Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-mwx4w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-29T23:28:16.541Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Do Cities ‘Modernize’ the Developing Countries? An Examination of the South Asian Experience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

M. A. Qadeer
M. A. Qadeer
Affiliation:
Queen's University, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The City is a civilizing influence. This is one of the enduring themes of western thought. The crowding, filth, and exploitation of the industrial city in nineteenth-century Europe could not dampen the enthusiasm of urbanists such as Weber, Ruskin, or Spengler; nor is there any dearth of eulogizers of today‘s sprawling megalopolis. This mode of thought has also found its way into the poor countries of the third world, where the overwhelming majority lives in isolated villages. The current message for them is to seek urbanization if they want to be prosperous. This is the essence of a now familiar proposition that cities are necessary for economic development.

Type
Cities
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , June 1974 , pp. 266 - 283
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Third World Congress for Rural Sociology, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S.A., August 23, 1972.

1 Lampard, Eric E., ‘The History of Cities in the Economically Advanced Areas’, in Regional Development and Planning, Friedmann, John and Alonso, William, eds. (Cambridge: The M.I.T. Press, 1964), pp. 331–2.Google Scholar

2 Hoselitz, Bert F., ‘The Role of Cities in the Economic Growth of Underdeveloped Areas’, in The City in Newly Developing Countries, Breese, Gerald, ed. (Englewood Cliffs: PrenticeHall, 1969), p. 233.Google Scholar

3 Friedmann, John, ‘Cities in Social Transformation’, Friedmann, and Alonso, , eds. op. cit., p. 351.Google Scholar

4 Moore, Wilbert E., Social Change (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1963), p. 89.Google Scholar

5 Eisenstadt, S. N., ‘Reflections on a Theory of Modernization’, in Nations by Design, Arnold, Rivkin, ed. (New York: Anchor Books, 1969), p. 38.Google Scholar

6 Apter, David E., The Politics of Modernization (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1965), p. 42.Google Scholar

7 Friedmann, John, ‘The Strategy of Deliberate Urbanization’ in Journal of the American Institute of Planners, Vol. XXXIV, No. 6 (11 1969), p. 365.Google Scholar

8 The dichotomous view of rural-urban differences regards the ‘folk-rural’ social system as closed, poor, ascriptive, and dominated by primary relationships, whereas the urban system is said to be open, achievement-oriented, cosmopolitan in outlook, industrial, and prosperous. A discussion of the relevance of ‘polar’ or ‘continuum’ models is being purposely avoided because of the ancillary nature of this issue from our point of view.

9 Bulsara, J. F., Patterns of Social Life in Metropolitan Areas (Bombay: The Gujrat Research Society, 1970), p. 39.Google Scholar

10 Fukutake, Tadashi et al. , The Socio-Economic Structure of the Indian Village (Tokyo: The Institute of Asian Economic Affairs, 1964), pp. 10, 110.Google Scholar

11 Sovani, N. V., Urbanization and Urban India (London: Asia Publishing House, 1966), p. 45.Google Scholar

12 National Council of Applied Economic Research, Urban Income and Saving (New Delhi, India: 1962), p. 23.Google ScholarPubMed

13 Hashmi, Sultan S., The People of Karachi—Demographic Characteristics (Karachi: Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, 1962), Table V-II, p. 105.Google ScholarPubMed

14 Ibid., p. 106.

15 Sovani, N. V., op. cit., p. 65.Google Scholar

16 Davis, Kingsley, Population of India and Pakistan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1951), p. 133.Google Scholar

17 Sovani, N. V., op. cit., p. 65.Google Scholar

18 Hashmi, Sultan S., op. cit., p. 118.Google Scholar

19 Ibid., pp. 119–20.

20 Urban Income and Saving op. cit., p. 28.Google Scholar

21 Government of Pakistan, Central Statistical Office, Socio-economic Survey of Rawalpindi (Karachi: 1969), p. 48.Google ScholarPubMed

22 Zachariah, K. C., ‘Bombay Migration Study: A Pilot Analysis of Migration to an Asian Metropolis’, in The City in Developing Countries, Breese, Gerald, ed. (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1969), p. 367.Google Scholar

23 Gardezi, H. N., ‘A Comparative Analysis of Some Structural Characteristics of Urbanism in Indo-Pakistan Sub-Continent and in the United States’ (Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology, Washington State University, 1961), p. 32.Google Scholar

24 Urban Income and Saving op. cit., p. x.Google Scholar

25 National Council of Applied Economic Research, All India Rural Household Survey, Vol. II (New Delhi, India: 1965), p. viii.Google Scholar

26 Bulsara, J. F., op. cit., pp. 30,246Google Scholar, and Government of Pakistan, Socio-Economic Survey of Korangi, Karachi, 1961, p. 25.Google Scholar

27 All India Rural Household Survey, Vol. II, op. cit., Table 12, p. 52.Google Scholar

28 Bulsara, J. F., op. cit., p. 216.Google Scholar

29 Ibid., p. 217.

30 Government of Pakistan, Central Statistical Office, Socio-Economic Survey of Rawalpindi (Karachi: 1969), p. 25.Google Scholar

31 Bulsara, J. F., op. cit., p. 224.Google Scholar

32 Ibid., p. 226.

33 Socio-Economic Survey of Rawalpindi, op. cit., p. 25.Google Scholar

34 Srinivas, M. N., Social Change in Modern India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969), p. 66.Google Scholar

35 Lambert, Richard D., ‘The Impact of Urban Society Upon Village Life’ in India's Urban Future, Turner, Roy, ed. (Bombay: Oxford University Press, 1962), p. 129.Google Scholar