| Theme 1:
THE LINKS BETWEEN ECONOMIC CHANGE AND URBAN CHANGE |
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[Myth 1] |
Cities are parasitic, growing everywhere without the economy to support them |
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[Myth 2] |
Africa's urban population growing out of control without economic development |
| [Myth 3] |
The future is predominantly urban |
| Myth 1 |
... Cities are parasitic, growing everywhere without the economy to support them |
 Myth
1Pdf (110KB) |
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In general, the more urbanized a nation, the stronger and more productive its economy. The nations with the greatest economic success over the last few decades are generally the nations that have urbanized most rapidly. Most of those with the smallest increase in their level of urbanization are those with the least economic success. There is a strong association between nations' average per capita incomes and their level of urbanization and all the world's wealthier nations have high proportions of their population living in urban areas, because these concentrate most of their economic activities. Cities generally have a significantly higher concentration of their nations' economic activities than of their populations. The link between economic strength and urbanization can also be seen in the concentration of the world's large cities ... (the full text is available in the pdf file) |
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| Myth 2 (semi-myth): |
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... Africa's urban population is growing out of control without economic development |
Myth
2 Pdf (83KB) |
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Africa is often singled out as an example of a region where particularly rapid urban growth is taking place without economic growth. Certainly, Africa has some of the world's fastest growing cities over the last fifty years and many African nations have had very little economic growth in recent decades. But one of the main reasons why urban change has been so rapid in recent decades is that it began from such a small base, as the European colonial powers who controlled virtually all of Africa 50 years ago had kept down urban populations by imposing restrictions on the rights of their national populations to live and work in urban centres. The removal or weakening of the colonial apartheid-like controls on population movements was one of the reasons why urban populations grew so rapidly just before or after the ending of colonial rule. For instance, urban growth dynamics over the last 40 years in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) cannot be understood without taking into account the profound impact of controls on people's movement ... (the full text is available in the pdf file) |
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| Myth 3 |
| ... The future is predominantly urban | Myth
3 Pdf (68KB) |
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This is not so much a myth as an assumption that can be questioned. The world will only become predominantly urban if the economic changes that underpin urbanization take place. For 40 years, there has been an assumption that the world's population will become ever more urbanized. Projections are routinely made up to the year 2025 or 2030, showing the level of urbanization in each nation and the size to which the world's largest cities will grow. This in turn generates statements like 'the world has to accommodate two billion more urban dwellers by the year 2025'. But the future size of any city depends on its economic performance and as will be described in the next section, many of the world's largest cities are having difficulties attracting new investments... (the full text is available in the pdf file) |
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| Complete document
(including all the myths): The
10 and 1/2 MythsPdf (355KB) |
