Conference: Asia and Africa in Transition
Panel: Urbanization in rural regions of Africa and Asia
Hybrid format, room 22.0.11
Conveners: Torben Birch-Thomsen and Jytte Agergaard, Dept. of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen
The world is urbanizing and much future urbanization is projected to take place in Africa and Asia determined by economic, demographic and environmental transformations at local, national and global scales. Sustainable urbanization and urban growth have thus become issues high on the international research and policy agendas (e.g. SDG 11). Much attention has been given to the growth of larger cities and the challenges of megacity growth while urbanization and urban agglomerations in rural regions outside the realms of larger cities and city regions have attracted less attention. The overall aim of this panel is to document and explore how urbanization in rural regions (‘rural urbanization’) of Africa and Asia progress, and to examine how small towns and intermediate urban centres can support sustainable development: keeping in mind that urbanizing spaces along the rural-urban continuum often occur in transitional governance systems (from rural to urban).
Panel programme
Session 1: Wednesday, 30 June, 9:00-11:00 (Copenhagen time/CEST)
| Author(s) | Title of presentation | |
| 9:00 | Jytte Agergaard, Torben birch-Thomsen | Introduction to panel |
| 9:10 | Cristina Udelsmann Rodrigues, Patience Mususa, Karen Büscher and Jeroen Cuvelier | Boomtown Urbanization and Rural-Urban Transformation in Mining and Conflict Regions in Angola, the DRC and Zambia |
| 9:35 | Deborah Fahy Bryceson; Jesper Bosse Jønsson | Mining Habitat, House and Home in Gold Boom Africa: Economic and Emotional Dimensions |
| 10:00 | Geoffrey Nwaka | Urban-Rural Linkages for Rural Development in Nigeria |
| 10:25 | Charlotte Goodburn | Importing Export Zones: impacts of Chinese-style Special Economic Zones on Indian rural/urban development |
Session 2: Wednesday, 30 June, 13:15-15:15 (Copenhagen time/CEST)
| Author(s) | Title of presentation | |
| 13:15 | Jytte Agergaard, Torben Birch-Thomsen | Introduction to session |
| 13:20 | David Simon, Yutika Vora, Tarun Sharma and Warren Smit | Responding to Climate Change in Small and Intermediate Cities: Comparative Policy Perspectives from India and South Africa |
| 13:45 | Mark P. Stadler | Poor Peoples’ Politics and the Desa-Kota in Asia & Africa: The Development of Urban Poor Activism towards the Semi-Rural Realm of the Satellite Cities of Jakarta and the Outskirts of Antananarivo |
| 14:10 | Nathan Kariuki | Integrating Metropolis to small and medium Towns: The Role street trading flows in Kenya |
| 14:35 | Hanne Van Cappellen and Joachim De Weerdt | Rural labour patterns and urbanisation in Sub-Saharan Africa |
Session 3: Wednesday, 30 June, 15:30-17:30 (Copenhagen time/CEST)
| Author(s) | Title of presentation |
| Jytte Agergaard and Torben Birch-Thomsen | Introduction to final session |
| Jonathan Rigg | Urbanization and Ruralization from an Asian perspective: Reflections on panel presentations |
| Discussion (plenum) | Urbanization in rural regions: Africa and Asia in comparison |