New Forms of Urbanization; Beyond the Urban-Rural Dichotomy

THIS BOOK REVIEWS the scale and nature of urban change around the world, and it includes chapters on urban change in different regions (including Latin America, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa) and of particular nations and cities (including the United States, Brazil, Mexico and Delhi in India). These contain many interesting analyses. For instance, the chapter on sub-Saharan Africa presents a convincing case that the region is less urbanized than that suggested by most international urban datasets. The chapter on China discusses the influence of urban definitions on the scale and nature of urban change there. But these and other chapters also seek to go beyond the simplistic and often misleading division of the population (and economic activities) into ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ areas. The editors are part of the Working Group on Urbanization formed by the Council of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) and their intention with this volume was not only to provide a more detailed and location-specific or region-specific understanding of urban change but also to discuss a better conceptualisation and definition of settlement patterns. Thus, many chapters discuss more precise and useful conceptualisations of settlement systems (for instance ‘rethinking rurality’ and ‘the nature of rurality in post-industrial society’) and how these might be operationalized by governments, including the use of remote sensing and geographical information systems. The volume ends with conclusions and recommendations.