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Environmental Degradation, Environmental Sustainability, and Overurbanization in the Developing World: A Quantitative, Cross-National Analysis
Abstract
This is the first quantitative, cross-national study that incorporates predictors designed to test hypotheses linking overurbanization to environmentally induced migration. The study is based on a sample of fifty-eight developing countries using lagged dependent variable panel regression. Our major findings are quite clear with respect to newer rural-push and urban-pull arguments that developing countries suffering from various forms of environmental degradation are prone to overurbanization. Deforestation exerts a positive and significant effect on overurbanization, whereas environmental sustainability exerts a negative and significant effect on overurbanization. In addition, our results support hypotheses derived from the political modernization perspective that civil society and democratic regimes help to reduce overurbanization, as well as hypotheses suggested by neo-Malthusian theory that high levels of population growth contribute to high levels of overurbanization. We also find support for dependency theory in that transnational economic linkages based on multinational corporations and international lending institutions foster increased overurbanization in the developing world.
... This idea is known as the Prebisch-Singer thesis. The theory was popular in the 1960s and 1970s as a criticism of modernization theory, which was falling increasingly out of favour because of continued widespread poverty in much of the world (Shandra et al, 2003). ...
The emasculation of the Nigerian state and her subsequent economic dilemma in contemporary times have been linked to the hitherto activities of colonialism in Nigeria. The impact of the incursion of the British into the traditional native states and the subsequent amalgamation of these states into one country with total disregard for the choices, feelings, values, language, religion and culture of the people, is still evidenced today as hate speeches, lopsided political appointments, and skewed choices of areas of government attention is rampant. The mention of the concept of federal character, zoning and rotational presidency, and quota system serves as added impetus. The call for cessation by the IPOB group and the current call for a restructured Nigeria are clear evidence of the aftermath of colonialism in Nigeria. More worrisome is the continuing dependence by the Nigeria political leaders and elites on the erstwhile colonial masters for assistance of all kinds which have led to the need to examine the relationship between the administrative licentiousness in Nigeria and the continuing dependency on the "whites" for business and aid which has kept Nigeria tied to their apron-string.
... This was reaffirmed by [18] [19] who stated that gender is defined as a social relation between different sexual orientations involving social, political, and cultural constructions. Therefore, gender is not nature but the role displayed by the culture that places women and men to be feminine or masculine. ...
The lives of women who have decided to become Indonesian migrant workers in several Asia Pacific areas, such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea, provide fascinating research opportunities. This research took as a case study several women from East Java Province who chose to become Indonesian migrant workers due to the loss of agricultural land or plantation fields as their main livelihood. The research analyzed the phenomenon of the migration of women as a result of the environmental crisis, which is a crisis specific to rural areas, as well as the gender ideology that accompanies the phenomenon of feminized labor in Indonesia. This research was conducted with a qualitative paradigm using the snowball technique for recruitment. The research location was in Banyuwangi Regency, East Java Province, Indonesia. The results of the research revealed that in the agricultural sector, which is a source of livelihood, land productivity continues to diminish due to famines, climate change, and land conditions that are not strategic and are progressively narrowed due to industrialization. Instead, land as an agricultural asset can be turned into cost capital for villagers, specifically women, to discover better jobs by migrating as Indonesian migrant workers. In carrying out international migration, the women attempted to alter the gender ideology, transform various negative stereotypes and become empowered and independent female workers.
... Degradation of the environment has earned the concern of researchers and policymakers for a long time (Shandra et al., 2003). Yet, several actions to curtail the pollution levels have proved to be futile (Duraiappah, 1998;Tyagi et al., 2014). ...
Coronavirus disease has wrecked the lives of people globally. Countries have resorted to several restrictive measures to prevent the transmission of the virus. It has created a standstill in the global economies. The social consequences are far worse. The lives of the people have been aggravated both physically and mentally. This has pushed them on the verge of vulnerability. However, a sense of optimism has emerged for environmental concerns. The air and water quality has witnessed a significant improvement globally. The prospects have proved to be significant for countries trying to meet the international standards of emissions. The closure of economic activities and stringent norms of social distancing has considerable effects on the environment, particularly in India. The paper gives an insight into the Environmental conditions of India pre and post lockdown. As the uncertainties still brim on the way, a strong course of action is needed to address the environmental concerns. The forward course of action has been suggested for a sustainable and green recovery.
While sociologists have long recognized the biophysical dimensions of city life and urbanization, this discussion had been overshadowed by a concern with environmental change in rural areas. Since the late twentieth century, however, attention has shifted, and there have been several theoretical and empirical studies examining the links between urbanization, city life, and the natural environment. In this research, there are two broad scopes for analysis, one that sees urbanization and cities as drivers of environmental change and another that sees cities as sites of environmental change. While the latter has a much longer lineage in sociology, more space is given here to review the former. Nevertheless, recent scholarship has also been arguing for a middle ground that synthesizes the two scopes; in this way, cities are seen as both sites and drivers of environmental change.
While sociologists have long recognized the biophysical dimensions of city life and urbanization (e.g., Catton, 1980), this discussion had been overshadowed by a concern with environmental change in rural areas. In the past two decades, however, attention has shifted; there have been several theoretical and empirical studies examining the links between urbanization, city life, and the natural environment (e.g., Čapek, 2010; Chew, 2001; Clement, 2010; Elliott and Clement, 2014; Elliott and Frickel, 2013; Ergas, 2010; Jorgenson, Rice, and Clark, 2010; McKinney, 2013; Taylor, 2009; Weinberg, Pellow, and Schnaiberg, 2000; Wachsmuth, 2012). In this research, there are two broad scopes for analysis, one that sees urbanization and cities as drivers of environmental change and another that sees cities as sites of environmental change. While the latter has a much longer lineage in sociology, we dedicate more space to review the former scope. Nevertheless, we also recognize that recent scholarship is arguing for a middle ground that synthesizes the two scopes; in this way, cities are seen as sites and drivers of environmental change (e.g., Elliott and Frickel, 2013; Wachsmuth, 2012).
The rapid urbanization of the world's population (accompanied by the rise of megacities) and the profound growth in the scale of impacts on the natural environment were two dominant trends of the twentieth century. Today over 3 billion people, nearly one‐half the human population, live in urban areas (United Nations 2004). Humans have altered the composition of the atmosphere, contributing to global climate change, have changed land cover over a large proportion of the earth's surface, and have contributed to a dramatic rise in the rate of species extinction.
Titanic 2010 is around the corner: is Eastern Europe really catching up with the West, and is the enlarged and transformed Europe really on its way to become, by 2010, the most competitive region in the world economy?
Ce livre est une invitation pour que les sciences sociales de
langue française se mettent d'accord, en termes quantitatifs, avec
trois des défis les plus urgents auxquels nous sommes confrontés
dès aujourd’hui au 21e siècle - les effets sociaux et économiques de
la mondialisation, la question de l'instabilité du monde et la
gouvernance mondiale, et la question de la marginalisation en
Europe.
Trois grandes traditions théoriques et empiriques, qui ont
malheureusement été largement ignorées par les sciences sociales
du domaine rattaché au langage français, jouent un rôle clé dans
cette entreprise - l'application de l'approche du sociologue suisse
Volker Bornschier d'étudier les effets de la pénétration des
capitaux transnationaux à l'échelle mondiale, les études
scientifiques de Joshua Goldstein (Etats-Unis) sur les liens entre
les cycles de guerre et les cycles économiques au sein du système
capitaliste mondial, et le riche potentiel du "European Social
Survey" [l'Enquête sociale européenne] pour étudier les effets de la
mondialisation en Europe.
Maintenant, au lieu d'écrire, comme tant d'autres, la énième
tirade contre la doctrine néolibérale, nous tenons à présenter un
processus d’exploration scientifique plus axiomatisé, celui d’un
système de l'entente mondiale empirique autour des processus en
cours.
L'Europe peut beaucoup apprendre de l'Amérique latine
Quantitative sociologists conducting environmental research often use temporally lagged variables to estimate the social drivers of ecological change. To highlight the relevance of temporal lags for this scholarship, we specifically look at the longitudinal relationship between demographic and economic change and two different environmental outcomes: land development and carbon emissions. For land development, we run longitudinal spatial regression models to assess whether increasing the lag time changes the slope estimates for in-migration and out-migration at the county level across the contiguous United States (n = 3,026). For carbon emissions, we use cross-national data in Prais–Winsten models to assess changes in the lagged estimates for GDP, urbanization, and age structure (n = 146). Results from these analyses indicate that the slope estimates continue to be statistically significant, but the magnitudes of these coefficients change with increased lag time. We propose that scholars use a more systematic approach when assessing the temporal duration of socio-ecological change.
This work is among the first studies to review the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) ESG Leaders Index in Asian countries and other emerging markets, such as Brazil, China, and Russia. The relationships among gross domestic product (GDP), human development index (HDI), and a set of key indicators are the fundamental argument of this study. By applying 2SLS estimation from 2010 to 2018, this research examines the connection between environmental, social, governance (ESG) index, GDP growth, and HDI from nine countries as rated in the MSCI ESG Index. The objective is to test whether the index can be efficiently utilized to justify the notion that the adoption of ESG principles can positively influence sustainable development and inclusive growth. The post estimations reveal close relationships between the ESG index and GDP growth. However, the index is not an effective instrument for measuring the connection between HDI‐ESG because it has not yet had a direct effect on HDI. With this result, the index can be utilized to measure the connections with and investments made by countries and corporations for sustainable development.
“A book that combines the close observations and engaging style of a good travelogue with an analysis grounded in a deep knowledge of the Philippines.... Few books chronicle the struggles of common citizens to protect the environment that supports their livelihood. This one does so extremely well and is recommended to both academic and public libraries.” --Library Journal “A superb book” ... by “master storytellers.” “It is an important empirical contribution to environmental sociology, social movements, and development studies.” An “exceptional book.” -- Contemporary Sociology “The book is remarkably insightful, the writing style sophisticated.... [C]ontextualised, nuanced, and...backed by extensive research. Plundering Paradise is a must for northern environmentalists.” -- Third World Quarterly Link to Chapters 1 & 2: http://www.american.edu/sis/faculty/upload/Plundering-Paradise-Ch1-2.pdf
Link to the book: http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520089211 See "Full Text" for full citation and working hyperlink.
Although hyperurbanization has been linked to many problems in the Third World, we contend that those nations in the greatest need of agglomeration economies are the ones experiencing the most rapid urbanization. We offer a view of hyperurbanization as a means of “jump-starting” development for those nations facing severe demographic, technological and organizational constraints. In samples of approximately 60 developing nations, results indicate that rapid growth in large-scale urbanization is a self-limiting dynamic that attenuates with urban and economic growth. The process of hyperurbanization is more pronounced in nations exhibiting low levels of urbanization, low-to-intermediate levels of development, poorly developed rural economies and very rapid population growth rates. These characteristics rather than urban growth itself account for the common finding that rapid urbanization damages economic growth. On the other hand, we find that the level of large-scale urbanization in 1965 is positively associated with economic growth between 1965 and 1990, supporting our view of hyperurbanization as an adaptive emergent property that helps some nations overcome severe constraints on development.
Although there is accumulating evidence that socioeconomic and political organization are central driving forces behind greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation, most recent discussions of global environmental degradation have neglected the role of social structure in climate change. We critically assess neo-Malthusianism and macrosocial theories of development to identify a set of hypotheses about the social structural sources of the greenhouse effect and their role in constraining possible mitigation strategies. Although neo-Malthusian arguments about population growth, affluence and advanced technology may prove decisive in the long run, arguments derived from modernization, ecological-evolutionary, world-system and state-centered theories of development point to a set of emergent properties, non-linearities and equity conflicts that may significantly alter these projections. Future policy discussions need to be informed by these considerations of social structure to be effective.
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Half of the world's population will live in cities by the early twenty-first century, and, of the ten most populated cities, nine will be in the developing world. Unfortunately, this is occurring at a time when national governments are increasingly unable to provide basic public services to growing populations. International nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) have dramatically increased their efforts in urban areas and in economic and social development in general. Although sociologists have examined the causes and effects of Third World urbanization and development, they have not focused on the role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in this process. We argue that inclusion of NGOs in the literature is necessary and even compatible with several current theories of development. We test the impact of INGOs on three interrelated measures of urbanization and development: overurbanization, economic growth, and access to safe water. The results show that INGOs slow overurbanization and promote economic and social development.
The causes and effects of Third World urbanization have been addressed in theories of modernization, urban bias, and economic dependency, but no single cross-national study has tested the arguments advanced by all three theories. This paper uses panel regression analysis to assess the validity of the three perspectives in sixty-one underdeveloped countries between 1960 and 1980. The results provide some support for each theory and also contradict previous studies that do not consider several important variables. Thus, future studies must transcend current theoretical and ideological particularism to avoid incomplete or false representations of urbanization and underdevelopment.
Why is the world becoming increasingly urban? The primary reason is economic development, but economic development alone is inadequate for explaining urbanization in the Third World. Theoretical arguments and fragmentary empirical evidence suggest that, in the underdeveloped regions of Asia and Latin America, urbanization is caused by adverse rural conditions as well as by economic development. Data for 27 Asian and Latin American nations in 1960 and 1970 provide evidence that two rural conditions, high agricultural density and plantation agriculture, spur urbanization in underdeveloped regions, independent of the effects of economic development and prior urbanization in these regions.
In recent years international financial institutions have required Third World debtor countries to adopt various austerity policies designed to restore economic viability and ensure debt repayment. The hardships created by these policies have provoked unprecedented protests in debtor countries, ranging from mass demonstrations to organized strikes and riots. We examine variation among Third World debtor countries in the presence and severity of protests against austerity policies. Results show that the principal conditions for the occurrence and severity of austerity protests are overurbanization and involvement of international agencies in domestic political-economic policy. We offer a theoretical interpretation that integrates global and national sources of contemporary political protest in the Third World.