Main description:

In the great cities of Latin America and Asia, international business and local firms meet and, in particular, influence teh development strategies of Third World countries. The authors of Theatres of Accumulation argue that these cities play a crucial role in the process of capital accumulation and of unequal exchange and dependency. They examine the twin patterns of convergence and divergence in lifestyles and economic activities, and show how the flow of capital through the urban system beings net losses to the rural regions and further exacerbates income inequalities between regions and classes.

Theatres of accumulation provides an overview of urbanization in the Third World, as well as specific case studies. It deals with theoretical issues and projects the likely developments in urbanization in the future. Armstrong and McGee's work is essential reading for social science and planning professionals and students, in the developed world and the Third World, who are concerned with urban processes.

This book was first published in 1985.

Contents:

1. Third World urbanization: a changing scenario

2. Development theory and urbanization: rethinking the paradigm

3. Cities: theatres of accumulation, centres of diffusion

4. Accumulation and Latin American cities

5. The urbanization process, accumulation and industrialization in the market economies of Asia

6. Ecuador: accumulation and the producers

7. Ecuador: capital and accumulators

8. Conservation-persistence in the two-circuit system of Hong Kong: a case study of hawkers

9. Women workers or working women? A case study of female workers in Malaysia

10. Conclusion