3.1.2 urbanization and the poor: perspectives from the third world 1 upa package 3, module 1...

13.1.2 Urbanization and the Poor: Perspectives from the Third World

UPA Package 3, Module 1

URBANIZATION AND THE POOR: PERSPECTIVES FROM THE THIRD

WORLD


• Defining and subclassifying the Third World

• General characteristics of TW countries

• TW urbanization experience compared with that of western countries

• Stages of TW urbanization

– pre-colonial period

– colonial era

– post-colonial times


Urbanization in the Third World (TW)


• Rural-urban migration and the fragmentation of the built environment

• The dual economy and the fragmentation of the labor market

• The shared space


Socio-Spatial Structuring of the TW City and its Impact on the Poor


• The experience with the use of western models

• Toward more radical and innovative approaches

– socialist TW approaches

– UN Habitat-led initiatives

Approaches to Urban Planning and Management in TW Countries


• Self-help schemes

– the multi-step transition model

– the shared space model

• Government programs

– urban renewal and slum upgrading

– sites and services provision

– tenure improvement schemes

Residential Options of the Poor in TW Cities


“Third World” is defined by elimination:

• First World - industrialized countries of Western Europe, North America and the Pacific (OECD-member countries).

• Second World - industrialized formerly centrally planned economies of Eastern Europe.

• Third World - all the rest of the countries in Latin America and the Carribean, Africa, Middle East, and all of Asia except Japan. Other exceptions: Israel (ME) and South Africa (Africa).

Defining the Third World


By geographical configuration:

North - First and Second Worlds: Advanced, modern, developed, industrialized, rich.

South - Third World: Backward, traditional, underdeveloped or developing or less developed, poor.


• Low income economies - less than $500 per capita annually

• Middle income economies - between $500 and $6,000 per capita

• Lower middle income - less than $2,200 per capita

• Upper middle income - Asian tigers (Israel, Hongkong, Singapore)

• High income countries - OECD countries with income per capita of over $6,000

Classification of TW Countries (World Bank, 1988)


• Advanced developing countries (ADC) or newly industrializing countries (NIC) - Brazil, Argentina, Singapore, Taiwan, Hongkong and South Korea.

• Petroleum exporting countries (PEC) - a disparate group of 36 nations with super-rich nations like Kuwait and Libya at the top and poor countries like Nigeria and Indonesia at the bottom

Recent Sub-categoarization of TW Countries


• Middle-income countries (MIC) - 45 other TW countries including Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand.

• “Fourth World” - remaining 35 countries accounting for 35% of TW population but only 3% of gross global product (GGP) and 5% of TW exports. Their per capita income is insufficient to provide for a minimum level of welfare.


Development Indicators North South

Annual population growth rate (%)

Share of gross global product (%)

World export earnings (% share) World expenditures in education

(% share) Literacy rate (%) Per capita expenditure on

education ($) Public health expenditures

(% share)

0.7 79.0 75.0 84.0 99.0 286 91.0

2.2 21.0 25.0 16.0 52.0 18 9.0

General Characteristics of TW Countries


Development Indicators North South

Average life expectancy Infant mortality Population without access

to safe water (%) Population without adequate

housing (%)

16 years lower 5 times higher <50 50

Source: Atlas of the Third World, 1983.

General Characteristics of TW Countries


122 countries comprise the Third World

About one-fourth of these belong to the socialist TW classified into four categories:

Group I - members of CMEA or Comecon, e.g. Vietnam and Cuba

Group II - well-established communist of socialist states outside of Comecon, e.g. China

Group III - self-proclaimed hard-line socialist states closely aligned with USSR, e.g. PDR, Yemen

Group IV - marginal states with one-party governments, e.g. Algeria, Nicaragua, Guyana

Socialist Third World


• Effective one-party rule

• High and increasing degree of state ownership of industry and agriculture

• Tendency towards centralized command of the economy

• Establishment of comprehensive planning structure

• A development path that does not rely on the dynamics of private capital ownership and entrepreneurship

• Generally slow rate of urban growth

Characteristics of the Socialist TW


Third World Western

Driven by mainly

demographic forces Industrialization lags

behind urbanization and migrants find marginal employment in cities

Driven by dynamic economic

and industrial forces Involves gradual innovation

and interdependent economic and social change spanning more than a century.

TW and Western Urbanization Experience compared


Third World Western TW cities are more

healthful than their rural hinterlands

Death-control gains

achieved in 20 years Development is

government-led with foreign economic and technical assistance

Early industrial cities were

death traps Fall in mortality rates took

70-80 years Development led by private

capital and entrepreneur class

TW and Western Urbanization Experience compared


Pre-colonial TW Cities

• Existed prior to European-based exploration and discovery in the 15th century

• Unique and indigenous, the city was a product of local initiative to serve local needs utilizing the local environment

• Population density remained low

• Simple and small, performed a few functions and had little spatial differentiation

Phases of TW Urbanization


Pre-colonial TW Cities (continued)

• Economic activities oriented to subsistence needs

• Technology was rudimentary

• No long-distance trading due to self-sufficient economy and underdeveloped transport networks

• No distinct land use assignments; people of all social classes lived and interacted together in relative small space

Phases of TW Urbanization


• Begun with the rise of mercantilism; reached maturity with the Industrial Revolution

• A distinctive product of European colonialism

• Colonial urbanization involved dismantling of indigenous technology and implanting European social and cultural values

• TW city served as European colonial outpost

Colonial TW Cities


• TW city as commercial entreport: facilitated export of primary products and import of manufactured goods

• TW city also as industrial hub: for intermediate processing of raw materials destined for the mother country

• Industries developed in turn key fashion from Europe rather than from within

• TW city fostered continued dependence on the west for technology and markets

• Segregation policy imposed by the colonial order gave rise to fragmented land use patterns

Colonial TW Cities (continued)


• Emerged after independence or during the post-World War II period

• Control passed on to local elites but colonial influence and legacy lives on

• Increase in population size due to influx of rural migrants

• Increase in commercial and industrial land use due to investments by multi-national corporations

• Coexistence of traditionalism and modernism, wealth and poverty, legal and illegal quarters.

Post-colonial TW Cities


• TW urbanization is often called “false urbanization” because:

– it is driven by demographic forces

– unaccompanied by economic growth

• Two demographic factors causing TW urbanization:

– high natural growth rate due to

– modest decline in birth rates

– steep decline in death rates

– Heavy migration from rural areas to urban centers

Socio-spatial Structuring of the TW City: Impact on the Poor


1a Rural Crop Zone 1

Rural Family

1b Migrant in Town

Rural CropZone 2

Return visit for seasonal

agricultural needs

The Seasonal Flow


Rural Family

Migrant in TownPermanent return either through

dissatisfaction or upon acquiring family responsibilities in village

or following retirement

Circular Migration


Step or stage migration

Rural Area

Small Urban

Small Urban

Large City

(Time lag, maybe one generation)

The Permanent Flows


Rural Area

Stays with Relative or Friend in Town

Migrant sets up own dwelling

in town

Friend or Relative of First Migrant

Migrant Quarters

Develop in Town

Stays with migrant now

established in Town

Second migrant sets

up own dwelling in

Town

Chain Migration


“Push Factors”

• Very low rural incomes

• Wars and civil strifes

• Natural calamities

• Difficult access to land

• Labor redundancy due to farm mechanization

• Price of agricultural inputs and outputs manipulated by traders

Causes of Rural-To-Urban Migration


“Pull Factors”

• Huge urban-rural differentials

• Available better paying jobs in cities

• Better quality urban services and facilities

• Possibility of publicly subsidized goods and services

• Lure of “bright lights”

Causes for Rural-To-Urban Migration


The Myths

• Louis Wirth’s destruction of “folk societies”

• Oscar Lewis’ “culture of poverty”

• Transitional settlements stereotyped as social aberrations “cancers” that overwhelm an otherwise healthy municipal body

Social Consequences of Rural-To-Urban Migration


The Realities• Squatter settlements or transitional represent a solution

to the complex problem of urbanization and migration.

• Contrary to Wirth, rural-urban migrants are not anonymous nor alienated; they maintain stronger contacts with their rural folks than with their urban neighbors.

• Contrary to Juppenlatz, residents of transitional settlements display remarkable vigor and ingenuity in improving their living conditions.

• Contrary to Lewis, shanty town residents are upwardly mobile, industrious, savers, and are often more conservative than radical.

Social Consequences of Rural-To-Urban Migration


Squatter settlements perform important functions in the urbanization process

• They provide affordable housing to the lowest income groups.

• They act as reception centers for new migrants assisting them to adopt to urban life.

• They provide a wide variety of employment in marginal and small-scale enterprises.

• They provide accommodation in close proximity to work

• Their social organization provides essential support in times of extreme difficulties.

• They encourage and reward small-scale entrepreneurship in the field of housing.


Migration, coupled with segregationist policy, led to spatial fragmentation of the colonial city. Evidences:

• the center or the colonial city core

• Planned districts of the pre- and post-colonial periods

• The historic city (often pre-industrial)

• Illegal settlements – built on illegally subdivided land

• Slums – both on inner cities and in the peripheries

Spatial Consequences of Rural-To-Urban Migration


• Rapid migration leads to rapidly increasing labor force.

• The increased labor force cannot be absorbed in full productive employment.

• Bulk of new manpower is absorbed by small-scale enterprise, personal services and open unemployment.

• Spurts of urban investment trigger more migration to the city.

• Maintenance of a minimal “survival” economy.• Reinforcement of traditional subcultures in the city.• Rise of a coexistent dual economy: the formal and the informal.• Linkage between the formal and informal sectors characterizes

the economy of the TW city.

Economic Impact of Rural-To-Urban Migration


• Ease of entry

• Reliance on indigenous resources

• Family ownership of enterprises

• Small scale of operation

• Labor-intensive and adapted technology

• Skills acquired outside formal school system

• Unregulated and competitive markets

Characteristics of the Informal Economy


• Difficult entry

• Frequent reliance on overseas resources

• Corporate ownership

• Capital-intensive, often imported technology

• Formally acquired skills, often expatriate

• Protected markets (through tariffs, quotas and licenses)


Characteristics of the Formal Economy


• Formal sector firms employ substantial number of casual workers who are paid low wages, without fringe benefits, unprotected by social security.

• Low wage labor produces low cost inputs for the formal sector.

• Informal sector provides cheap goods and services for formal sector workers.

• Informal sector subcontractors to formal sector firms hire children and minors to work in sweatshops.

• Subcontractors to subcontractors do piece work in their own homes at exploitatively low rates.

• Home work creates the “shared space”: activities for living share space with activities for making a living.

Impacts of the Dual Economy on the Poor


Residence

WorkshopKitchen ResidenceT

WorkshopFloor to roof wall

1. Resident-workshop 2. Residence-cum-workshop

TKitchen

R1

W1 W2 R2

Residence

Workshop

3. Residence-linked-workshop 4. Independent workshop

R Residence W Workshop

Source: Chadwick, 1987

Factories in Domestic Premises Types of Workshops (Sit, 1970)


Source: Chadwick , 1987

Spatial Impact of Informal Sector Activities


Premised on the belief that Urban Primacy is undesirable, planning sought to limit urban growth through

• Control of migration

• Positive urbanization and urban development policies

• Regional planning and development

• Urban planning at municipal level

TW Approaches to Urban Planning and Management


• Residency permit system

• Development of lagging regions

• Integrated rural development

Measures to Control Migration


• Regionalization with identified growth poles for each region

• Industrial location incentives

– infrastructure provision

– tax credits and holidays

Regional Planning Approaches


• National infrastructure development

• Capital cities development

• New towns/satellite towns development

• Promotion of medium-size cities

Positive Urbanization Measures


• Master plans for specific sectors and areas

• Urban renewal or revitalization

Municipal Level Urban Planning


• Promotes a society that is neither urban nor rural through

– decentralization and development of uninhabited regions

– industrialization of the countryside using small-scale technology

– distribution of equal levels of services and knowledge

Socialist TW Urbanization Policy


To convert consumer cities to producer cities, through

• Reducing the size of the largest cities

• Promoting self-sufficiency in the urban economy

• Encouraging the growth of small and medium sized towns; creation of new towns


To make cities self-sufficient in food

• Expansion of the city boundary to incorporate a productive rural hinterland

• Greening of the suburbs by promoting household fruit and vegetable gardens

• Developing peri-urban agriculture and allocation of urban labor to this region


Rationale

• The great majority of poor people cannot afford to purchase housing in the market at a quantity and quality adequate to sustain a decent standard of living.

• The inability to afford housing leads the poor to find unconventional solutions including solutions that are illegal in certain contexts

Housing the Poor in the TW Cities


• Many people occupy land without due permit of the owner or due process of subdivision.

• TW housing is distinctive for the variety of building materials used.

• Renting and multiple occupancy are an important aspect of accommodation for the poor.

Features of TW Housing


Criterion 1: Legality of land occupancy• Legal occupants use land in accordance with existing laws on

property rights• Illegal occupants do not have legal title and have violated

subdivision regulations

Criterion 2: Legality of physical characteristics of individual units• Those that meet minimum government standards for building

material, lot size, floor area, etc.• Those that have violated building regulations

Criterion 3: Status of Tenure• Owners with unique or multiple occupancy• Renters with unique or multiple occupancy

Structures of Sub-market for Housing


Occupancy of Land

Physical Characteristics

of Land and Structure

LEGAL ILLEGAL

LEGAL

Owners Renters

A Regular

Housing Market

C Invasion

Housing Market

Owners Renters

ILLEGAL B Slum

Housing Market

D Squatter

Housing Market

Source: Lim, 1987

Structure of Sub-market for Housing


• Box A - regular, formal housing market. Land and units owned with title to both, and meets all legal requirements and specifications.

• Box B - slum housing. Units built on legally owned or rented land but which do not meet minimum standards for building.

• Box C - invasion housing. Dwellers occupy land illegally but units conform with physical standards. Some invade land and rent it to tenants as though they were the owners.

• Box D - squatter housing. Housing violates both legality of land occupancy and standards for physical characteristics.

Summary of Housing Sub-markets


Street

Sleeper

Renter in Squatter Market

Owner in Squatter Market

Renter in Invasion

Market

Owner

in Invasion Market

Renter in Regular

Market

Renter in Slum Market

Owner in

Slum Market

Owner in Regular

Market

Source: Lim, 1987

An Example of a Multistep Transition in a Housing Market


Left on their own, new migrants may follow the multi-step transition model:

• Start as a street sleeper

• Move through different submarkets step by step until becoming an owner of a regular housing unit

• Moves between submarkets take considerable time for most poor people

• Some may not make it at all.

HENCE THE NEED FOR GOVERNMENT HOUSING POLICIES

Residential Options for the Poor


• Premised on negative attitudes and policies regarded squatters as outlaws or treated them with benign neglect.

• Demolition and clearance, sometimes with relocation.

• Control of land prices and rents to make it affordable to the poor.

• Settling minimum building and subdivision standards to discourage substandard, unsafe and unhealthy construction.

• Large-scale development restrictions, e.g. green belts, to discourage further migration

• Decentralization of the national population, also to lessen migration to the cities.

Early Publich Policies on Informal Housing


• Price control and building standards. Increased housing shortages and raised prices of regular housing units

• Demolition creates social and economic dislocation

• Development controls only transfer the problem to other areas

• Population decentralization without employment opportunities in rural areas is bound to fail.

Negative Impacts of Early Housing Policies


• Must be based on the acceptance and support of the long-term reality of informal settlements as a feature of TW urbanization.

• Must acknowledge and emphasize the positive contribution of the informal housing sector to the local economy.

New Policies for Housing the Poor


• Make urban utilities and community services available to slum and squatter areas according to priorities set through involvement of stakeholders.

• Give priority to security of tenure.

• Stop slum and squatter area clearance as a waste of people’s resource investment and a net destruction of the living environment.

New Policies for Governments (UN)


• Support policies including

– squatter and slum upgrading

– self-help housing

– sites and services provision

– minimum physical standards substantially lowered

• Increase public intervention in land acquisition and development


• Policies must be based on consumer behavior in the free market

• Warns against policies such as

– unrealistic building and zoning regulations

– slum removal

– public housing

– unfocused systems of subsidy for shelter and infrastructure

Reduction of Public Intervention (World Bank)

3.1.2 urbanization and the poor: perspectives from the third world 1 upa package 3, module 1...

Documents

world urbanization

world slide

poor countries

world tw slide

poor slide

countries pec

tw city

tw cities