Industrial Parks as a Solution to Expanding Urbanization

In a bid to foster the continent's industrialization, Sub-Saharan Africa launched industrial clusters or parks for channeling foreign know-how and capital and are bypassing the many obstacles of domestic business environments. Due to the high degree of failure experienced in many parts Africa, the China model of success story can serve as a case study of commitment top leadership, political goodwill, focused legal and regulatory framework, setting up favorable location advantages, tax breaks, duty-free imports of raw materials, export tax exemption, updated and modern technologies. It is also important African industrial development to build local manufacturing capacity, skilled people, including strengthening the concept of public-private partnership, but above all, investing in infrastructure.

Environmental, Social, and Economic Indicators of Urban Land Use Conflicts

Due to the recent increase in population, urbanization in developing countries progressed to the outer fringes of the city and resulted in ecological and social problems. Especially land use conflicts resulting in such phenomena are characterized by pressures on the environment caused by ever-increasing anthropogenic factors subject to unplanned settlement, notably in heavily populated metropolitan areas. Despite the fact that Turkey is one of the countries, which this conflict intensively occurred. Studies on compliance of land use in Turkey with the zoning plans mainly consider socioeconomic indicators. This, in return, raises concerns over applicability and the rationality of the plans created. Three main indicators: environmental indicators, social indicators and economic indicators were selected and then estimated to retrieve the relative weights of the indicators was determined using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) pairwise comparison method. Weighted linear combination (WLC) was carried out in the study.

Urbanization and Electric Power Crisis in Ghana

Traditionally, urbanization is hailed as an important force for socio-economic development of countries. In fact, recent research on Africa suggests that urbanization has the potential to stimulate socio-economic development. Yet, many African countries experiencing rapid urban growth continue to bear a disproportionate amount of the costs associated with urbanization (e.g., increased urban poverty, and energy crisis among others). This is in sharp contradiction to the popular notion that urbanization is a stimulus for socio-economic development. Using Ghana as a case study, this chapter discusses the extent to which rapid urbanization influences power supply and the implications on socio-economic development. The chapter focuses on four issues: (1) the history of power and urbanization in Ghana; (2) the influence of urbanization on power crisis in Ghana; (3) the socio-economic implications of urbanization-induced power crisis; and (4) the policies available in addressing the power crisis. Recommendations to address the ever-growing demand for electrical power are proffered

Urbanization and Socio-Economic Growth in South Asia Region

Urbanization in the South Asia Region (SAR) stood at 34% (2014) and is relatively sluggish when compared to that of the World at 54%. The World Urbanization Prospects (2014) and World Bank Report (2016) reveals that the future urbanization globally will be concentrated in Asia and predominantly in the select countries of SAR - Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. The chapter analyses the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the select countries, which are indicative of the quality of life of citizens, benchmarking it with that of Asia and the world. The analysis reveals the slow, messy and hidden nature of urbanization in the region which is required to be addressed. The conclusions recommend large investment and policy imperatives which should bring about sustainable urbanization ensuring basic urban services resulting in improved demographics, Human Development Indices and other socio-economic characteristics of the people in the region.

The Impact of Urbanization Induced Foreign Direct Investment in Emerging India

Globalization accompanied with internationalization enhanced urbanization across the globe. Cities and towns became the central point for economic activities, most of them fueled by the inward flow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) especially in the emerging economies. Globalization initiated urbanization in most of the emerging economies. As an outcome of globalization directly and with urbanization indirectly it resulted in the growth of inward foreign direct investment across the globe. This chapter makes an attempt to identify the influence of urbanization upon inward FDI and economic growth for emerging India. To study this phenomenon, data for a period of twenty years were taken from 1990- 2010. Multiple regression analysis was used. Results of the study are significant and indicate that, urbanization is playing an important role in enhancing the inflow of FDI into India in the study period. 66.9% of the changes in the dependent variable that is inward FDI is explained jointly by urbanization and economic growth, which shows that cities and towns are becoming an integral part in receiving FDI. This chapter also add some insight into the changing consumption and lifestyles of urbanites effected due to FDI.

Managing Urbanisation Through Planned Government Expenditure Evidence from Nigeria

Over the past 50 years the world has witnessed a very rapid urban growth and projections have shown that by the year 2050 two-third of the world population will be living in urban centres, with Africa's urban population projected to reach 67% from its current 40%. Nigeria, being the most populous country in Africa, is projected to have an urban population of 67%. There are number of challenges that go with urbanisation. This chapter examined the effectiveness of Nigeria's budgetary expenditure in managing Nigeria's urbanisation threats. The chapter found that Nigeria's urbanisation management strategy is more of system maintenance based than system development, and therefore, in spite of the huge expenditure government incurred over the years, the urban challenges Nigeria is facing are still alarming. Accordingly, the chapter concludes by recommending that Nigeria plan its urban expenditure in to ensure that it is sustainable.

Desired and Achieved Urbanisation in Africa

The chapter aims to make a nuanced contribution in plugging out the mentioned gaps using human (skilled, managerial, etc.) and material (digital technology, financial, etc.) resources available or developable locally with or without global aid support system. The study is a case study based and uses examples of Cape Town, Abuja, Harare, Nairobi, Cairo and Kinshasa, these being examples of cities where plans and visions have been or are being put in place to ensure that urbanisation is a process that emerges on strategically laid out platform. Nevertheless, achieving that is a continuous struggle because diverging forces are also at play in these cities. The chapter recommends capacity building and professionalization of the conduct of business by these authorities to ensure sustainable urbanisation. It also argues for a planning thought that makes the optimal mix of both local and international resources towards achieving sustainable urbanisation in the various cities of Africa.

The Economic Effects of Spiritual Tourism in India and Pakistan

This conceptual study builds on the argument that urbanisation is driving economic development and innovation in various industries including tourism. One of the recently recognised innovation in tourism is the business of spiritual tourism. This chapter is based on a study on spiritual tourism in India and Pakistan as an innovation linked with urbanisation of tourism. The aim of this chapter is to present the link between economic indicators that are associated with urbanisation of spiritual tourism based on people, places and events. The discussion analyses the economic perspectives of tourism urbanisation in literature review and provides an understanding of spiritual tourism as a tourism innovation. Findings of this research indicate five economic indicators with respect to spiritual tourism as a tourism innovation. Future research direction highlights need for an empirical study with spiritual tourists in India and Pakistan to ascertain urbanisation effect on spiritual tourism innovation.

From Network Builders to Knowledge Clusters

This chapter aims to explore the central notions of the Knowledge-City paradigm in which complex cluster concepts provide a perspective of the interdependencies between the many and diverse dimensions of urban value-based categories that co-exist in the northern city-region of Monterrey, Mexico, in the Mexico-Texas Borderland. The chapter succeeds to advance and further contribute to the development of the knowledge-based urban development (KBUD) paradigm by showing a hierarchical framework of knowledge units from the individual Urban Citizen-Entrepreneur to Cluster Partnerships from a Knowledge City-Region perspective. It attempts to describe their spatial footprint, their activities, and their socio-economic impacts. Then, based on a case study in the Mexico-Texas borderland, it is advanced that a multi-variable framework holds promise for the analysis of knowledge-based development initiatives and possibly for future developing regions at a global scale.

Revisiting Urban Theories

Urban theory has been dominated by the accumulation of social theories and has significant impact on global urbanization. The urban is becoming more complex and more global due to the contesting technological, political, social, economic and environmental forces. These disciplinary forces may be added to the global shifts in population and political power from rural to urban and from the developed to the developing nations, creating new global challenges. To cope with these challenges, the prevailing urban theories need a shift. By critically revisiting urban theories and testing them against emerging challenges, this chapter is advocating for and pointing to a new direction. The chapter revisits urban sociological theories, those global theories advocating planetary urbanization, the models responding to glocal forces as well as those promoting world systems. This is followed by an outline of the proposal for Activity Theoretical Framework. Possible future research direction for the inclusive and universal urbanization is identified.