GEOG 2400 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Least Developed Countries, Gated Community, Overurbanization

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GEOG 2400
Asia
Urbanization in Least Developed Countries
Trajectory
Globally, slum growth outpacing urbanization, slum populations growing by 25 million annually
1/3 of urbanites in Asia live in slums
Asia hosts the largest share of people in slums
Not very urbanized
Asia is second least urbanized, before Africa
Biggest rural population: Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos
Laos and Cambodia, highest % of urban slums
Problems
Overurbanization
o Asia and pacific regions has largest absolute number of people in poverty in the world
o Poverty becoming concentrated in urban centers
o Almost 200 million people moved to Asian cities in the first decade of 21st century
o 40% live on less than $2 per day
o Speed and scale of urbanization increasing due to:
Poor transportation,
Worst traffic in 2014: Jakarta
Pollution and environmental issues
More than 2.1 million people in Asia died prematurely from air pollution in 2012
65% of all air pollution deaths are now in Asia
11/20 most polluting cities are in Asia
Worst in East Asia, 4th leading cause of death
Mongolia, extreme pollution due to use of charcoal
Lack of sanitation and related health problems
5 million preventable deaths in children younger than 5 by 2025
1/2 of population in global south suffering from on/more of main diseases
associated with inadequate water and sanitation
Housing
Jakarta: 25% squatters
Manila: 40% in squatter, 45% in slums
Bangkok: 23% in slums and squatters
o Not enough resources to give rural population dignified lives
Insecure Tenure
o 2012: 250 squatter homes demolished in Kathmandu
o 2015: Quezon City (Manila) 500 families' homes demolished
o 2015: Kampung Pulo in East Jarkarta - 1,500 households or some 3400 people
Land Grabbing
o Land deals that happen without the free, prior, and informed consent of communities that
force farmers from their homes
o Mostly for sugar cane, soy, and palm
o Done by government or private stake holders
Dealing with Squatters
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"squatter is the major human symbol of the Third World City" (Davis)
Some squatters have rights to their land per the State, but often overlooked if land is valuable
Evictions
o Comes with repression of street vendors
o Ghettoization of low-income groups
o Justification: crime ridden/illegal tenure
o Part of urban trends of segregation, separating the wealthy and poor
Relocation
o State-led development and relocation of residents to new areas
o Removing people from their land and placing them somewhere else
Isolation
o Gated communities and 'fantasy' enclaves
o Architecture of fear: iron gates, roadblocks and checkpoints, wall topped by glass shards,
barbed wire, high perimeter walls, emergency alarms
o Transportation infrastructure: vehicle based (rather than mass transport), roads
(proliferation of roundabouts to prevent hijackings)
Accumulation by Dispossession
David Harvey
A process through which low-income communities are dispossessed of valuable land and
resources that will generate capital gains for the state or the market
Dispossession takes place largely through urban development and gentrification projects
Space (often land) is essential for the right to the city
Right to the city
o Form of critical scholarship and a mode of political activism
o Coined by Lefebvre in 1960s
o Class project, concerned with the relationship between capitalism and urbanized
o Advocate rights of urban residents to live, work, play; both democratic rights and social-
cultural rights and access to urban resources (education, transportation, housing, green
space, water), regardless of legality
o The right not only to participate in the advantages of urban resources but to participate in
the production of urban space
History:
1900, nearly all of Southeast Asia under western rule (except Thailand)
Post WWII: independence
1970s and 80s: Successes of Asian Tigers
o Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore
o Massive growth, rapid industrialization, free trade, low taxation, state-led growth
o Key leaders in manufacturing and export led growth
o 1997, Economic Crisis, resulted in structural adjustment
o SAPs imposed
o 2000s, lost decades
Structural Adjustment
60s-70s, debt-led growth
Leverage debt to restructure third world economies through loans
Open economies, rolling back the state, free market liberalization, privatization of state resources
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