Showing papers in "Studies in Comparative International Development in 1986"

System of cities dynamics in newly industrializing nations.

Abstract: Rapid industrialization in such countries as Korea Malaysia and Taiwan suggests that the complex functional structures of cities in the periphery may appear early in development. This paper proposes a 4-stage framework for the dynamics of a system of cities in a developing country undergoing industrialization and encompassing both nonindustrial and industrial development. The synthesis is assessed with evidence from the newly industrializing Asian nations of Korea Malaysia and Taiwan. The 4 stages of cities industrial change include 1) increasing primacy with industrial satellites 2) increasing primacy with industrial satellites and nodal towns on a transport network 3) rapidly increasing primacy with rapidly growing industrial satellites and nodal towns on the transport network and 4) decreasing primacy with slowly growing industrial satellites and rapidly growing peripheral industrial towns. The 4-stage synthesis suggests that economic development in the periphery may occur even while the primate city maintains its hegemony over control and coordination functions. Peripheral industrial growth does not challenge this hegemony. The growth of industrial cities is instead part of a process of regional specialization in which the low cost labor in the periphery becomes an attraction for industry. These stages are not inevitable. Government efforts are necessary to develop rural areas in terms of social improvements (education and health) capital infrastructure (transportation and utilities) and fair payments to farmers for their outputs. These seem to be the lessons learned from the industrialization process in Korea Malaysia and Taiwan.

Fertility, family planning, and development: indirect influences.

Abstract: This paper focuses on the indirect influences on changing fertility and on the direct and indirect influences on family planning effort. Complete data on the variables under consideration were gathered from a variety of sources for 65 developing countries. The results here should be generalized only to high fertility high mortality low education and low per capita gross national product nations. 1) Some social variables like education are more important than others for explaining fertility and family planning effort. The treatment of social setting as a single variable obscures the importance of lower level education (literacy primary and secondary school enrollment) for fertility and family planning. 2) Ignoring the indirect influences on fertility may lead us to understimate the importance of some variables on fertility and perhaps to overestimate the importance of others. When both direct and indirect effects (the latter through family planning effort) are examined the impact of education increases to nearly equal that of family planning effort in 3 of the 4 models developed here. 3) Program effort can be explained at least as well with a single variable (literacy or female school enrollment) as with the composite variable "social setting." 4) In addition to its importance in explaining fertility education may also be important in explaining mortality. 5) It appears that the absolute and relative status of women may be an important variable which has not yet been adequately measured. Overall the results of this study lend additional support to the position that in addition to family planning effort education may play a more crucial role than is obvious in fertility reduction in developing countries.

Reversal of migration in the labor reserves of Zimbabwe? Prospects for change

Abstract: Changing patterns of migration in Zimbabwe over time are reviewed with particular reference to rural-urban migration and the governments efforts to slow out-migration from rural areas. The author notes that the recently established resettlement schemes are achieving a level of success in lowering rates of out-migration. However he also observes that adequate credit for the purchase of equipment and cattle is necessary if out-migration is to be reduced. (ANNOTATION)

Urban growth and the world polity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: a research agenda.

Abstract: The impact of political factors on urbanization is considered. The scope of the study is worldwide. The authors outline how political power particularly the rise of the nation-state can influence the growth and characteristics of urban systems. Comparisons are made between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. (ANNOTATION)