Managing Urbanization

Abstract

The countries that underwent industrialization during the nineteenth century did experience economic growth coupled with rural–urban migration. Later, the extensive mechanization of agriculture over the years in some of those countries also provided a further impetus to urbanization in their respective populations. Thus, economic growth has come to be closely associated with urbanization. The conditions that generated urbanization in the West are not necessarily the same as those that cause urbanization in the LMICs today. Furthermore, the colonial impact did cause urbanization in the LMICs but the prosperity it generated benefitted only some of those who were subjugated. It also appears to have caused some serious spatial disparities. There was an important spatial planning approach that arose in the West to deal with urbanization. It was based on some visionary “utopian” concept that arose in Europe toward the end of the nineteenth century and had gained much credence in the past. That approach was perhaps appropriate to those contexts then but its relevance to the LMICs today needs to be questioned. The scale of urbanization being experienced today in the LMICs including those in South Asia is much greater in magnitude than what was experienced earlier in the West. Furthermore, the impacts upon LMICs of ongoing globalization, popularization of scientific developments, and technological innovations including those of ICT need also to be recognized. Thus, it should be expected that the planning approaches and spatial results in most LMICs including those in South Asia are likely to be very different.

This chapter is based on a paper by the author titled “Managing Urbanization in South Asia: Towards a Rational Theoretical Base”, published in the Sri Lanka Economic Journal, Vol. 13 No. 2, 2012. Certain sections are also an extension of a newspaper article “Megacities and urbanization in South Asia” of the author which was published in Sri Lanka Daily News of 30th November 2015.