ABSTRACT
Researchers have also presented arguments for the separate definition of high-density rural areas that can occur under a particular set of characteristics. For example McGee (1991) describes a kind of high-density rural area which he calls desakota, arguing that it is peculiar to Asia and suggesting that it forms as a result of the metropolitan urban area extending its economy and influence into the surrounding rural areas and creating an intense mixture of agricultural and non-agricultural activities (see later discussion). Examples include areas around Jakarta, Manila and Bangkok. Mortimore (1989, 1998) carried out research on the environmental implications of what he called the ‘close settled zone’ around Kano in northern Nigeria, a densely settled area that is extensive but has maintained its rural nature. Qadeer (2000) argues that it is important to consider such areas because some countries have rural population densities which are higher than 400 persons per square kilometre, a threshold used by some countries as a minimum for defining an area as urban. Table 1.3 above provides an illustration of how China has changed its definition of ‘urban’. Qadeer (2000) examines examples of ‘ruralopolises’ comprising most of Bangladesh, from West Bengal to Uttar Pradesh and Kerala provinces in India, and the Punjab and Peshawar provinces of Pakistan; other examples he mentions include the South Yangtze Valley in China, the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, and the lower Nile Valley in Egypt. He concludes that a ruralopolis is an alternative route to urbanisation, bringing about similar social transformations and spatial reorganisation in a rural setting, and ‘the future form of human habitat in large parts of Asia and Africa in the 21st Century’ (Qadeer, 2000: 1601).
