Problems-of-urbanization.doc

(完整版)Problems_of_urbanizationProblems of urbanizationToday I want to discuss problems of urbanization / in particular I want to talk about those problems which are peculiar to developing economies and to discuss three possible policies / which could be used to control or uh / to stem / uncontrolled urbanization in developing counties /Certain urban problems of course are common to both developed and developing countries / for example / poor housing, unemployment, problems connected with traffic / for example air pollution， congestion and so on / however there there are problems which are very peculiar to developing economies / and this is due to the fact that developing countries need to create a basic infrastructure / which is necessary for industrialization / and consequently for economic growth / in fact its the provision of this infrastructure which constitutes the urbanization process itself / and this uh infrastructure / or rather the / provision of this infrastructure / may have undesired effects on the economy as a whole / now its these undesirable consequences of or effects which Id like to deal with first /Im going to talk about five main consequences of this uncontrolled urbanization / in the first instance theres the problem of the migration of people from the country to the city / people living in the country often see the city as a more desirable place to live / whether theyre living in developing or developed countries / but the problem is much more serious in a developing country / because there are in fact more people who wish to migrate to the city / now the fact of people migrating to the city causes a certain depopulation of rural areas / and a second consequence / is the result / or the result of this is a decrease in the production of food / and in the supply of food to the country as a whole / this in turn can also lead to a rise in prices / because of the law of supple and demand / as a result of people moving to the city / you get a high urban population growth rate / now this isnt not this isnt due to only to the fact of more adults moving to the city / but can also be due to traditions of these people from the country / who perhaps from rural areas have a tradition of large families and so on / so the ci population of the cities increases with these numerous children of large families / this leads to a fourth consequence / which is a dramatic pressure on the supply of social services in urban areas / in particular / services related to health and education / in relation / in relation to health services / we can see that there are endemic diseases which could be made worse by overcrowding / people coming from the country to the city / and for example in the stresses on services in education / with more children theres a need for more schools and more teachers and so on and so on / a fifth area which is affected by uncontrolled urbanization is that of the labour supply / often uncontrolled urbanization leads to an excess of labour supply in the cities / and this can lead in turn to an informal kind of labour activity / which might be called lowprod productivity activities / for example people selling things in the streets / or for example you often find in large urban areas in a developing country / children who watch cars while their owners are doing something else / and then they ask for tips when the owners return / this is really a sort of undesirable type of labour / so these are in fact the main consequences of uncontrolled urbanization / now Id like to move on to three possible policies which could be developed / to stem this kind of uncontrolled urbanization in developing countries / the first one would be to promote a more equal land distribution / in this way farmers would be more motivated to stay on the land / they would be able to work more land and thus be able to feed their families more adequately / often the reason why farmers wish to go to the city is that they cannot grow enough food to both feed their families and earn a living / so a more equal land distribution is one such policy to stem this kind of move to the city / a second policy would be to improve the supply of social services in the rural areas / particularly in the field of health and education / country people often fmove to the city because they feel that these services are better in the city / if they could compare the services they they receive which are improved and the ones in the city they might feel there was perhaps not much difference and it would be another reason for not moving / a third possible policy would be to give financial assistance to agriculture / especially to the small landowner / now obviously the problem of uncontrolled urbanization / and the consequences which are not favourable / is a difficult problem / to resolve / but these three types of policies could help to reduce the problem / which is felt in particular in developing countries。