Showing papers on "Rural area published in 1969"

The Economy of Cities

Abstract: Studying the economy of cities is relevant for a number of reasons. First of all, because most of the planet's population is grouped in them. Secondly, because they concentrate the main social problems that humanity has and, finally, because they are also the greatest source of creativity, innovation and development opportunities to solve those problems. Cities group companies and people who interact with each other both within their scope and with their peers in other cities. The general framework in which the current economy operates is, in general, the city and if the latter does not create the conditions for the economic activity to be sustainable, not only the city, but the country itself will suffer the consequences.

A model of labor migration and urban unemployment in less developed countries.

Abstract: An economic behavioral model of rural urban migration is formulated which represents a realistic modification and extension of the simple wage differential approach commonly found in the literature and this probablistic approach is incorporated into a rigorous model of the determinants of urban labor demand and supply which when given values for the crucial parameters can be used among other things to estimate the equilibrium proportion of the urban labor force that is not absorbed by the modern industrial economy. Additionally the model will provide a convenient framework for analyzing the implications of alternative policies designed to alleviate unemployment by varying 1 or more of the principal parameters. A more realistic picture of labor migration in less developed nations would be one that views migration as a 2 stage phenomenon: in the 1st stage the unskilled rural worker migrates to an urban area and spends a certain period of time in the "urban traditional" sector; and the 2nd stage is reached with the eventual attainment of a more permanent modern sector job. This 2 stage process allows one to ask some basic questions concerning the decision to migrate the proportionate size of the urban traditional sector and the implications of accelerated industrial growth and/or alternative rural urban real income differentials on labor participation in the modern economy. In the model the decision to migrate from rural to urban areas is functionally related to 2 principal variables: the urban rural real income differential and the probability of obtaining an urban job. To understand better the nature of the supply function to be used in the overall model of the determinants of urban unemployment it is helpful to state the underlying behavioral assumptions of the model of rural urban migration: it is assumed that the percentage change in the urban labor force as a result of migration during any period is governed by the differential between the discounted streams of expected urban and rural real income expressed as percentage of the discounted stream of expected rural real income; the planning horizon for each worker is identical; the fixed costs of migration are identical for all workers; and the discount factor is constant over the planning horizon and identical for all potential migrants. The model demonstrates the overall net impact of allowing these parameters to vary over time and/or choosing alternative values. It underlines in a simple and plausible way the interdependent effects of industrial expansion productivity growth and the differential expected real earnings capacity of urban versus rural activities on the size and rate of increase in labor migration and therefore ultimately on the occupational distribution of the urban labor force. Possibly the most significant policy implication that emerged from the model is the great difficulty of substantially reducing the size of the urban traditional sector without a concentrated effort at making rural life more attractive.

Demographic Responses And Population Change

Abstract: Most Western societies have gone through a process of population change during the past 100-150 years. One important aspect is the socalled demographic transition: the shift from high to low birth and death rates, and accelerated growth resulting from the lag between falling mortality and falling fertility, in national populations. Equally important has been the "rural-to-urban" transition, which involved the migration of millions of people from rural areas. It is hypothesized, following the suggestion of Davis (Theory of the Multi-Phasic Demographic Response), that the adjustment in reproductive behavior made by a community in response to a rising "strain," such as that resulting from higher natural increase, is likely to differ depending upon the ease with which the community can relieve the strain through out migration. Relationships among such characteristics of modernization as intensity of industrialization, speed of urbanization, structural changes in the agricultural system, and declining fertility are implied. Case studies of England and Sweden lend support to the hypothesis: more rapid urban-industrial development, larger-scale movement from rural areas, and a delayed decline in the rural birth rate distinguish the English transition.

Rural migration and agricultural development in Colombia.

Abstract: The author argues that economists should integrate rural migration into development plans and that special attention must be paid to the impact which this has on the agricultural sector. The early labor and land tenure systems set up by the conquerors of Colombia blocked movement which might have occured among the large Indian population. As these systems decayed and population pressure increased internal migration became more important. Population growth accelerated during the 1900s from 2.2% during 1938-51 to 3.2% in 1951-64 and a total of 2.7 million people moved into urban areas between 1951-64 a number equal to 36% of the rural population in 1951. Rural-urban migration has been seen as a selective process; migrants are generally younger and better educated than nonmigrants and migrants are most heavily drawn from regions closest to the cities. In most cases the direct costs to individuals of migration to large urban centers in Colombia increase with the distance of the move. 5 of 7 areas in Colombia studied had 37-45% of the people enumerated living outside of the general area of their birth. It is also shown that there has been a high degree of mobility among rural residents in Colombia without any apparent relationship to distance from the large industrial centers; also the proportion of migrants moving to large cities or satellite urban areas decreased as the travel time was increased. A higher proportion of the migrants in the more distant areas were moving into other rural regions or nearby villages and towns. Education also has an effect on migration the 2 areas with the lowest levels of education also had the lowest rates of out-migration. Most of the migrant families interviewed in a study owned less than 50 acres of land and many owned none at all; but generally there is little association between land owned and migration. A large proportion of rural-urban migrants are young when they move to the cities. Some implications for agricultural development are: 1) 3/4 of Colombias poor unproductive people still live in rural areas 2) migration is drawing out the individuals with the characteristics most appropriate for agricultural development programs 3) accelerated out-migration would aggravate some of the most pressing problems associated with agricultural production and 4) land reform programs could absorb a number of the young individuals who are now moving away from their birthplaces.

A Thai Village Headman as a Synaptic Leader

Abstract: A NTHROPOLOGICAL data is typically produced in single villages, but consumed by persons interested in peoples, regions, and nations. Although this paper' suffers from the disabilities implied by that situation, its goal is to attempt to ameliorate them. The status of headman which I will describe in Ban Ping2 is found, named, and assigned the same legal duties in all Thai villages. This should permit other fieldworkers to make straightforward comparisons with their communities. During my initial fieldwork in Ban Ping, I was struck by the extent to which the importance of its headman and its corporateness differed from what the literature on Thai villages had led me to expect. This paper argues that some features of these properties are neither idiosyncratic to Ban Ping nor accidental to each other, and that the general relationship between the headman's synaptic leadership and the village's corporateness provides access for investigating the ways in which rural villages are incorporated into developing nations. The merits of this paper, however, probably lie more in its descriptive detail than its abstract formulations. For administrative purposes, Thailand consists of provinces composed of districts which, in rural areas, are collections of boroughs (tambon) built of hamlets. Districts and provinces are administered by professional full-time civil servants; hamlets and boroughs are not. Headmen are peasants in charge of hamlets. The headmen of a borough elect one of their number to be borough headman (kamnan). Chiengkham, the district in which Ban Ping is situated, is connected to the provincial capital of Chiengrai and to the rice entrepot of Phayao by one of the worst roads in Thailand.3 During the dry season, it takes eight hours by rice truck to reach the nearest paved road; during the wet season a mounted official needs two full days to travel the 65 kilometers, a villager even longer. Ban Ping is a village of I2I Tai-Lue,4 households founded approximately one hundred years ago by immigrants from Yunnan. Its residents regard themselves as kins-

Attitudes and opinions of rural people about mental illness and program services.

Abstract: ENTAL health program personnel have for many years attempted to find solutions to the problem of delivery of mental health services to rural communities. Mobile clinic teams have been tried with relatively little lasting success and, indeed, have helped to prove that other than traditional clinic approaches are mandatory. Attempts have been made to utilize other professionals in rural communities to help with the mental health job. These have included public health nurses,1-3 local welfare workers, and, from time to time, members of the agricultural extension services. Single professionals have been deployed in given areas to provide consultation, referral, educational, and case services. Examples of this are the mental health worker program of Florida4 and the community consultant approach in New Mexico5 and Wisconsin.6 These workers also provide leadership for the development of indigenous mental health programs tailored to local needs, resources, and political processes. It seems obvious that some means must be found that will utilize the manpower from all the human services programs that exist in rural areas, as scarce as they are in comparison with their urban and better financed counterparts. It seems equally obvious that the need for mental health services in rural areas will be with us for some time to come. In spite of the rapid urbanization and coincident decline in rural population, it is still a fact that 30 per cent of our total population lives outside the boundaries of our urban places. In North Carolina alone, 34 of the 100 counties have no urban places (2,500 people or more) as defined in the 1960 census, which means these counties are 100 per cent rural. Eighty-nine of the 100 counties had more rural than urban population in 1960. In the face of this and similar circumstances in vast stretches ofthis country we in the Community Psychiatry Section of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina have initiated a project designed to develop, evaluate, and assess the feasibility of a pattern of rural mental health services which might also have application in other rural areas in the country. Among the strategies employed to test

Demographic and social Considerations for U.S. Rural Economic Policy

Abstract: F A demographer has anything worth saying, he welcomes the chance to expose others to the approach of his field and the implications of his insights. But this joy is tempered when he is asked to do so in years ending in 8, or even 7 or 6. For, although his wisdom may abound in the early years of a decade, much of it has become commonplace or clouded with uncertainty near the end of the decennial period. This is particularly true when the subject considered is the rural population, for, as officially defined, it can be measured only in a full census and cannot be acceptably approximated in intercensal sample surveys. However, if an opportunity for such a presentation does not come in a year ending in 2 or 3 or 4, one does the best one can in a year ending in 8. There are some facets of the rural demographic picture that it is unnecessary to demonstrate. Everyone knows that with the decline in farm employment the farm population has dropped rapidly. We have all heard that the rural population is a smaller proportion of the total population than formerly. And, for that matter, it is now reasonably common knowledge that the majority of rural people no longer live on farms or work directly in farming. Each of these facts has clearly affected the thinking of policy makers, in the last decade particularly. There are other demographic conditions, however, that are not as clear cut or as well understood either in their trends or their implications. I should like to focus on several such features that I regard as significant and in need of explication. One recurring problem in furnishing information about rural areas is the inevitable and understandable desire of policy makers to have generalizations and brevity. Yet, in the case of rural areas, national generalizations can often be misleading and potentially harmful. If there is one point about American rural demography that needs emphasis, it is that there are widely divergent demographic conditions in the rural population associated with different geographic regions and ethno-cultural

The Revolutionary Landscape of Highland Bolivia

Abstract: The major changes in rural land tenure that have occurred in various countries during the last two centuries have led to a profound change in man-land relationships. The results of such changes have in some cases been the thrusting of even more power upon the capitalist landowners, as in the Enclosure Movement in England, or alternatively the sudden transfer of decision-making in rural areas to the peasant masses, as has happened in some of the Socialist countries. Such a change has rarely been without incident and the process of readjustment to the new condi? tions has seldom been without difficulties. With land reform being introduced to the Latin American governing class as almost a prerequisite for receiving United States aid, it is particularly important that the changes in the countryside that are related to land reform should be accurately forecast in order for the rural population to derive as much benefit as possible. Such predictions can only be made after an examination of the few existing examples of land reform. The Bolivian land reform was a direct result ofthe Revolution of 9 April 1952. It effectively removed the big landowner from the rural scene and through a changed political structure the people who worked the land had more say in the government of the country. At a local level the making of decisions about crops, livestock, marketing and all things to do with agricultural management became the responsi? bility of the peasants rather than the landowners or their agents. The results of these changes are not always very apparent, in part because change is inherently difficult to analyse unless a study is carried out at two widely separated points in time, and also because the general direction of change, or what one might loosely call progress, is similar in all rural areas in which the peasantry is becoming integrated into the national society and economy. Even so it is apparent that many parts of upland rural Bolivia have changed remarkably since 1952. What follows is an attempt to describe what changes have taken place since no such account has yet been pre? pared1 and, in particular, to show how the visible landscape has changed in areas

In the rural area

Abstract: Within Planning Advice Note PAN 73: Rural Diversification, the Scottish Government defines rural Scotland as the countryside and settlements of 3,000 population or less. Insofar as East Ayrshire is concerned, the whole of the area can be classed as rural, with the exception of the principal settlement of Kilmarnock, the Service Centres of Auchinleck, Cumnock, Stewarton and Galston and the local communities of Darvel, Drongan, Hurlford and Crookedholm, Mauchline, New Cumnock and Newmilns. Wherever possible, and in line with the principles of sustainability, the Council directs all new development to appropriate sites within the area settlements and the degree to which the area settlements is able to accommodate new development is detailed in this section of the local plan.

Rural Emigration in Andean America

Abstract: The pervasive and vital movement of population from rural areas towards urban centers, zones of colonization, or areas of intensive commercial agriculture, is particularly important in Latin America. Areas of high rural population density with low levels of living abound, and throughout the continent the rate of economic growth of the urban-industrial sector of the economy far outstrips that of the rural-agricultural sector. Increasing attention is being given to the problems resulting from this urbanization, but the general inadequacy of Latin American census data precludes meaningful study without the aid of field surveys. Although the causes of rural emigration have been widely discussed in general terms, they have yet to be studied in detail in association with intensive field investigation. It is my purpose here to review the scale and direction of migration in Andean America and to outline the variety of problems associated specifically with rural emigration. I will then suggest some important lines...

Emergency health services in areas of low population density.

Abstract: Emergency health services in the prehospital phase must be emphasized to save, among persons who die in less than 24 hours, the substantial minority who are dead or moribund when they reach the emergency room. Among adults, a greater percentage of inherently and potentially serious emergencies than minor emergencies occur at night, are in rural areas, and involve persons who have been drinking and often are problem drinkers. Planning for emergency services must be based on separate evaluation of minor and serious emergencies and on consideration of the separate problems and resources of urban and rural areas, the latter including areas of low population density in predominately urban communities. Overemphasis upon services for persons injured on the highway at the expense of services for the entire range of injury and illness must be avoided.

Human infections with mouse favus in a rural area of South Australia.

Abstract: A brief description of mouse favus caused by Trichophyton quinckeanum has been given. The epidemiology and the clinical variations of mouse favus in humans have been described. Nine proven cases of human infections with T. quinckeanum have been reported from the Wudinna district in South Australia during a mouse plague. A brief outline of the history of mouse favus in Australia has been discussed. It is hoped that country practitioners will be encouraged to forward clinical material to mycological laboratories for specific identification of fungal infections.

Urbanization in Kenya: Origins and Trends

Abstract: IT IS in towns that the economic and social changes occurring in developing countries most immediately present themselves and the resulting problems are most acute. Kenya is at an early stage of urbanization and if geographers have learned anything from the study of other, more urbanized, countries they should be able to suggest the more probable lines along which urban development may take place and anticipate the problems it will present. Such statistics as are now available on the proportion of the population in towns in different countries are not strictly comparable because of the problem of whether the definition is based on size, function or legal status; it is important to know what is the minimum size to be considered and how much of the peri-urban fringe is included. Also, the significance of a town differs according to the society in which it is set and according to the problems which are being discussed. Nevertheless, it is clear that Africa is poorly urbanized by comparison with the rest of the world and East Africa is particularly so. Even with size criteria as low as 2000 persons, the census of 1962 only gave the urban population of Kenya as 7.8 per cent contained in thirty-four towns (Fig. I). Tanganyika and Uganda have still lower proportions of their population in cities (4.I per cent in 1957 and 5.I per cent in I959).1 The rural life is so often spoken of with envy by the citizens of the great megalopoli that it may be helpful to restate the advantages of urbanization to a developing country: commercially, towns provide the market centres required in the conversion from a subsistence to a cash economy; industrially, they house the increasing proportion of the population which more productive agriculture releases to make the flow of manufactured goods of which material advancement consists; in the public services, they facilitate the provision of schools, hospitals, clinics, electricity, water, sanitation-and of law and order; socially, migration to towns weakens the restricting influences of tribal traditional custom and politically, the mixing of peoples can assist in breaking down tribal tensions which are so damaging to stability in Africa and encourage the evolution of a sense of national purpose as against tribal sectional self

Characteristics of community mental health center operations in small communities.

Abstract: With increasing tempo, community mental health center programs are being developed in areas of low population density. Models created in urban areas will need modifications in philosophy and practice in order to flourish in this new environment. The distinctive characteristics of small community life must be taken into account. These characteristics may require alterations in the following selected areas of mental health center operations: type of personnel selected; method of program development; relationships with other professionals; approach to significant community "gatekeepers" and selection of program content.

Regional Development and the Rural Poor.

Abstract: The regional policy of the President's Advisory Commission on Rural Poverty is based on the assumption that the social costs of bringing industry to relatively poor regions would be less than the social costs involved in the migration of workers and increased congestion and unemployment in industrial areas. However, there is no convincing evidence that central government programs can attract enough industry to the countryside to provide people everywhere with jobs in proximity to their places of residence. On the other hand, federal programs to influence the quality of human resources in lagging rural areas benefit the people of these regions and the nation as a whole. Opportunity cost considerations favor federal subsidies for investment in education, health, and training in lagging regions, as well as for relocation subsidies and information programs to facilitate rational migration towards intermediate regions where growth is rapid but where congestion poses no immediate threat.

The future of rural america

Abstract: This restructuring is both concentration and dispersion, depending on the scale or the grain of one's inquiry. On the national scale, it is concentration. The larger part of the country is losing population, relatively small parts are gaining, as increasing proportions of the total population are concentrated in cities and city-like areas. In 1960, all urbanized areas as definedby the Bureau of the Census included less than 1 percent of the total land area but included 54 percent of the total population; and some of my research has shown clearly that there is a substantial further agglomeration within such urbanized areas. Since the war, the proportion in such areas has risen significantly. At the same time, the dispersion effect is evident within the urban complexes. The older city areas have grown little or not at all, or have lost population, while the suburbs have gained greatly.