What Are the Causes of Urban Primacy in the Third World?
Like Europe in the nineteenth century, Third World countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia, are today experiencing a period of urbanization. Unlike their western counterparts however, the urbanizing process is occurring at an alarming and rapid pace, without a similar rise in development. Studies show that the world’s largest metropolises are increasingly located in the poorest regions of the world (Alonso-Villar 2001: 1359). Developed countries enjoy “a mature system of cities,” (Henderson, 2002) in which economic activity is spread out which ensures that the quality of living standards is not compromised. On the other hand, developing countries are plagued with primate cities at considerable costs to health and living standards. What then explains primacy in the Third World, and how best can it be monitored? Indeed, if the key to improving the quality of life in the poor regions of the world lies in policies aimed at monitoring the emergence of large cities, then in the first pla
