Geography essay
THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
Department of Geography
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AN URBANIZING WORLD (GEOG 1012)
First Semester 2013-2014
Essay 1: Compare and contrast the main characteristics of the urbanization process in the First and Third Worlds
Urbanization refers to the process by which an increasing proportion of a national population lives in towns and cities. It can be movement from rural to an urban or simply involves a growth in the number of people in urban areas. On the other hand, starting from Cold War era, threefold division of the world was employed. In political sense, ‘First World’ regards to capitalist industrial market economies or more-developed countries while ‘Third World’ refers to some initially nonaligned states, which eventually became clients states of one camp or the other. In a socio-economic sense, the Third World refers to countries that failed to develop economically after independence (Pacione, 2009). From the above, we can see that there are some fundamental differences between First World and Third World, which lead to various characteristics of the urbanization process between two worlds. Although it was inevitable to have differences in the urbanization process between these two worlds, some similarities can be found. In this essay, I shall attempt to analyze both the similarities and differences between the main characteristics of the urbanization process in the First and Third Worlds. I will focus on investigating social and economics aspects.
Market Force – The invisible hand Undoubtedly, urbanization has a close relationship to the economic development. One of the similarities of the urbanization process in First and Third World is that the processes in both places are mainly driven by the economic development. (Pacione 2009) In 18th century, Industrialization began gaining popularity in Britain. Increasing jobs opportunities and the higher wages in
Department of Geography
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AN URBANIZING WORLD (GEOG 1012)
First Semester 2013-2014
Essay 1: Compare and contrast the main characteristics of the urbanization process in the First and Third Worlds
Urbanization refers to the process by which an increasing proportion of a national population lives in towns and cities. It can be movement from rural to an urban or simply involves a growth in the number of people in urban areas. On the other hand, starting from Cold War era, threefold division of the world was employed. In political sense, ‘First World’ regards to capitalist industrial market economies or more-developed countries while ‘Third World’ refers to some initially nonaligned states, which eventually became clients states of one camp or the other. In a socio-economic sense, the Third World refers to countries that failed to develop economically after independence (Pacione, 2009). From the above, we can see that there are some fundamental differences between First World and Third World, which lead to various characteristics of the urbanization process between two worlds. Although it was inevitable to have differences in the urbanization process between these two worlds, some similarities can be found. In this essay, I shall attempt to analyze both the similarities and differences between the main characteristics of the urbanization process in the First and Third Worlds. I will focus on investigating social and economics aspects.
Market Force – The invisible hand Undoubtedly, urbanization has a close relationship to the economic development. One of the similarities of the urbanization process in First and Third World is that the processes in both places are mainly driven by the economic development. (Pacione 2009) In 18th century, Industrialization began gaining popularity in Britain. Increasing jobs opportunities and the higher wages in
References: African Development Bank Group, Human Capital Development (2012) Urbanization in Africa (http://www.afdb.org/en/blogs/afdb-championing-inclusive-growth-across-africa/post/urbanization-in-africa-10143/) Binns, Tony, et al. Geographies of Development: An Introduction to Development Studies, Rostow’s Stages of Growth Development Model, 3rd ed. Harlow: Pearson Education, (2008). UN-HABITAT Twenty First Session of the Governing Council (2007) Slum Dwellers to double by 2030: Millennium Development Goal Could Fall Short Giok Ling Ooi & Kai Hong Phua Jianfa Shen. 2000. Chinese urbanization and urban policy. China Review 2000, pp. 450-480. Kingsley Davis. (2012) The origin and growth of urbanization in the world. The Chicago Journal. BBC, Population change and structure, The demographic transition model (2013) Pacione, Michael, Urban Geography: A Global Perspective, 3rd Edition, London and New York, Routledge (2009) Philip O World Urbanization Prospects. 2011. The United Nations. World Urbanization Prospect