Suchergebnisse

The growth of cities is a subject of increasing concern among
social scientists and government planners in Pakistan as elsewhere in
the developing world. Redistribution of the population from
predominantly rural to increas¬ingly urban pattern of residence has
far-reaching implications for the demographic, socio-economic, and
political character of the nation. Indeed, the process of urbanization
as it applies in the Third World nations is gene¬rating considerable
debate among scholars, for there are important policy impli¬cations and
divergent views regarding the consequences of urban growth. Ad¬vocates
of urbanization, who see it as the key which unlocks economic
development and modernization [6], are being challenged by others who
view cities as neo-coloniaiistic structures which drain their regional
hinterlands of scarce re¬sources [5] and provide a Western life-style
for only the elite minority [13]. Meanwhile, government planners and
policy makers have embarked upon pro¬grammes designed to foster urban
growth and in some cases create new urban centres. The Agrovilles Scheme
is such a programme under way in Pakistan [12].

AbstractMost cities in East Germany experienced drastic shrinkage between 1990 and 2014, but in recent years some have stabilized or even switched toward new growth paths, while others have been continuously declining. A descriptive analysis of subgroups of cities with diverging population growth trajectories reveals that this recent phase of "urban resurgence" accounts to a large share to the growth of the largest cities and some smaller cities in their hinterland and is strongly related to the residential preferences of families and young adults. Furthermore, the estimation of spatial regression models for the period 2004–2014 including a comprehensive set of control variables, such as agglomeration effects, initial demographic conditions, labor market characteristics, climate, and quality of life‐related factors, reveals that recent patterns of urban population development are negatively correlated to historical growth rates during times of socialism. This indicates that postsocialist urban development can be interpreted as a direct outcome of the transition process and as a backlash against the socialist past when urban development was dominated by central planning policies. However, the relevance of the individual determinants included in our regression model differs strongly with respect to the population dynamics in different age groups.

China's urbanization patterns and policies since 1949 have been the focus of a good deal of attention. The main elements of this "Chinese Model" have been the massive "rustication" movements, the recruitment of large numbers of city dwellers to work in rural areas, strict controls on rural-urban migration through food rationing and household registration, and the expansion of rural employment through the development of rural industries. While controlling urban population growth has been problematic to most governments of developing countries, it has been widely accepted that China, particularly in the Maoist era, has been successful in this sphere. The "Chinese Model", therefore, may offer such countries great promise as an alternative approach.