tertiary sector of city
  swells to accommodate more and more jobless
  people by involution

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Economic Structure of the City

• Involution is capacity of service sector to
  absorb more and more labor in a finely expressed
  division of jobs
• Two parts Firm centered or formal and bazaar or
  informal economy
• Firm centered consists of impersonal social
  institutions, specialized occupations for
  productive ends and is capital intensive
• Bazaar economy consists of independent activities
  of highly competitive traders who relate to one
  another through complex ad hoc means-very
  personalized

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Informal or Bazaar economy

• Informal-Bazaar economy is the most absorptive
• Consist of carefully managed credit
  relationships, splitting of risks and sliding
  prices
• Effect is to split trading activities to allow
  more to enter the system
• Process of involution and absorption is
  characterized by tenacity of basic patterns,
  internal ornateness and unending
  virtuosity-special skills

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Formal versus Informal Sector Activities

• Informal- characterized by small scale, easy
  entry, adapted technology, flexible hours, no set
  wages and family or local organization
• Formal- large scale, more difficult entry
  requirements, often imported technology, fixed
  hours of operation, daily/weekly or monthly wage,
  distant ownership or management

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Urban Structures

• Core areas of cities, known as Central Business
  Districts, were usually of colonial origin
• Once heart of city activity now often peripheral
• Subsidiary cores have cropped up and are
  associated with new residential areas
• Port areas-often the initial site-have now
  declined in importance
• Squatter settlements often on the fringe
• Industrial areas have high access arteries

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Typical Southeast Asian City Structure
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Contemporary Urbanization Process

• Desa Kota-- regions of an intense mixture of
  agricultural and nonagricultural activities that
  often stretch along corridors between large city
  cores. Literally in Indonesian desa (village) and
  kota (city). These regions were previously
  characterized by dense population settlement
  engaged in agriculture, generally but not
  exclusively dominated by wet rice.