Interdependent Urbanization in an Urban World an Historical Overview

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Interdependent Urbanization in an Urban World: An Historical OverviewAuthor(s): David ClarkSource: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 164, No. 1 (Mar., 1998), pp. 85-95Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)

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TheGeographicalournal,Vol. 164, No. 1, March 1998,pp. 85-95

Interdependent Urbanization in an Urban World:an Historical Overview

DAVID CLARK

GeographyubjectArea,oventryniversity,riory t, CoventyCV15FB. E-mail:[email protected]

ThispaperwasacceptedforublicationnApril1997

The distributionof the world's population is now more urban than rural. Contemporaryand historical urban patterns are identified and their causes are evaluated. Urban devel-

opment was largely confined to developed countries before mid-century but has spreadto developing countries since. Both outcomes are seen as interdependent consequencesof the growth and geographical extension of capitalism. The merits of the interdepen-dency theory are assessed. Recent urbanization in Africa and Asia is a locational

response to the new global economic order. Cities have grown because of the influx ofmanufacturing and servicejobs from the developed economies, and the in-migration ofworkers displaced by agricultural adjustment. The prospects for further urbanizationare considered.

KEY WORDS:world urbandevelopment,urbanization,capitalism,globalism, nterdependency heory.

T HE LAST DECADE OF the twentiethcenturymarks a major watershed in the evolution ofhuman settlement, or it encompassesthe period

during which the location of the world's people

became more urban than rural (Clark, 1996).Variations among countries in the quality of theircensus data and in the ways in which urban areas aredefined mean that it is not possible to be exact, but itis likely that 1996 was the year in which the figure of50 per cent urban was achieved. Despite its symbolicsignificance, this historical event went largely unre-

cognized and unreported. More of the 5.4 billioninhabitants of the globe now live in urban settlementsthan in villages and hamlets.1 No longer are townsand cities exceptional settlement forms in predomi-nantly rural societies. The world is an urban place.

Urban development on this scale is a remarkable

geographical phenomenon. Instead of being spreadwidely and thinly across the surface of the habitable

earth, a population that is urban is one in which vastnumbers of people are clustered together in verysmall areas. Levels of urbanization, however, are farfrom uniform (United Nations, 1991). They are highacross the Americas, most of Europe, parts of west-ern Asia and Australia (Fig. 1). South America is themost urban continent with the population in all butone of its countries (Guyana) being more urban thanrural. More than 80 per cent of the population livein towns and cities in Venezuela, Uruguay, Chile

and Argentina. Levels of urban development are lowthroughout most of Africa, South and East Asia

(Brunn and Williams, 1993). Fewer than one person

0016-7398/98/0001-0085/$00.20/0

in three in sub-Saharan Africa is an urban dweller.The figure is below 20 per cent in Ethiopia, Malawi,Uganda, Burkina Faso, Rwanda and Burundi.

Despite the presence of some large cities, levels of

urban development throughout South and SouthEast Asia are low (Dogan and Kasarda, 1989; 1990;Chen and Heligman, 1994). An estimated 41 percent of China's 1.2 billion people and 29 per cent ofIndia's 0.96 billion lived in towns and cities in 1995.The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is reckoned tobe the world's most rural sovereign state, with onlysix per cent of its population living in towns andcities.

The urban world has emerged only very recently.Towns and cities have existed for over eight millen-

nia, but fewer than three per cent of the world's pop-ulation lived in urban places in 1800. According to

Davis (1965; 1969) it was around 27 per cent in1950, by which time most of the countries in what isnow regarded as the developed world were predomi-nantly urban (Fig. 2). Urbanization as a phenomenonthat encompasses the majority of the world's popula-tion is a consequence of a massive rise in the percent-age of the population that is urban in the developingworld, especially in Africa and Asia (Gugler, 1988;Gilbert and Gugler, 1992). This shift in the locus ofurban development raisesfar-reachingquestions con-

cerning the causes of recent and current urbanizationin developing countries and its links with that in

developed areas. This paper explores and attempts toexplain such patterns and relationships in an histori-cal context. It overviews the principal stages in the

? 1998 The Royal GeographicalSociety



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INTERDEPENDENT URBANIZATION IN AN URBAN WORLD

evolution of the urban world and suggests that theycan be explained by an interdependency theory of

global urban development.

InterdependencyheoyUrban development is the consequence of deep-seated and persistent processes that enable and

encourage people to amass in geographical space.Historically, two separate prerequisites were neces-

sary: the generation of surplus products that sustain

people in non-agricultural activities (Childe, 1950;Harvey, 1973), and the achievement of a level ofsocial development that allows large communities tobe socially viable and stable (Lampard, 1965). Urbanhistorians suggest that these changes took placesimultaneously in the Neolithic period when the firstcities emerged in the Middle East (Wheatley, 1971).It is further thought that the volume of surplus pro-

duct imposed a ceiling upon urban development inthe pre-industrial society (Sjoberg, 1960). A secondcoincidence of economic and social change was asso-ciated with the rise of industrialcapitalism in the late

eighteenth century. This initiated powerful processesof urban growth and urbanization that led to the

emergence of urban societies in Great Britain, NorthWest Europe and North America (Pred, 1977).

Although they may explain the principal historical

turning points, theories of self-generated urbaniza-tion do not and cannot account for the recent urban-ization of developing countries. This occurred in a

world that was already partly urbanized, and thesheer scale and pace of the changes involved point tothe operation of widespread and powerful non-localforces. Structuralist interpretations advanced byWallerstein (1979) and Goldfrank (1979), and elabo-rated by Chase-Dunn (1989), Dicken (1992) and

Taylor (1993), link recent changes in the roles and

organization of the economies of developing coun-tries to the growth and extension of capitalism in an

emerging world system of nations. Urbanization can

similarlybe seen as an internal locational response tothe absorption of such areas within an integratedglobal economy (King, 1990; Timberlake, 1984;1987). Capitalism produces urbanization by concen-trating production and consumption in locations thatafford the greatest economies of scale, agglomerationand linkage, and where control over sources and sup-ply can be exercised with maximum effectiveness, atleast cost (Johnston, 1980). An important feature ofthis structuralist nterpretation is the emphasis that is

placed on historical continuity. The urbanization ofthe developing world since 1950, and of the deve-

loped world before this date, have the same basiccauses. They are interdependent consequences of the

growth and expansion of capitalism.

Structuralists see the spread of capitalism to thedeveloping world as the most recent stage in the

development of capitalism as an economic system

(Chase-Dunn, 1989). It is a result of changes in the

ways in which wealth is accumulated, and the evolu-tion of the world-system of nations (Table I). Theformer is a product of the sequential evolution of the

prevailing economic formation from mercantilism,through industrial and

monopoly capitalism,to

transnational corporate capitalism (Castells, 1977;Goldfrank, 1979; Chase-Dunn, 1989). It has its ownmomentum in the form of the drive for ever-higherlevels of output and profit through the developmentof new sources of wealth and units of production. Itis characterized, according to proponents of the 'reg-ulation school' (Boyer, 1990), by the periodic emer-

gence of powerful social and cultural norms, such asFordism and post-Fordism, which serve to regulatethe inherently unstable course of accumulation

(Jessop, 1990; 1992; Lipietz, 1992). The latter struc-tural development is concerned with geopolitics and

involves the division of the world into progressivelylarger spheres of economic association and exchangebased upon changing space relations and systems of

supply (Taylor, 1993). It is associated with the rise toeconomic and political dominance of a small groupof core nations led by the USA as the foremost hege-monic power.

Interdependency theory proposes a single explana-tion or interpretation for urbanization, whether in

developed or in developing economies. It has echoesin dependency theory which explores and attemptsto account for the links between development in core

regions and underdevelopment in the periphery(Frank, 1967; 1969; Hette, 1990). Dependency theorysuggests that underdevelopment is a result of the

plunder and exploitation of peripheral economies byeconomic and political groups in core areas.

Interdependency theory argues that urban develop-ment, wherever it occurs, is one of the spatial out-comes of capitalism. When seen from the developingworld, most recent urbanization appears to be

'dependent', in the sense that it is introduced or

imposed by the developed world. From a globalperspective, however, all urbanization can be held tobe interdependent in that it stems centrally from cap-italism and its spatial relations. This is not to saythat all urbanization has arisen in an identical wayand is, therefore, the same in all countries. Capitalismhas adopted different forms at different times, and is

regulated in different ways, so producing spatiallydifferentiated patterns of urban development at the

global scale.The interdependency theory of global urban

development can be criticized on four principalgrounds. The first, in common with structuralist

interpretationsgenerally, is that it is stronger on sug-gested associations than on causal linkages. This is

especially important given the debate between struc-turalists who see such links as arising directly fromthe mode of accumulation, and regulationists who

88




TABLE I

Principaltagesnglobalurban evelopment

1780-1880 1880-1950

Mode faccumulation

EconomicformationSourceof wealth

Representative nit of production

World-systemharacteristics

Spacerelations

Systemof supplyHegemonicpowers

UrbanonsequencesLevel of urbanization t startof period(%)Areasof urbanizationduringperiod

Dominant cities

Industrial apitalismManufacturingFactory

Atlanticbasin

Colonialism/imperialismBritain

3Britain

London

Monopoly capitalismManufacturingMulti-national orporation

InterationalState mperialismBritain,USA

5North-westernEurope,theAmericas,coastsof EmpiresLondon,New York

Corporate apitalismManufacturing nd servicesTransnational orporation,global factory

Global

Corporate mperialismUSA

27Africaand Asia

New York,London,Tokyo

trace their origins to social and cultural norms

through which accumulation is regulated (Roberts,1995; Painter, 1995). The fact that capitalismchanged at a time of massive urbanization does not

necessarily mply a functional connection. Coincidenceis not the same as causation and the mechanisms

involved, which may vary over time and space,are matters for detailed empirical investigation andelaboration.

A second reservation is that urbanization in the

developing world lagged so far behind that in the

developed world that it cannot be regarded as part ofthe same process. Britain was an urban industrial

society for three-quartersof a century before any ter-

ritoryin what is now the developing world passed the50 per cent urban threshold, and the urbanization ofmost of the developing world did not gather realmomentum until after 1950. It is important, how-

ever, to place urbanization in its context of space andtime. Global urbanization involves massive shifts inthe distributionof population over a wide area and is

inherently a slow process. It is perhaps no accidentthat self-sustainingurban development first occurredin Great Britain;a very small country where forces of

urban growth were concentrated (Carter and Lewis,1991). A sense of perspective is also important. When

looking back over the last two centuries from the

present, lags of a few decades appear to be of majorsignificance. In the context of eight millennia ofurban history they are trivial.

A third criticism is that interdependency theoryundervalues the rich traditionsof urban development,supported by non-capitalist economic systems thatexisted in many developing countries. Highly success-ful urban civilizations existed in ancient Egypt, India,China, Cambodia, Peru, Mexico and Nigeria in

states and economic systems that were religious,military or feudalistic in formation. Independencytheory, however, recognizes the achievements of

non-capitalist economies, although it is argued that

they were incidental to global urban development.Levels of productivity and surplus in early urbanhearthlands were never high enough to facilitate self-

sustaining urban development, and so their impor-tance was localized. Rather than denying and

devaluing their contribution, interdependency theoryprovides a powerful explanation as to why non-industrial urban economies were not more successful.

The final criticism is that capitalist theories do lit-tle more than state the obvious and often in a lan-

guage that serves to obscure rather than to clarify.Capitalism is the prevailing economic formation inmost countries. To say that it causes urbanization isto advance explanation and understanding very littleas all social outcomes, both structuraland spatial, arethe products of capitalism. Such arguments havesome validity at the most general level but they fail to

distinguishbetween capitalism as an underlying prin-ciple and capitalism as a specific and evolving eco-nomic formation. The value of interdependencytheory lies not in its foundations in capitalism perse,but in the links that it proposes between successive

stages in the evolution of capitalism and urban deve-

lopment across the world.

TheurbanizationfthedevelopedorldThe extent to which urbanization in the developedand developing worlds is an interdependent conse-

quence of the evolution of capitalism and its chang-ing space relations becomes clear with historical

analysis. A useful starting point is Weber's classicwork on The growth of cities in the nineteenthentury(1899). Mapping data of questionable quality, relat-

ing in some cases to long-forgotten countries, pro-vides only the crudest of indications, but the limited

extent of urbanization at the global scale is clear (Fig.3). Only three areas in Great Britain, North-West

Europe and the USA were more than 20 per cent

89

1950-




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90




urban in 1890. With less than three per cent of theworld's population living in towns and cities, therewas little or no urban development in most otherterritories.

Urbanization in the developing world wasrestricted to concentrations of

populationaround

points of supply. The industries of the developedeconomies used domestic coal and iron ore to buildand power machines to process cotton, sugar, jute,rubber, tobacco, wheat, tea and rice imported from

imperial territories. The accumulation of these agri-cultural commodities led to limited urban develop-ment in developing countries that was not detectableat the global scale. 'Sao Paulo grew on the basis of

coffee, Accra on cocoa, Calcutta on jute, cotton and

textiles, and Buenos Aires on mutton, wool and cere-als' (Gilbert and Gugler, 1992: 47). Urban develop-ment in association with agricultural supply similarly

took place in the West Indies and Indonesia,Malaysia and the Far East (King, 1990). Althoughcities were established along the coasts of empire,these developments did little to change the over-

whelmingly rural distributionof the local population.Industrial capitalism was succeeded by monopoly

capitalism towards the end of the nineteenth century(Wallerstein, 1979). It was distinguished by a vastlyincreased scale of economic activity and the domina-tion of newly-created international markets, withinstate-controlled empires, by a small number of pro-ducers in each sector. Monopoly capitalism emerged

in response to the demand for products that was gen-erated by the rapidly growing population of theindustrial nations. This stimulated manufacturers to

diversifyfrom making heavy, crude products into themass production of a wide range of consumer goodsand services. Increased output occurred both becausethe core economies in Europe became more produc-tive, and because the manufacturing belt of the USAattained core status alongside Britain, France,Germany and the Low Countries during the 1880s

(Chase-Dunn, 1989). It was achieved through theconsolidation of many factory enterprises into multi-national corporations that typically engaged in manyfunctions in many areas, both at home and in theperiphery.

Monopoly capitalism involved the ruthless

exploitation of peripheral areas. The larger scale ofindustrial activity required the international sourcingof raw materials and marketing of manufactured

products, so the success of the core regions became

dependent on their ability to dominate and controloverseas territories. This was either through formal

imperialism, or else through corporate power andinfluence. Britain established itself as the leadingimperial power after about 1880, when it increas-

ingly drew its industrial raw materials including ores,oil and rubber from around the world and in return

supplied its overseas possessions (in India, Africa, the

Far East and other territories)with railways, ships,machinery, arms and motor vehicles. Similarly, theUSA rapidly became a major international playerafter 1909 when, symbolically, Selfridges store was

opened in Oxford Street, London, at the very centreof the dominant

powerin the world

economy (King,1990). Thereafter, many major US corporationsdeveloped international spheres of operation.

Monopoly capitalism produced further urban

growth and urbanization in an expanded core,although urban development in the peripheryremained limited. Precise comparison of the urbanworld in 1890 (Fig. 3) with that in 1950 (Fig. 2) is

inappropriate because of the quality of the data, butthe broad pattern of change is clear. Urbanization inthe first half of the twentieth century occurred most

rapidly and extensively in Europe, the Americas andAustralasia. Most of the rest of the world was unaf-

fected.Urban development between 1890 and 1950 is

explained by processes of population concentrationthat were associated with the economic and politicalimperialism of the United States, Russia, the United

Kingdom and France. High levels of urban develop-ment in Canada, South and Central America were a

legacy of British trade and, more recently, corporatelinks with the USA. Limited urban developmentexisted across the Russian empire in Asia, Centraland Eastern Europe. Urbanization elsewhere in the

periphery was largely a localized product of British

and French imperialism. Although only a quarter ofthe population lived in urban places, the principalfeature of the urban world, in 1950, was that the

cycle of urbanization in the developed countries was,or was very nearly, complete (Davis, 1965). In most

developing countries it had hardly begun.

TheneweconomicrderThe developing world has urbanized since 1950 as a

consequence of a new economic order resulting fromthe reorganization of production, labour, finance,service provision and competition, on a transnationalbasis. Over the past half century, an increasing share

of production has been organized globally ratherthan within the narrow confines of nation-states or

empires (UNCTC, 1993). Much production hasshifted to the developing world both as a means of

penetrating local markets and in order to use cheaplabour to make goods for sale in the core economiesand elsewhere(Frobeletal., 1980; Sit, 1993). Examplesinclude electronic goods, drugs, motor vehicles,clothing, machine tools and domestic appliances. Atthe same time, several countries in the developingworld have expanded their manufacturing capabili-ties, and the firms in these newly-industrialized

economies have captured markets for their productsin the developed world (Lo, 1994). The productionof some foodstuffs has also been reorganized on a

91




commercial basis so that it can be exchanged globally.Domestic agricultural production in many develop-ing countries has been replaced by production for

export, a beneficial consequence, as far as globalcapitalistsare concerned, being that it generates cur-

rency that can be used to purchase more importsand so increase external dependency.

The transnationalization of production involvesthe manufacture of global products, with globalbrand names, which are assembled across the worldfrom components made in a number of countries

(Dicken, 1992; Dunning, 1992). It is achieved bydirect investment by firms from the core economiesin developing countries where they can take advan-

tage of large pools of very cheap labour. A new pat-tern of specialization has emerged that owes less totraditional distinctions between core and peripheryand more to the jobs that workers perform within

transnational corporate empires. The basis of thenew international division of labour is the direct

employment of large numbers of workers in low-costoverseas territories to perform standard productiontasks (Cohen, 1981; Feagin and Smith, 1987). Ratherthan peripheral supply and core area processing,which was the pattern under industrial and mono-

poly capitalism, the new economic order is one of

peripheral production and manufacturing, and corearea research, development, design, administrationand control (Castells, 1992).

This pattern was made possible by, and in turn

gave rise to,a new

patternof international finance. A

global system of supply and circulation has emergedin recent years in place of the bilateral fundingarrangements, tied to trading blocs and dominated

by governments, that existed at mid-century. Thenew system is directed and controlled by theeconomies of the developed world through a smallnumber of powerful banks, finance houses and

exchanges which rank alongside transnational corpo-rations as global institutions (Thrift, 1987;1989).The world cities in which they are located are thecommand and control points of the global economy(Sassen, 1994; Knox and Taylor, 1994).

Developments in production and finance are sup-ported by the growth of the international service

economy (Daniels, 1991; 1993). Service activities thatwere once domestically bound have reorganized onan international basis in order to serve the needs ofbusinesses operating across the globe (Warf, 1989).This trend is reflected in the rise of the advanced

producer services sector, which includes insurance,accountancy, real estate, legal, advertising, researchand development, public relations and managementconsultancy firms. Global business is further facil-itated by means of the organization of employee

services, including hotel accommodation, car hireand personal finance, on an international basis.The new economic order emerged alongside, as

part-cause and part-consequence, of a new politicalgeography (Taylor, 1993). By far the most importantfeature was the ending of imperialism by Britain,France, Belgium and the Netherlands and the attain-ment of political independence by many colonialterritories n Africa and Asia between 1950 and 1980

(Corbridge, 1993). This added further changes to the

political map, which had been transformed duringthe 1940s by the post-war redrawing of boundariesin Europe and by the withdrawal of the British fromthe Indian sub-continent. Together these develop-ments produced a large number of new nation-statesthat were keen to participate in the world economyin order to enjoy the benefits of trade and Aid. Thenew pattern was created in conditions of relative

peace and prosperity, certainly in comparison withthose that prevailed in the previous half century withits two world wars and numerous regional conflicts.

TheurbanizationfthedevelopingorldThe new economic order is principally responsiblefor the recent rapid urbanization of the periphery(Timberlake, 1984; 1987). Transnational corporatecapitalism produced and is producing urbanizationin the periphery both directly, as a consequence ofurban growth in response to localized investment,and indirectly, through its impact on traditional pat-terns of production and employment. The formerarises because economic exchanges between coreand periphery are spatially focused and so lead to aconcentration of

globally-relatedeconomic

activityin

urban places. Cities, especially national capitals andthose with major ports or international airports, offer

overwhelming advantages for profitable investment,affordingwide access to cheap labour and to domes-tic markets. Such places are typically the major andin some cases the only centres in the countryfor large-scale industry, hospitals, universities, mediaservices and facilities for sport and the arts. As

cosmopolitan centres with good external connections

they are attractive to corporate managers and spe-cialist workers on overseas postings. They are likelyto be the home base of local elites that shape behav-

iour and consumption patterns towards which othersin the country aspire.

The urban concentration of foreign investment-ledeconomic activity is high across much of the peri-phery. In Indonesia, Forbes and Thrift (1987) foundthat overseas investment was largely restricted to thearea aroundJakarta where all major foreign corpora-tions had their headquarters. Abidjan, the capital ofthe Ivory Coast, has 15 per cent of the national pop-ulation but accounts for more than 70 per cent of alleconomic and commercial transactions in the coun-

try. Bangkok accounts for 86 per cent of Gross

National Product in banking, insurance and realestate, and 74 per cent of manufacturing, but has

only 13 per cent of Thailand's population. Lagos,

92



INTERDEPENDENTRBANIZATIONNANURBANWORLD

with 5 per cent of Nigeria's population, accounts for57 per cent of total Value Added in manufacturingand has 40 per cent of the nation's highly skilledlabour (Kasarda and Parnell, 1993).

Urbanization is also taking place as an indirect

consequenceof the

impactof transnational

corporatecapitalism upon the economies of developing coun-tries. The central argument here is that adjustmentsin economic structure are enforced as the price, or

penalty, for incorporation within the world economy.These lead to the release of large numbers of workersfrom traditional occupations, who flock into thetowns and cities and so contribute to urban growthand urbanization. Peasant farmers are foremost

amongst those whose livelihoods are undermined bythe drive for production of goods that will generateforeign currency, both to help reduce nationalindebtedness and to enable governments to acquire

the symbols of statehood such as grand presidentialpalaces and national airlines. Many have been

displaced from their traditional lands and means ofsubsistence by the introduction of commercial agri-culture that is geared to the production of exotic

fruits, flowers and out-of-season vegetables for devel-

oped world consumers (Susman, 1989). They include

large numbers of the very poor who have no alterna-tive sources of employment and must look to the cityfor survival. Droughts and civil wars, especially in

parts of Africa have further undermined the viabilityof traditional farming, leading to increased rural -

urban migration.The policies of post-colonial governments stimu-late urban growth by further enhancing the attrac-tiveness of towns and cities at the expense of ruralareas (Auty, 1995). One way is through the exagger-ated bias of government expenditures on infrastruc-ture and services in favour of urban areas. Another isthe higher wage rates and better employment protec-tion that exist in cities because urban workers are

organized into trade unions. A third is the decline inthe demand for locally-produced staples as urbanconsumers develop a taste for imported food items.Such policies are creating 'backwash urbanization'

by destroying the vigour of rural areas and suffocat-ing the cities with the burden of the human casualtiesthis process creates. The implications are seen in the

rapid growth and dire social and environmentalconditions of many cities and others in the develo-

ping world that are swamped by large numbers of

in-migrants looking for work and welfare (Berry,1973).

Many of the urban consequences of the absorptioninto the global economy are exemplified byZimbabwe, a country that attained formal sover-

eignty in 1980 after 15 years of unilaterally declared

independence (Drakakis-Smith, 1992). The modernurban system in Zimbabwe emerged under settlercolonialism to facilitate the export of various

commodities and the import of consumer goods.Cities were dominated by the White minority in the

country, and other than those employed in domesticservice and a very small number in industry and ser-vice activities, Blacks were prohibited unless they hada

joband accommodation. In the

countryside,some

Blacks worked for White farmers but most were

engaged in subsistence agriculture. The populationwas 17 per cent urban in 1970. The favouring of theWhite colonialists, however, meant that social andhealth care services were city-based, and significantdifferences in standards of provision existed betweenurban and rural areas.

This basic pattern was transformed during the1970s as a consequence of increased foreign invest-ment and the opening up of external markets for the

products of Zimbabwe's farms and factories.Urbanization occurred through net in-migration to

jobs in cities, as the manufacturing sector increasedits contribution to the Gross National Product from10 per cent in 1965 to 24 per cent in 1980

(Stoneman, 1979). At the same time, the mechaniza-tion of many of the larger commercial farms, andtheir increase in size, generated a surplus of Blacklabour in rural areas. Movement into the citiesincreased significantlyafter 1980 when the legislationpermitting ownership and residence in cities wasrelaxed and removed. Many traditionally Whiteareas of Zimbabwe's cities rapidly became Black

(Cumming, 1990). Urban growth was compounded

when families were reunited and birth rates rose.Some 31 per cent of the population was thought tolive in urban places in 1995 and the population ofGreater Harare was in excess of 1.5 million. Therecent rapid urbanization in Zimbabwe, in commonwith many African and Asian countries, is a conse-

quence of structural and associated spatial changesthat are associated with the transformation of a ruralsubsistence into an urban-based and politically inde-

pendent commercial economy, which is incorporatedwithin the global economic system.

Detailed evidence on the links between globalproduction and urbanization in developing countries

is presently fragmentary. The research that has beenundertaken points to the existence of a generalrelationship between incorporation within a globalcorporate capitalist economy and urban growth, butwith wide variations from country to country.Taiwan, Singapore and Korea, where there is a clear

connection, and China, where urban development is

largely a consequence of rural changes associatedwith economic liberalization, perhaps represent theextremes. It is important also to distinguish withinthe periphery between experiences in South

America, where levels of urban development are

historicallyhigh, and Africa and Asia, where they arelow. Both regions have been affected by the same

adjustments associated with the emergence of the

93




new economic order, but with different conse-

quences. The effects in the former have largely beento consolidate existing urban patterns by compound-ing growth in existing centres. In Africa and Asia

they have created and accelerated urban develop-ment where little existed before.

ConclusionsThis paper has identified and attempted to accountfor the processes responsible for the creation of the

contemporary urban world. The urbanization of

developed countries took place before mid-century,and in the developing world has occurred since, butit is argued that the causes are similar and related.Both stem interdependently from the advance of

capitalism and its spatial relations. The settlement

patterns in most developing countries have beentransformed in recent years as external investments

have created jobs in cities and as workers, displacedfrom the land because of the switch from subsistenceto commercial agriculture, have migrated to urbanareas. Such changes are seen as consequences of the

progressive incorporation of their economies withinthe global corporate capitalist economy.

Attempts to explain global patterns raise manycontentious issues that merit wider consideration.Theorists will debate the concept of 'underdevelop-ment', the reasons for the rise and reproduction of

capitalism, and the extent to which individual coun-tries or parts of countries in Africa and Asia are

incorporated within the global economy and worldsystem of nations. They may suggest that the modeof regulation is a more important factor in urbaniza-

tion than the stage of capital accumulation.Associations between global change and urbaniza-tion have been explored for evidence of the validityof the interdependency theory, but further researchis required before the links can be regarded as con-crete and causal rather than ephemeral and coinci-

dental. Empiricistswill query the reliability of urbandata, the definition of urban places and the extent towhich urbanization is a localized or widespread phe-nomenon within countries.

Urbanization represents the largest shift in thedistribution of population in history. Such are its

complexities that many will question the purpose andvalue of trying to make meaningful statements aboutthe location of over 2.7 billion people. The need for

high-order generalization and explanation, however,is likely to increase as the pace of urban changequickens, especially in Africa and Asia, with far-

reaching implications for environmental sustainabil-ity and social welfare. It took over eight millennia forhalf the world's population to become urban. Present

predictions suggest that it will take less than 80 yearsfor this process to encompass most of the remainder.

Endnote1This paper is based on estimates of urban popula-tions abstracted from the United Nations 1991

report on World urbanization rospects.The highlyvariable quality and reliability of world urban dataare emphasized in the United Nations' Demographic

yearbookor 1994 and in the World Bank's Worlddeve-lopment eportor 1993. For a general discussion seeGoldstein (1994).

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Interdependent Urbanization in an Urban World an Historical Overview