Urbanisation and development

Urbanisation and Development

Throughtout the third world, urban authorities have declared that their towns and cities are in crisis. The levels of crime and shanty towns are rising rapidly because third-world city growth has been increasing dramatically. With the expanding urban areas spiraling out of control, the inhabitants face inadequacies in housing, job opportunities, water, sewage and transportation. Roads become congested with traffic and seneraded with the poor begging for their only source of income. Power and sewage systems feel the load and shanty towns emerge, and for some people as there is no going back to the rural life they migrated from they're pretty much stuck.

• Urban growth refers to increases in the size of towns and cities.
  
• Urbanisation, refers to the increase in the amount of people living in urban areas – being towns and cities.

More than half the world's population - that's more than 3 billion people - live in cities, a dramatic rise from what it used to be in 1900, only 13%. And by 2030 it is expected to grow at 1.8% per year. The growth of cities is said to be much faster than it has and ever will be in developed countries. The world's largest city is Tokyo-Japan, with a population of 35.2 million people. Compared to 7.2 million in the city of London. Tokyo is expected to remain the largest metropolis (city). According to the World Urbanisation Prospects 2005, most of the world's largest cities are in the developing world.

• It happens as a result of migration and the growth of smaller settlements like villages that develop into towns and cities.

Modernisation theorists argue that the formation of cities is a positive and essential step towards development. Because they have a mixture of characteristics that promote economic, social and cultural change, western values replace those followed in traditional rural societies. And modernisation theorists argue that traditional norms and values like religion, act as a barrier to development.

• (Industrialisation - the move from an economy dominated by agricultural output and employment, to one dominated by manufacturing)

But according to the modernisation theorists, should urbanisation have led to industrialisation?

Yes it should have, as they expect the LEDC's to follow the same steps as the West once did. But this is not…