Understanding the developing metropolis: Lessons from the city study of Bogotá and Cali, Colombia
Dublin Core
Titre
Understanding the developing metropolis: Lessons from the city study of Bogotá and Cali, Colombia
Sujet
Bogotá, Cali, Colombia, Colombie, croissance urbaine, forme urbaine, pauvreté, travail, commerce, logement, transport, gouvernance, collectivités locales, politique urbaine, pays en développement, Mohan Rakesh
Description
Abstract from the publisher:
This book is among the most comprehensive studies of a city since Edgar M. Hoover and Raymond Vernon analyzed New York City thirty-five years ago in the classic
Anatomy of a Metropolis. The main lesson outlined in the current book is that the most practical way of coping with city growth is to establish institutional mechanisms that can respond to the rapidly changing and unpredictable demands of a city's residents. Unlike much writing on cities and urbanization in the developing world, this study includes reasons for optimism that the expansion of fast-growing cities in the developing world can be managed.
In
Understanding the Developing Metropolis, the author analyzes in great depth the structure of two Colombian cities, Bogotá and Cali, by modeling different markets and the behavior of individuals, households, firms, and governments within these markets. He underlines the importance of understanding the behavior of the various actors in a city, and his use of simple economic reasoning contributes much to comprehension not only of urban behavior but also of the structure of the city itself. Approaches developed here are also broadly applicable for analyzing cities in developed countries.
This study is unusual in that it brings to the lay reader, in accessible form, the rationale of and results obtained from the sophisticated techniques used in the analysis of urban housing and transportation patterns, labor force behavior, and industrial location patterns within a city. Whereas many urban studies concentrate exclusively on issues related to infrastructure requirements and delivery problems within a city, this study links infrastructure requirements and supply to the behavior of households, firms, and government and to the existing income distribution in the city. This better appreciation of the underlying behavior - which determines what cities look like - could result in much more effectively designed urban policies.
