ABSTRACT
Parallel with the decline of the peasant in rural areas, and the development of permanent urban areas, is a phenomenon which may be influential on ideas about the role of cities in developing countries. It may also be important to the future role and therefore sustainability of these cities. This idea is what Forbes (1996) described as the growth of the urban middle class. This, he argues, is already in evidence in the changing make-up of the South-East Asian city. It is apparent in the changing structure of urban consumption, the rise of shopping centres, the development of condominiums, and the growth of South-East Asia as a source of international tourism, especially to Australia. This, in addition to the growth in access to media, will inform this growing social group about alternative political and social structures as they engage with other societies. Not least of these involve gender and lifestyle.
