Development and urbanisation: the case study of Amol and Mazandaran province, Iran

HM Sociology

Lotfi, Sedigheh ; Lowder, Stella

University:University of Glasgow

Department:School of Geographical and Earth Sciences

关键词: HM Sociology;   

Others  :  http://theses.gla.ac.uk/742/1/1998lotfiphd.pdf

来源: University of Glasgow

【 摘 要 】

Many developing countries in the 1950s, and 1960s adopted a growth centred strategywhich was a centralised approach to development with the main focus on efficiency. Butthis strategy failed to improve the socio-economic situation of the majority of their ruralpopulation because it ignored the needs of the urban and rural economy i.e. agriculture,especially in commodities-based export countries. From 1970s onwards, the emphasishas shifted towards more a decentralised approach to development with a ruraldevelopment bias. But the experience of different countries shows that with such astrategy the objective of equity is attained at the cost of efficiency and national growth.In both the centralised and decentralised approaches, the small towns and intermediatecities remain neglected. The researchers and planners have argued that in countries withan unbalanced settlement hierarchy, especially in the case of urban primacy, equity andefficiency could be achieved by promoting the development of smaller settlements whichwould integrate the entire urban hierarchy. To get the context for the empirical study, aliterature review is undertaken. This examines the theoretical and empirical approachesto the study of development and urbanisation in developing countries. Then, theurbanisation process in Iran is discussed in detail, with particular reference being placedupon the socio-economic transition in the pre and post-Revolutionary era.The present research investigates the impact of development policies on urbanisation inIran in general and at the provincial level in particular. The centralised developmentpolicy of the pre-Revolutionary period created severe regional disparities despite theavailability of great wealth (oil) and undermined the peasant economy of the mass ruralpopulation. The most conspicuous consequence of this policy was rural-urban migrationand rapid growth of urbanisation. This study investigates the impact and effect of suchpolicy in an area where the dependency on agriculture is very high. The post-Revolutionaiy development policies tend to be decentralised and shown a greaterconcern with agriculture. Thus the research aims to evaluate the effect of a newdecentralised policy on rural and urban development at the regional level in Mazandaranprovince. By closer study of Amol city, the research investigates the impact of ruralprosperity on an intermediate city and its hinterland. The research has shown thatalthough the new sectoral development (agriculture) decreased the overall economic gapbetween rural and urban areas, it has failed to prevent migration and the rapid urbanexpansion of small cities such as Amol.