By Manisha Jain and Artem Korzhenevych in Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie (2018).
India’s increased pace of urbanisation is evident, but the question
remains as to whether India can harness its developmental potential by
providing social infrastructure to meet its projected growth. This paper
investigates the urbanisation trajectory with respect to the provision
of social infrastructure in the Capital Region of India. First, it
applies the differential urbanisation model and predicts
counter‐urbanisation to be the next stage of development. Second, using
socio‐economic indicators, the paper finds high literacy rates and
non‐agricultural employment in small towns. Third, it explains
deconcentration of large cities as an outcome of congested social
infrastructure provision. Fourth, it determines that small towns
continue to have poor provision of social infrastructure. This paper
recommends the integration of spatial planning with social
infrastructure planning, the empowerment of lower‐tier authorities for
social infrastructure delivery, and measures for raising local
government revenue in the region and in similar regions throughout the
Global South.
Subaltern Urbanisation in India: An Introduction
to the Dynamics of Ordinary Town reviewed by Gregory F Randolph (University of Southern California) and Mukta Naik (IHS, Erasmus University Rotterdam) in Urban Studies 1–3 – 2018.
While half the world’s city dwellers reside in small and medium-sized towns (United Nations, 2018), the urban social sciences remain stubbornly focused on the planet’s largest metropolitan areas. Among those studying the North, the global cities literature (Sassen, 2005, 2013) has re-energised the long-standing focus on cities such as London, New York and Paris. Neither has scholarship on the urban South, despite its critiques of urban theories emanating from Northern cities, turned its imagination much
beyond major metropolitan areas. The implicit assumption seems to be that megacities are representative samples of the massive
urban transformation underway across much of the world. The neglect of cities at the other end of the settlement size spectrum is not simply a failure of the academy to study the full universe of urban phenomena. As the evidence in this volume begins to demonstrate, it is actually a failure to grapple with one of the central forces underlying the rapid urbanisation unfolding in the
Global South: widespread rural-to-urban in situ transformations are resulting in the proliferation of small urban settlements.
by Niti Mehta
Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research, Ahmedabad, India – 2018 – Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
The book examines the pattern of non-farm development at the national level and identifies the correlates and determinants of occupational diversification for the major states. It is one of the few studies that unravels the dynamic processes associated with growth and development at the sub-national level; wherein it elucidates changes in rural employment pattern and its implications for urban growth.
The book fills a crucial gap in current research, notably, an understanding of conditions that enable large villages to assume an urban character. By providing micro-level study of census towns to capture the nuances of the dynamic situation in the countryside, the book would offer useful insights and provide reference material on the social and economic impacts of urban growth, thereby satisfying the needs of students, researchers and practitioners of regional economics, rural development, and sustainable urbanization.
The book is the outcome of financial support received under the Research Programme Scheme of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi, India.
Subaltern Urbanisation in India
