urbanization in the devil world final exam

Difference between Chain Migration and Circular Migration

Chain migration builds slums through permanent community-linked settlement;

Shows how cities in the developing world grow even when they cannot absorb migrants (“urbanization of poverty”).

Often leads to the expansion of slums because new arrivals follow the first settlers into informal settlements like Kibera, Dharavi, and Villa 31.

Kibera, Nairobi: Rural migrants from Luo, Nubian, Kamba, and Kikuyu communities follow ethnic networks already in the slum.

circular migration feeds the informal sector through temporary back-and-forth movement.

Connected to the informal sector (slides show 60%+ of employment in cities like Dharavi or African cities is informal).

Cities rely on migrants for construction, transport, street vending, but migrants still depend on rural home bases because cities can’t sustain them.

South Africa: Classic circular migration between rural homelands and cities (Johannesburg).

Difference between Push and Pull Migration & Which Drives Urbanization in the Developing World

Push factors (rural poverty, land scarcity, climate stress) explain most urbanization in the developing world—not strong urban pull, but rural hardship.

• Rural poverty: The #1 driver of migration in Africa and Asia.

• Lack of land (population growth).

• Climate change: droughts, erratic rainfall (Module 7).

• Hope of jobs (even though most migrants end up in the informal sector).

• Basic services (schools, water, clinics—though slums usually lack them).

• globalized job markets (Module 7: “shrinking world,” time-space convergence).

• Most developing-world cities cannot absorb migrants (slum growth, overcrowding).

• Urbanization of poverty: “Absolute number of poor… in urban areas increasing.”

• Informal settlements like Kibera, Dharavi, Villa 31 form because migrants move despite weak urban infrastructure.

• Todaro’s insight applies: people migrate based on expected opportunity, not actual jobs → pull factors matter symbolically, but push factors matter materially.

Costs and Possible Benefits of Brain Drain

Brain drain weakens developing countries by removing skilled workers needed for sustainable development, but it can also bring remittances, investments, and returning expertise.

• Loss of skilled workers
  Doctors, nurses, engineers leave → affects health systems, planning, infrastructure.

• Weakens local governance capacity
  Slides show how cities need good planners and environmental experts to build sustainable infrastructure—losing trained professionals makes this harder.

• Worsens spatial uneven development
  Module 7 emphasizes the global divide between MDCs and LDCs.

• Remittances
  Money sent home is a major source of income in India, the Philippines, Nigeria.

• Diaspora networks
  Migrants abroad help with foreign investment, trade, tech transfer, and global visibility.

• “Brain circulation”
  Skilled migrants sometimes return with:

  • capital

  • global experience

  • better training

What makes a cosmopolitan city?

A cosmopolitan city is one with high cultural diversity, global connectivity, and international influence.
Slide connections: Module 7’s “shrinking world” shows how globalization links cities and encourages cultural mixing.

Examples: London, New York, Dubai, São Paulo.
They have multilingual populations, global labor flows, and transnational networks.

Costs and benefits of maquiladoras in Tijuana

• Provide jobs → slows push migration.

• Attract foreign investment.

• Increase urban growth, infrastructure.

Costs:

• Low wages and exploitation.

• Pollution and environmental problems (Module 7: poor countries bear environmental costs).

• Lack of planning → slums around factories.

• Strain on water, housing, and sanitation systems.

Urbanization of poverty in developing cities

Urbanization does not come from job growth, but from:

• Rural push factors

• Lack of land

• Climate stress

• Conflict

• Forced migration

This leads to:

• Slums (Kibera, Dharavi, Villa 31)

• Informal settlements

• People working in the informal sector (60–90% of jobs in some cities)

Cities grow without the ability to provide services → deepening poverty.

Dual housing market & why it occurs

Slide: “Dual housing market = formal vs informal.”

Formal sector: legal, planned, taxed, regulated.
Informal sector: slums, squatting, self-built housing, no secure tenure.

Occurs because:

• Formal housing too expensive

• Lack of land titles

• Rapid urbanization

• Urban planning can’t keep up

• Spatial inequality (slides show rich vs poor neighborhoods side-by-side)

Bottom-up vs top-down slum upgrading + example

Top-down:

• Government-led

• Often fails because residents are not consulted

• Example from slides: large redevelopment plans in Dharavi that displaced people.

Bottom-up:

• Community participation (“planning with the people”)

• Better long-term sustainability

• Example: Map Kibera project → gives voice to residents; community-led improvements.

Advantage: Bottom-up projects produce solutions residents actually accept.

Downward raiding

Slide: free housing → wealthier poor move in → poorest pushed back to slums.
People with slightly higher incomes take houses meant for the absolutely poor.

Happens when:

• Housing is free

• No protections or income limits

• Land values rise around new developments

Indigenous vs Islamic cities

Indigenous city:

• Organic growth

• Market-based

• Social mixing

• No strict religious spatial order

Islamic city:

• Mosque at center

• Emphasis on privacy

• Winding streets

• Segregated gender spaces

These reflect different cultural and planning traditions.

Todaro model & urbanization

Todaro: Migration decisions are based on expected income, not current income.

Applies to slum growth because:

• Migrants move even if formal jobs don’t exist.

• Hope of future opportunity outweighs reality.

• Leads to informal sector domination (slides show 60–90% in informal work).

Gravity model

Migrants choose cities based on:

• Size of city (bigger = more opportunity)

• Distance decay (closer = more likely)

Explains why rural Africans go to Nairobi, Indians to Mumbai, Argentinians to Buenos Aires, not smaller towns.

Ravenstein’s laws & distance

• Most migration is short distance

• Long-distance migrants go to major cities

• Urban areas grow faster than rural areas

Matches slides: megacity growth, informal settlements near city centers.

Why so many African cities are coastal?

Due to colonial trade: ports = centers of administration & economic activity.
Examples: Lagos, Dakar, Cape Town.

Slides: Urbanization in Africa is shaped by colonial history and uneven development.

Why North Africa is more urbanized than Sub-Saharan Africa?

• Longer history of cities (Cairo, Tunis, Casablanca).

• Closer to Europe → more trade.

• Earlier industrialization.

• Stronger states and infrastructure.

Group Areas Act & spatial inequality

Apartheid law assigning racial groups to segregated areas.
Legacy today:

• Spatial inequality (slides show white areas with best land)

• Long commutes from townships

• Persistent segregation

• Unequal access to services and land values

Are the Millennium Development Goals achievable?

Slides: Progress made, but uneven.
Barriers:

• Inequality

• Weak governance

• Climate change

• Rapid urbanization

• COVID/food insecurity

Some goals achieved, but many remain incomplete → led to SDGs (2016–2030).

Spatially uneven development in cities

Slide: Globalization increases spatial inequality.

Reasons:

• Capitalist land markets

• Gated communities vs slums

• Infrastructure invested in wealthy areas

• Informal settlements ignored politically

• “No such thing as neutral planning”

Main problems in Lagos (Packer reading + slides)

• Overcrowding

• Traffic congestion

• Pollution

• Water shortages

• Massive informal sector

• Weak governance

• Inequality (slums next to modern islands)

• Corruption

• Crime and insecurity

• Poor planning and lack of accountability

Sustainability responsibilities

Slides emphasize:

• Climate change is global

• Poor countries suffer most

• Rich countries caused most emissions

Developed nations:

• Should fund transitions

• Should pay for historical pollution

• Should help poorer countries adapt

Developing nations:

• Need sustainable policies but face poverty, inequality, and limited resources

• Must balance economic growth with environmental protection

Chain vs Circular Migration

Chain: Permanent, family-based → builds slums like Kibera and Villa 31.
Circular: Temporary & seasonal → supports the informal sector (construction, vending, recycling).

Push vs Pull Migration & which is stronger

• Climate change

• Rural poverty

• Food insecurity

• Lack of land

• Conflict

Brain Drain: costs & benefits

• Loss of skilled workers

• Weakening of planning capacity (slides stress need for planners)

• Worsens spatial inequality

• Slows sustainable development

• Hurts ability to handle climate change

Benefits:

• Remittances

• Diaspora networks

• Brain circulation (return migration)

• Investment in home country

• Skill upgrading abroad

reilley’s model (gravitational models) - how to calculate this

Attraction=(Distance)2Population of City A​

City A: 1,000,000 people, 100 km away
City B: 400,000 people, 20 km away

A’s attraction = 1,000,000 / 100² = 100
B’s attraction = 400,000 / 20² = 1,000

Ravenstein’s Laws of Migration

• Most migrants move short distances.

• Long-distance migrants go to major cities.

• Urban residents migrate less than rural residents.

• Migration occurs in steps (rural → small town → city).

• Economic factors dominate migration.

• Migration produces counter-flows (some return).

Todaro Model (Migration Theory)

• eople migrate based on expected income, not actual income.

• Even if jobs are scarce, migrants move because:

  Expected Income=Chance of Getting a Job×Urban WageExpected Income=Chance of Getting a Job×Urban Wage

• Explains why slums grow even when cities lack formal jobs.

Zelinsky Model (Mobility Transition Model)

Shows how migration changes as a country develops:

1. Pre-industrial: little migration

2. Early transition: rural → urban migration

3. Late transition: international migration

4. Post-industrial: urban ↔ urban, suburbanization

5. Future: circulation (temporary, back-and-forth migration)

Bracero Program

• U.S.–Mexico guest worker program (1942–1964).

• Brought Mexican agricultural workers to the U.S.

• Created long-term patterns of chain migration.

Maquiladora Industry

Border factories in Mexico (near U.S.) producing goods for export.

Benefits: jobs, foreign investment
Costs: low wages, exploitation, environmental damage

Slums

Dense urban areas with:

• Overcrowding

• Poor housing

• Inadequate water/sanitation

• Insecure tenure

Examples: Kibera (Nairobi), Dharavi (Mumbai), Cape Town townships.

Slum Tourism

Tourists visiting slums to “see” poverty.

Benefits:

• Job creation

• Awareness

• Community-run tours can empower residents

Costs/Ethics:

• Can exploit residents

• Privacy concerns

• Profits may not reach community

Favelas

Brazilian informal settlements, especially in Rio and São Paulo.
Often built on steep hills; have strong community networks.

Informal Settlements

Housing built without legal permission, planning, or services.

Includes:

• Slums

• Favelas

• Squatter communities

Squatter Settlements

Residents occupy land without legal right, build homes themselves.

Common in rapidly urbanizing cities.

Bottom-up vs. Top-down Slum Upgrading

Top-down

• Government-led

• Large-scale projects

• Often displace residents (e.g., Dharavi redevelopment)

Bottom-up

• Community-led

• Works with residents

• More sustainable and accepted

• Example: Map Kibera (community mapping)

Downward Raiding

When free/cheap housing meant for the poorest is taken over by people who are slightly better off, pushing out the intended beneficiaries.

Site-and-Service Schemes

Government provides:

• A plot of land

• Basic services (water, roads, sanitation)

Residents build their own homes over time.

Dual Housing Markets

Two systems:

• Formal housing: legal, planned, regulated

• Informal housing: slums, illegal subdivisions

Poor people are excluded from the formal system due to cost.

Urbanization of Poverty

Urbanization driven by push factors (rural poverty, climate stress), not urban jobs → poverty becomes concentrated in cities.

Slums expand faster than formal housing.

Rational Comprehensive Model

• Top-down

• Expert-driven

• Assumes planners know what’s best

• Often fails in slums because it ignores local needs

Advocacy Planning

• Bottom-up

• Community participation

• Planners work with residents

• Best for slum upgrading (your class emphasizes this)

Pragmatic Dilemma in Planning

Cities need:

• Long-term plans

• But must respond quickly to political pressure and emergencies

Planners must balance ideal solutions with practical realities.

Group Areas Act

Apartheid law (1950) that assigned racial groups to specific areas.

Long-term impacts:

• Spatial inequality

• Long commutes

• Segregated cities (still visible today)

Dual City

A city divided into two worlds:

• Rich / formal / serviced areas

• Poor / informal / underserved areas

Example: Mumbai — luxury towers next to Dharavi.

Microfinancing

Small loans for the poor to:

• Improve housing

• Start businesses

• Pay school fees

Supports slum upgrading via self-help.

Community Mapping

Residents map their own neighborhood using:

• GPS

• Photos

• Community surveying

Reveals what governments ignore (toilets, water points, hazards).

Sustainable Development

Meeting needs today without harming future generations.

Includes:

• Environmental

• Economic

• Social sustainability

Time-Space Convergence

Travel and communication become faster, shrinking the sensation of distance.

Cost-Space Convergence

Travel and communication become cheaper, making trade & migration easier.

Spatial Uneven Development

Some neighborhoods receive:

• Investment

• Infrastructure

• Services

While others (slums) are ignored → inequality deepens.

Sustainable Development Goals

Global goals (2016–2030) like:

• No poverty

• Clean water

• Sustainable cities

• Climate action

• Reduced inequality

Many cities struggle due to lack of funding and rapid urbanization.

Millennium Development Goals

Earlier goals (2000–2015):

• Poverty reduction

• Universal education

• Maternal health

• Gender equality

Progress was uneven → replaced by SDGs.

Benefits and costs of slum tourism; is it ethical?

Potential benefits

• Income for local guides and businesses – home-based shops, snack sellers, NGO-run tours can get cash that would not otherwise reach the settlement.

• Political visibility – outsiders (voters, journalists, donors) see living conditions first-hand, which can pressure governments to deliver services or halt violent evictions.

• Narrative change when done well – community-run tours can challenge stereotypes by showing work ethic, social networks, and entrepreneurial activity rather than only misery.

Major costs

• Voyeurism and “poverty as spectacle” – visitors consume other people’s suffering as an experience, then go back to their hotels; residents have little control over how they are portrayed.

• Power imbalance – tourists can photograph people without informed consent; residents cannot reciprocate or visit tourists’ neighbourhoods.

• Thin economic impact – most profits can leak to outside tour operators; individual households who are not part of the tour see no benefit.

• Security and disruption – tour groups can attract crime or disrupt everyday activities, especially in tight, overcrowded lanes.

Ethical conditions / your evaluation

You can argue that slum tourism is only defensible when:

• Residents design and run the tours, set the rules on photography, and capture most of the revenue.

• Tours explicitly link to political advocacy or funding for upgrading, not just “urban adventure.”

Otherwise, it reinforces spatial inequality and turns slums – already a product of the “urbanization of poverty” – into a commodity

Environmental problems associated with megacity growth in the developing world

Draw heavily on Drakakis-Smith’s “Urban environmental matters” plus the “Urban environmental problems” and “Urban environmental problems in the developing world” sections in Cities of the Future.

Typical “brown agenda” problems:

• Water and sanitation – large populations without piped water or sewerage; high rates of water-borne disease; examples in Mexico City, Jakarta, Harare case studies.

  DSmith 4-1

• Solid waste – garbage production rising faster than population; much of it dumped in open sites or rivers; municipal capacity to collect is limited.

  DSmith 4-1

• Air pollution – industrial emissions + rapid motorization + dirty fuels; case studies of Mexico City and Chinese cities show extreme smog and respiratory illness.

• Land degradation and hazardous locations – informal settlements on steep slopes, floodplains or near dumps and tanneries; Drakakis-Smith’s Changzhou and León case studies show water and soil contamination.

  DSmith 4-1

• Climate vulnerability – megacities in coastal Asia, Latin America and Africa exposed to sea-level rise, heat waves and flooding; Module 7 links this directly to global CO₂ emissions trends.

Structural drivers:

• Rapid rural-urban migration faster than infrastructure investment.

• Weak environmental regulation and “develop now, clean up later” growth strategies.

• Spatial inequality: slums and peripheral settlements absorb the environmental risks while affluent groups externalize them.

“Megacity Mumbai”, Dharavi, and nearby elites – what this says about urbanization

Use:

• Dharavi case study slides in “Module 7 case studies”.

  GEOG 106 DL - MODULE 7 case stu…

• Concepts from Module 6 on slums, informal sector, dual housing markets and gated communities.

  GEOG 106 DL - MODULE 6 2025 - H…

• Potter & Lloyd-Evans on self-help housing.

  potter and lloyd evans-1

Key issues in Dharavi (from case-study slides + general scholarship)

• Extremely high density in a very small area, with 10 m² rooms holding multiple people.

  GEOG 106 DL - MODULE 7 case stu…

• Limited services: shared standpipes, communal toilets, narrow lanes – classic slum indicators: inadequate water, sanitation, overcrowding, insecure tenure.

• Strong informal economy: recycling, leather, pottery, food production – illustrating Drakakis-Smith’s and Potter & Lloyd-Evans’ argument that the informal sector is a survival mechanism and a major share of employment.

Upper-class Mumbai nearby

• High-rise luxury apartments, gated complexes and business districts with reliable water, electricity and private security – examples of a dual housing market and gated communities similar to the South African and Brazilian photos in Module 6.

  GEOG 106 DL - MODULE 6 2025 - H…

What this juxtaposition tells us about urbanization in the developing world

• Extreme spatial inequality – wealth and deprivation literally side by side (like the aerial inequality images from Nairobi, Johannesburg and Brazilian favelas).

• Informality as functional, not marginal – Dharavi is tightly integrated into the city’s economy; slums house the labour that services middle-class consumption, echoing Turner’s view that informal settlements are part of the housing solution.

  potter and lloyd evans-1

• Conflict over urban land – redevelopment schemes aim to “upgrade” Dharavi into high-value real estate, raising issues of displacement and “downward raiding” where better-off groups capture upgraded land.

• “World-class city” vs. inclusive city – Mumbai’s drive to be globally competitive prioritizes image, finance and mega-projects over basic services for the urban poor, a dynamic discussed in Cities of the Future.

  Cities_of_the_World_ch13(5th_ed…

Your argument can be that the film exposes how globalized megacity growth in the Global South produces pockets of spectacular wealth built on a foundation of insecure, informal, but highly productive settlements.

Main urban challenges in one city (example: Nairobi)

You can choose any city from the list; Nairobi is strongly supported in the slides.

For Nairobi, organize your answer under:

• Housing and slums – huge share of population in informal settlements like Kibera, with overcrowding, lack of services, insecure tenure.

• Infrastructure and services – water shortages, illegal connections, unreliable electricity, poor sanitation, weak solid-waste collection.

• Employment and informality – very high unemployment, reliance on informal sector (street vending, casual labour); up to 60–78% of non-agricultural employment in informal activities in many African cities.

• Environmental issues – pollution of rivers, unregulated dumping, traffic congestion and vehicle emissions; this links directly to Drakakis-Smith’s “brown agenda.”

  DSmith 4-1

• Governance and politics – Kibera’s status as “illegal” land discourages infrastructure investment; top-down policies and clientelism; spatial inequality between elite estates and nearby slums.

You can do the same structure for Lagos, Delhi, etc., swapping in the relevant cases from your materials.

What urban planning model is most likely to succeed for slum upgrading?

• Module 6 bullets on “urban planning theories (especially pragmatism), site and service schemes, advocacy planning, urban upgrading, security of tenure.”

  GEOG 106 DL - MODULE 6 2025 - H…

• Potter & Lloyd-Evans on Turner’s aided self-help (ASH) and incremental consolidation.

  potter and lloyd evans-1

A strong answer is to back in-situ, participatory upgrading / aided self-help, not wholesale clearance.

Core elements of this model:

1. Security of tenure first – give households legal or de facto protection from eviction so they will invest in their homes.

2. Basic infrastructure package – install water, sanitation, drainage, street lighting, all-weather access; these dramatically improve health and productivity, as the “housing environment and health” tables show.

3. Sites-and-services / incremental housing – provide a serviced plot and simple core unit or structural frame; allow households to extend and improve over time as income permits.

4. Advocacy and community planning – NGOs and planners act as facilitators; residents decide priorities through community organizations, building local ownership and social capital.

5. Microfinance and livelihoods – link upgrading with microcredit or savings groups that finance home improvements and small businesses (see the Kibera microfinance example).

   GEOG 106 DL - MODULE 7 case stu…

Why this is likely to succeed:

• Lower fiscal burden than full public housing; builds on existing social and economic networks rather than destroying them.

• Avoids the failures of high-rise relocation schemes and mass evictions documented in the housing chapter (e.g., Hong Kong and Latin American examples).

  potter and lloyd evans-1

Are the Sustainable Development Goals achievable? Use one city example and the costs of failure.

Tie SDG 11 (sustainable cities), SDG 6 (water), SDG 13 (climate action) to your course content.

From Module 7 and Cities of the Future: SDGs are ambitious but necessary; current trends (climate change, urban inequality, backlash against globalization) make full achievement unlikely without major policy shifts.

Pick a city from class as your case:

• Curitiba, Brazil – example of partial SDG-type success: integrated transport, green space, recycling programmes; shows that innovative planning and strong local leadership can significantly improve sustainability even in a middle-income context.

  GEOG 106 DL - MODULE 7 - 2025…

• Or Dakar / Senegalese coastal city – case where local government is trying to adapt to sea-level rise with limited resources.

  GEOG 106 DL - MODULE 7 - 2025…

Costs of not achieving SDGs:

• More frequent climate-related disasters hitting the urban poor hardest (floods, heatwaves, sea-level rise).

• Continued expansion of informal settlements and slum populations, as projected to reach around 2 billion by 2030 if trends persist.

• Public-health crises due to unresolved brown-agenda problems (water, sanitation, air pollution).

• Lost economic potential as cities become locked into low-productivity, high-risk trajectories.

  Cities_of_the_World_ch13(5th_ed…

Your bottom line can be: fully achieving the SDGs is improbable under current politics, but partial, city-level successesare clearly possible and the cost of giving up is enormous.

The future of global urban development and how to steer it toward sustainability

Pull together the “Sustainable Cities and Cities of the Future” slides with Brunn et al.’s chapter and Drakakis-Smith.

Key trends

• Almost all future population growth will be urban and concentrated in Africa and Asia; many of these cities already have large slum shares.

• Ongoing time-space and cost-space convergence, but with a backlash against globalization and offshoring, which can undermine export-led urban growth in poorer countries.

• Rising climate risks (heat, flooding, sea-level rise) hitting coastal and river-basin megacities hardest.

• Persistent spatial inequality: gated communities, walled suburbs and “premium networked spaces” for the rich vs. insecure, under-serviced informal settlements.

Ways to shape a more sustainable, less informal future

You can structure this as a short agenda:

1. Reorient urban planning from car-oriented, elite mega-projects to inclusive basic-needs planning: water, sewers, transport, affordable housing.

2. Scale up in-situ slum upgrading, security of tenure and serviced land to prevent new informal growth.

3. Invest in low-carbon infrastructure – mass transit, compact urban form, green infrastructure – to cut emissions and improve liveability.

4. Strengthen local governance and participation so poor communities can influence budgeting and land-use decisions.

5. Link global and local policy – climate finance, fair trade, and responsible globalization so that developing-world cities are not locked out of jobs and investment, as highlighted in the globalization and COVID-garment-industry discussion.

You can close by arguing that the future is not “inevitably dystopian megacities”: the readings show both the risks (slum expansion, environmental crises) and the tools (participatory upgrading, sustainable planning, stronger governance) that can move global urbanization onto a more sustainable track.