Title: Labour force change and mobility in the extended metropolitan regions of Asia.

POPLINE Document Number: 128052

Author(s):

McGee TG

Source citation:

In: Mega-city growth and the future, edited by Roland J. Fuchs, Ellen Brennan, Joseph Chamie, Fu-chen Lo, and Juha I. Uitto. Tokyo, Japan, United Nations University Press, 1994. :62-102.

Abstract:

Asia's urban population is expected to almost double over the period 1980-2020, as an estimated 462 million people are added to the urban population. This growth will result in an overall urbanization level in Asia of almost 50%. Projections of such dramatic growth have fueled concerns over the size of cities which will be needed to accommodate the increase and the problems which will be posed for the creation of urban infrastructure, housing, and the creation of productive employment. However, these projections are based upon certain assumptions of the growth of populations in places defined as urban. The conventional, Western model of urban transition needs to be carefully evaluated in the case of Asia. Such an evaluation involves dispensing with the concepts which are part of the body of urban theory which has grown out of the Western experience with urban transition. The conventional view of the urban transition is inadequate in several respects. Population growth, structural change, labor force absorption, and urbanization in Asia; the emergence of the extended metropolitan region in Asia; features of the extended metropolitan region in Asia; Bangkok as an example of the emergence of the extended metropolitan region; and implications of the emergence of desakota regions for future Asian urbanization are discussed. A model of the spatial economy transition is also presented.

Keywords:

Thailand
Asia
Theoretical Studies
Labor Force
Urbanization
Urban Population
Population Projection
Changes
Developing Countries
Asia, Southeastern
Human Resources
Economic Factors
Urban Population Distribution
Population Distribution
Geographic Factors
Population
Population Characteristics
Demographic Factors
Estimation Technics
Research Methodology
Social Change