Changing theoretical perspectives on urbanisation in Asian developing countries

Abstract

Over the past four decades, urban geographers, along with planners and other social scientists, have been constantly searching for paradigms to interpret the complex nature of the urbanisation process and to understand the divergent patterns of urban development in different world regions. Disillusionment with European models has propelled urban specialists to explore the unique features of the urban process exhibited by Asian developing countries. Five major theoretical issues are assessed in this paper: the role of cities in regional development; the dualistic nature of employment in Asian cities; trans-national capital and urbanisation; socialism and urbanisation; and extended metropolitan regions in Asia. Recent attempts to conceptualise the growth of extended metropolitan regions are believed to have significant implications for studies in planning and applied geography in general, and in the search for a broad paradigm of urbanisation for Asian developing countries in particular. -from Author