03/05/13

AC2013 - Urbanization as the New Global Frontier (1)

RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2013

Urbanization as the New Global Frontier (2)
Research Group(s) Convenor(s) Chair(s) Timetable Session abstract Developing Areas Research Group Jytte Agergaard (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) Katherine Gough (Loughborough University) Katherine Gough (Loughborough University) Thursday 29 August 2013, Session 2 In the introduction to the 2008 edited collection The New Global Frontier: Urbanization, Poverty and Environment in the 21st Century the authors state that The urban centres of low- and middle-income countries represent the new global frontier. This claim stems from the fact that virtually all the worlds future population and economic growth is projected to occur in the cities and towns of Africa, Asia and Latin America. This session will critically examine this assertion. Questions that will be addressed include, but are not limited to, the following: Can we talk about urbanization as the New Global Frontier? What are the drivers of the urbanization frontier? How is this frontier influenced by rural transformations and rural-urban connections? Are cities growing and if so is this growth due to migration and/or population growth? How are cities and towns in the Global South transforming? Are the livelihoods of urban residents in the New Global Frontier changing? How is climate/environmental change implicated in these processes and with what consequences for understanding and addressing urban poverty? Urbanization as the New Global Frontier (1)

Linked Sessions

Contact the conference organisers to request a change to session or paper details: AC2013@rgs.org Rural-urban connections, urban economies and urbanization: Zimbabwe and Zambia compared Deborah Potts (King's College London)
The pace of urbanization in Zimbabwe and Zambia has waxed and waned since the 1960s. There can be no suggestion of a steady linear trend in either. Nor is there any simple regional pattern reflected to a significant extent the experience of each country in each decade has been the mirror image of the other; when one has been urbanizing rapidly, the other has not. Both have now experienced periods of actual counter-urbanization. This paper seeks to demonstrate how rural-urban connections have played a major part in each country and also how both global economics and state action can influence urban outcomes.

Demographic Shifts and Rural Urbanization in Tanzania during the 2000s Jytte Agergaard (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) Sarah D'haen (University of Copenhagen) Torben Birch-Thomsen (University of Copenhagen)
Since the late 1990s, Tanzania has experienced remarkable economic progress. Yet, overall societal benefits have been limited, in particular as to challenging persistent poverty. To counter this shortfall, support for urbanization has been identified as one of three major policy shifts needed in Tanzania. In this paper we will take a critical look at trends in demographic shifts in Tanzania with a particular focus on how to identify processes of urban growth, urbanization and internal migration. In this respect we draw on existing analyses of urbanization produced in the context of the 2009 World Bank report and supplement these with critical examinations of recent household and panel survey data. From these readings we look for a generic portrait of urban growth dynamics in Tanzania during the 2000s. This leads us to an exploration of one of the particular changes in urbanization in this period; the emergence of (smaller) urban centres. Often located in what is designated as rural areas and generally in clear distance of more established city regions and larger agglomerations, these urban centres are only attracting scant attention. This second part of the paper draws on ongoing research exploring the emergence of urban centers in four different regions in Tanzania. In the final discussion we will reflect on demographic shifts and urbanization in Tanzania and how this can be interpreted as one and/or more urban frontier(s).
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AC2013 - Urbanization as the New Global Frontier (1)

The Living Place of the Excluded from and by the Metropolis Thiago Canettieri de Mello e S (PUC Minas, Brazil) Thiago Pereira Rita (Pontifcia Universidade Catlica de Minas Gerais) Rita de Cssia Liberato (Pontifcia Universidade Catlica de Minas Gerais)
This paper aims to present results from the research titled The Living Place of the Excluded from and by the Metropolis. The investigation analyses the population dynamics among low-income emigrants departing from Belo Horizonte, the metropolitan core, toward its neighboring cities: Ribeiro das Neves, Vespasiano, Santa Luzia, Sabar e Ibirit. Thus, we seek to understand and qualify this population dispersal process within Belo Horizontes Metropolitan Region. We deploy a hybrid analysis, based on historical cartography and satellite imagery, to analyze the spatial pattern of the urban sprawl emanating from Belo Horizonte between 1918 to 2010. We conjugate this procedure with the analysis of the 2000 and 2010 Census migration data on the population below the poverty line. Results reveal a consistent out-migration trend among the poor from Belo Horizonte, fomented by their incapacity to afford the costs of living in the main city, especially those related to housing.

From junction to market town A tale of rapid small town development in the Ghanaian cocoa frontier Michael Helt Knudsen ( - )
Contemporary literature on urban Africa tends to focus on the insuperable challenges faced by the continents mega and capital cities with emphasis on unemployment, slums, deprived livelihoods, pollutionand (lack of) planning. While there certainly is a need for addressing these issues, the dynamics of smaller urban settlements and their role in regional and national development have largely been overlooked. Focusing on the remarkable development of the small town Bonsu Nkwanta, located in the heart of the last Ghanaian cocoa frontier in the countrys Western Region, this paper contributes to the seldom told story about settlement growth and livelihood changes in Africas small towns the home for much of Africas low income population. The paper builds on a longitudinal study (20052013) of livelihood, mobility and settlement processes in Bonsu Nkwanta. The settlement history of Bonsu Nkwanta is the story of how a handful of houses on a road junction became a vibrant market town. The paper shows how the production of cocoa sparked an intense immigration, but also how the booming cocoa economy made the frontier attractive to nonfarm migrants, resulting in an unplanned, fast growing settlement, and an overall transition from rural to urban occupation. Central to this exploration is how migration and frontier dynamics are contributing to livelihoods and small town development, and how this process is gradually becoming delinked from the crop that was starting it all. The paper discusses how small towns often are economically interdependent with larger urban areas and rural areas in its hinterlands and far away, indicating the important role of ruralurban linkages in influencing and shaping both the rural and urban economies. Indeed, small town development like in Bonsu Nkwanta is an important part of urbanization processes in Ghana and across Africa, and small towns can play a potential pivotal role in both rural and urban development. The paper concludes that if the potential is to be realized, poverty reduction and development policies must acknowledge this role, and place small towns back at the center of attention.

Discussant Jonathan Rigg (National University of Singapore)

Discussion

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