World Cities / metropolitan regions

Photos from Venezuela
Venezuela Guyana City
Nairobi -- 1 million people

Cities have grown rapidly because of migration and population growth
    -- previous centuries: old cities are inland, with better irrigation and drainage.
    -- Since 1800, new cities are coastal and are links into global economy.

urbanization of third world:
     year 2000             40% urban
     year 2030             60% urban (estimate)
             source: population reference bureau

Reasons for urbanization

note: urbanization is one of the elements in Weber's model of modernization.

• Push from the countryside
• poverty, famine
• lack of farm land for enlarging rural population
• family pressure (arrange marriage), limited culture, no education opportunities
• Pull from the city
• jobs, money,
• better living standard  (housing?, food-variety)
• entertainment, education, modern/global culture
• Globalization
• creates more urban manufacturing jobs
• expands culture of modernization, urban migration

• Challenges of employment
• formal sector: big factories, civil service--  stable, high paying, benefits.
• difficult for recent immigrants lacking education to get these jobs
• informal sector: street vendors, garbage picking, shoe shine, mechanics, hauling materials, driving, prostitution

 
• Housing: squatter settlements, shantytown, favelas (Brazil), ranchos (Venezuela), slums,
• homeless are 1/2 of urban inhabitants.
• problems/dangers:
• houses on hillsides collapse in mud slide
• lack of services: lack running water, no sewers, serious disease problems.
• no schools
• high risk of fire, lack fire departments
• gangs, high level of violence, weak or brutal police service
• lack of public transportation, low mobility

lack legal protection for abode so they can be removed for  "development"
• public housing, quickly become expensive in subsidies, political plums, may attract even more rural immigrants.

• Politics
• Note: Karl Marx predicted that industrialization would create a revolutionary proletariate of urban industrial workers
• Labor unions often expand and become politicized
• Occasional mobilization, collective action -- riots triggered by inflation, food shortages, bus fare increases
• Urban areas may support leftist parties or extremist relgious organization
• Frustration can turn to violence
• Clientelism, become clients of political / economic patrons (machine politics)

• Leftist populist movements, some Christian, sometimes both esp in Latin America
• interesting analysis
• leftist populist governments:
• Venezuela -- Hugo Chavez
• Brazil -- Lulu
• Bolivia -- Morales
• Argentina --
• Nicaragua -- Daniel Ortega
• Support for Muslim Brotherhood in Mid East

In general, the government tries to ameliorate urban conditions, resulting in an "urban bias," that increases migration.  The ultimate irony is that efforts to solve problems of urban residents result in more migration and more problems.

Excellent example of urban migration in India

BBC Articles on urbanization
The Urban Millennium
 

Classic Book: Michael Lipton, Urban Bias, Why Poor People Stay Poor (1977)
     discussion (Rural Urban Dimensions of Inequality Change)