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4822. Migration, Urbanization, and Social Adjustment
- Author:
- Michael J. White
- Publication Date:
- 02-1999
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Wilson Center
- Abstract:
- Migration is the demographic process that links rural to urban areas, generating or spurring the growth of cities. The resultant urbanization is linked to a variety of policy issues, spanning demographic, economic, and environmental concerns. Growing cities are often seen as the agents of environmental degradation. Urbanization can place stress on the land through sprawl; coincident industrial development may threaten air and water quality. In the eyes of many observers, rapid urbanization is also linked to problems of unemployment and the social adaptation of migrants in their new urban setting. Cities advertise society's inequalities in income, housing, and other social resources, whether these problems are new or just newly manifest in urban settings. Most of the migration conventionally liked to these urban issues was seen as following a conventional pattern. In this policy brief I raise some issues about the nature of contemporary, migratory behavior, both for our understanding of processes of population redistribution directly, and for understanding some of the implications of that redistribution. Contemporary research is sketching the contours of this migratory behavior and the social adjustment that accompanies it. New research is beginning to shed light on the rate of migrant adaptation, on the connection between origin and destination communities through remittances, and the demographic structure and dynamics of refugee movements.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Civil Society, Development, Economics, and Migration
4823. Yet Another Transition? Urbanization, Class Formation, and the End of National Liberation Struggle in South Africa
- Author:
- David Everatt
- Publication Date:
- 02-1999
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Wilson Center
- Abstract:
- Comparative Urban Studies Project Policy Brief Yet Another Transition? Urbanization, Class Formation, and the End of National Liberation Struggle in South Africa Presented February 8-9, 1999, at the Woodrow Wilson Center for the Comparative Urban Studies Project's Research Working Group on Urbanization, Population, the Environment, and Security funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. These policy briefs do not represent an official position of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars or the U.S. Agency for International Development. Opinions expressed are solely those of the authors. South Africa's negotiated settlement is widely hailed as a small miracle. What is the state of the miracle five years on?
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Development, and Government
- Political Geography:
- Africa and South Africa
4824. Water for Big Cities: Big Problems, Easy Solutions?
- Author:
- Richard Middleton, John Kalbermatten, and Peter Rogers
- Publication Date:
- 02-1999
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Wilson Center
- Abstract:
- In large urban area of developing countries, about 30% of the population does not have access to safe water, and 50% does not have adequate sanitation. That means that over 500 million people do not have safe water, and 850 million people do not have proper sanitation. By the year 2020, there will be nearly 2 billion more people in urban areas needing these services. Putting it another way, in the next 20 years water supply coverage will have to more than triple, and sanitation coverage more than quadruple, if everyone in these countries is to be adequately served. To do this, even at a low consumption figure of 100 liters/person/day, will require an additional 88 BCM/year - both of water to be supplied and of wastewater to be safely disposed of.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Development, Government, and Industrial Policy
4825. Urbanization and Security
- Author:
- Alan Gilbert
- Publication Date:
- 02-1999
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Wilson Center
- Abstract:
- This paper will argue that no consistent or meaningful relationship exists between urbanization and security. For a start, the words urbanisation and security do not mean a great deal because they embrace too many cross-cutting ideas and processes. Second, researchers have found few consistent correlations between the numerous dimensions of security and urbanisation. Third, insofar as one can find a close correlation, independent variables usually account for the statistical relationship. Fourth, even when a direct correlation between security and urbanisation exists, the direction of causation is by no means obvious. Finally, every country and every city contains so much internal variation that most generalisations across nations, let alone across regions, are rendered meaningless.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Security, Civil Society, Development, and Government
4826. Ethnicity, Capital Formation, and Conflict
- Author:
- Richard N. Cooper
- Publication Date:
- 12-1999
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- "Development" implies change over time. More specifically, the term implies that particular features of the society, the economy and the polity increase in magnitude with the passage of time.This essay treats development as the process of structural change. As societies develop, they transform: towns grow, industry expands, and per capita incomes rise as labor shifts from employment in agriculture to employment in industry (Kuznets 1966; Polanyi 1944; Chenery and Taylor 1968 ). One source of increased incomes is a growing stock of productive inputs and, in particular, of capital. As each worker gains access to an increased stock of capital, each becomes more productive and the level of output per capita rises. Another source is technical change. In industry, possibilities exist for increasing returns to scale and for complementarities that agriculture lacks. Labor employed in town gains access to technologies that are more productive than those in villages. The shift of employment from agriculture to industry and from village to town therefore results in a rise in per capita output.
- Topic:
- Development, Ethnic Conflict, and Migration
- Political Geography:
- Africa
4827. 100 Companies Receiving The Largest Dollar Volume Of Prime Contract Awards - Fiscal Year 1998
- Publication Date:
- 01-1999
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- U.S. Economic Statistics Briefing Room
- Abstract:
- This report presents summary data on the 100 companies, and their subsidiaries, receiving the largest dollar volume of Department of Defense (DoD) prime contract awards during fiscal year (FY) 1998. Table 1 lists the 100 companies in alphabetical order and gives their associated rank. Table 2 identifies the parent companies in rank order, with their subsidiaries, and gives the total net value of awards for both the parent company and its subsidiaries. In many cases, the parent company receives no awards itself, but appears on the list because of its subsidiaries. Table 2 also shows what percentage of the total awards each company's awards represent, as well as the cumulative percentage represented by all companies. Table 3 lists the top 100 companies DoD-wide in rank order and breaks the totals into three categories of procurement: Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT); Other Services and Construction; and Supplies and Equipment. Table 4 lists the top 50 companies for each of the Reporting Components in rank order, and by category of procurement.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Development, and Economics
- Political Geography:
- United States
4828. Local Development and Job Creation
- Publication Date:
- 12-1999
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
- Abstract:
- Globalisation has become a key force of change in all OECD countries. It is making our economies more open, bringing new opportunities, new markets and new wealth. But it also demands more rapid adjustment to change. The accomplishment of strategic restructuring is often required, so that workers are not displaced or excluded from the labour market and so that no localities are left to lag behind or decline. In the new economic environment, policy-makers must help build dynamic and flexible regions and cities. They must assist the transition from individual closed local economic systems to a new, open global system. To do this, it is important to “think globally and act locally”.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Globalization, and Government
4829. The New Development Cooperation Paradigm
- Author:
- Catherine Gwin
- Publication Date:
- 06-1999
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Overseas Development Council
- Abstract:
- Catherine Gwin June 1999 Overseas Development Council Fifteen years after the end of the Cold War, a new development cooperation paradigm is emerging. Spurred by global economic and political change, development cooperation is undergoing a fundamental redesign on three levels: 1) rationale and purpose, 2) strategy, and 3) provision of assistance.
- Topic:
- Development, Globalization, International Cooperation, and International Trade and Finance
4830. The U.S. Perspective on Globalization
- Author:
- Stuart Eizenstat
- Publication Date:
- 04-1999
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Overseas Development Council
- Abstract:
- The Overseas Development Council was prescient in calling for an international dialogue on globalization last year. It is a particularly important time for a dialogue on the relationship between globalization and development, given new concerns raised by the global financial crisis.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Emerging Markets, Globalization, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- United States