Abstract
Exhibiting some of the highest rates of urbanization globally, the Asian continent today is undergoing rapid transformations. Not only are its megacities swelling in size and density, in many places cities and towns are also merging, urban sprawl expanding and new configurations of human settlements appearing at a pace that often outpaces policy. Urbanization, as predicted in the 2018 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects, is where both the opportunities and challenges of the future lie. As the epicentre of this global demographic transition, how far Asian countries are able to harness their potential for sustainable economic growth today depends, among other factors, on how effectively they can mobilize national and regional planning efforts to tackle the multifaceted threat of the climate crisis.
With the turning of a new decade having already seen several disaster scenarios come to life, from bush fires across Australia, flash flooding in Jakarta, to volcanic eruptions in Manila, irregular occurrences of extreme weather are losing their exceptional character. Regions in which climate change has been particularly devastating have also experienced mass migration. Elsewhere, climate change has initiated more gradual shifts that impact the livability of existing urban environments, or in intersecting with failures in infrastructure, exacerbate anthropogenic harms. Accordingly, some of the articles featured in this volume communicate an urgent need for long-term planning solutions, pre-emptive measures and strategies for risk reduction that work on building urban resilience. Since communities across an economically stratified society are differentially exposed to risk, their studies also emphasize why this must be achieved through socially and spatially sensitive planning approaches.
Honing in on the complex relationship between urbanization and the socio-economic lives of those on the receiving end of policy programmes, the articles in the second half of this volume shift their attention to the particular dynamics of growth characterizing ‘the urban’ in Asia today. They show that, even with rural–urban disparities seemingly narrowing, it is important to pay attention to how such large-scale transitions are negotiated on the level of individual households and social groups. Patterns of migration and changes in land use are thus mapped onto more intimate, micro-level changes in the realms of labour, housing and health. These articles offer a welcomed revision of the rural–urban dichotomy, exposing the multiscalar connections that tie the rural and urban together, as well as the hybrid developments occurring at their margins.
The first article of this volume, by Reazul Ahsan et al., is an investigation into how processes of climate change converge with increasing population density resulting from rapid urbanization along the coastline of Muscat. Coastlines, like wetlands, saltmarshes or mangroves, play a crucial environmental function; in being the ‘interface’ between the sea and urban land, they offer natural mechanisms for flood control and drainage. The recent changes in land use and increased construction along the coast have, as the authors argue, already led to a significant loss in biodiversity and adversely affected local ecologies. With 80 per cent of Muscat’s population residing in areas considered prone to flooding, this dramatically increases the city’s vulnerability to both sudden and slow onset of natural disaster. The research presented in this article thus forefronts the need for a more sustainable urban strategy that takes account of the locally specific impacts of climate change.
Similarly, in their study on the impact of heatwaves on urban informal housing, Darshini Mahadevia et al. also emphasize the need for long-term strategies to mitigate the effects of rising temperatures. Identifying housing as a major ground for developing resilience to climate change, their comparative research across its various typologies in Ahmedabad investigates the microclimatic factors (open space and tree cover) that, in conjunction with urban morphology, affect the livability of dwellings. Their research finds that due to highly dense form, poor ventilation and lack of insulation slums and squatter settlements offer much less protection from heat and as a result, pose greater health risks for their residents. While recent housing policies in the city have focused on the construction of new housing, the article points out the limitations of this strategy, calling instead, for a mixed approach that pursues simultaneous interventions into existing settlements and in-situ upgrading.
In their article on the perception of risk in Khulna city, Bangladesh, Mohammad Shahidul Hasan Swapan et al. notably depart from an expert-driven analysis of disaster paradigms to argue for the recognition of ‘risk’ itself as the product of cumulative historical and cultural experiences. The results from their household surveys show that while poorer households generally perceive themselves as more vulnerable to environmental risk, they are considerably less concerned with large scale natural disasters (e.g. floods, cyclones and landslides) than with day-to-day anthropogenic harms such as waterlogging due to poor drainage. In locating a commonality across the answers of people belonging to similar socio-economic backgrounds, the authors contend that assessments of one’s own vulnerability and the kind of disasters that become imaginable are an intrinsically collective perceptions. Since people are more likely to act in accordance with measures that correspond to their own beliefs and understandings, the article concludes by suggesting that polices for urban resilience need can be optimized if designed to respond to such social and cultural variants.
In the following article, Arvind Pandey and I seek to contextualize India’s ascending growth rates, reaching 8–9 per cent in the last decade, among an understanding of rural–urban disparities in the country. In order to capture the multifaceted nature of inequality, the article adopts a widened scope of analysis, going beyond income and expenditure levels to include a range of development indicators, such as employment, education attainment and wages. In comparing data across four rounds of the National Survey, our findings reveal a dynamic of economic growth that is both regionally varied and uneven. This complicates the idea that processes of urbanization, specifically those initiated post structural reform in India, lessen inequalities across the rural and urban divide in a blanket manner. In the areas where greater equality has been achieved, it should be noted that affirmative actions taken by the government have played an important part.
Kiduk Park’s contribution to this volume takes up the issue of inequality through a very different lens. Exploring the concept of ‘social capital’, as promoted by the United Nations and World Bank, Park studies South Korea’s ‘social mix’ housing policies in light of new apartment constructions that have been designed to accommodate citizens from across the class strata. Through the method of household surveys collected from different apartment typologies and across the urban rural divide, Park assesses life in the new units against indicators such as perceptions of safety, occurrences of vandalism and levels of trust amongst neighbours. His findings reveal a complex picture of interpersonal relationships, wherein greater levels of day-to-day interaction between the social classes does not automatically result in their integration. The article therefore demonstrates how achieving a more equitable society with higher social capital requires a deeper level of social engagement that goes beyond the physical construction of buildings.
Another measure of development, significant not only for economic growth growth, but social justice and equality at large, is women’s participation in the workforce. In the following article, Rulia Akhter et al. pursue this issue, asking why it is that employment figures among women in Malaysia lag behind as compared to other developing nations. By comparing statistics on family size, geographic location and household income against employment rates, their research seeks to locate the socio-economic determinants influencing women’s ability to take up work. Importantly, their analysis also makes a distinction between the types of employment that women engage in; from salaried jobs to precarious forms of work with no social security. In doing so, they complicate the presumed correlation between women’s employment and social development, highlighting the necessity for a more rigorous questioning of what kind of labour is actually beneficial for overcoming gender and class disparities.
The socio-spatial dynamics of urbanization returns as a central focus within the article by Imam Buchori et al., where the authors take the medium-sized city of Sukarta, Indonesia, as a case study to explore the diverse patterns of urban expansion and in-situ urbanization occurring on its peripheries. Using descriptive statistics and spatial analysis, the authors map the various typologies of rural to urban transition in the area and also locate their driving factors: economic necessity (rising rents in the urban core), new consumption and lifestyle choices (e.g., car ownership), and changing political policies. Contrary to popular expectations of urbanization, in Sukarta, they find that changes in land use, from agricultural to industrial purposes, have neither directly reduced poverty nor brought any significant welfare benefits to the native population. Their findings problematise overarching narratives associated with urbanization and make the case for its distinct forms to be studied in light of their specific trajectories and social formations.
The final article in this volume, by Rossa Turpak et al. also departs from the idea of urbanization as a uniform, linear trajectory, focusing instead on urban settlements that arise in the midst of transition and on the margins of planning. Specifically, the piece looks at the form of the ‘kampung kota’ in Indonesia, which has emerged as the result of increased migration towards urban centres (kota) and in this case, particularly of the young ‘millennial’ generation. With the kota considered the modern hub and the kampung its more traditional and informal counterpart, the authors investigate the interrelations between the two distinct millenial groups in the kampung: migrants who work in the kota but live in the kampung, and natives of the kampung whose work predominantly caters to the lifestyle of migrant millennials. Drawing on a range of methodologies, from field observation to mapping, the article describes how the economic dependencies between the two translate into the urban morphology and spatial layout of the kampung. As a consequence, ‘millennial’ consumption cultures generated within the kota not only travel to the kampung but also intimately shape its urban fabric.
Given the juncture at which Asia finds itself today, between differential demographic growth rates, persisting socio-economic chasms and multiple environmental threats, much is at stake in terms of in terms of its urban future. The collection of articles selected for this issue aim to provide fresh and timely insights in this regard, illuminating key issues that are often overlooked in within planning processes. Through evidence-based research, they provide a rich overview of the urban condition in Asia today and also contribute to the global platform of knowledge exchange that this journal was tasked to facilitate. I hope this issue will act as a springboard for critical thought and debate around urgent issues of our time and aid urban policy makers and urban practitioners across the board in taking substantive steps to address inequality and sustainability challenges globally.