NALARs

AbstraCT. This article places the challenge of rapid urbanisation throughout the world into a perspective that acknowledges inequalities due to economic history. As well as a brief exploration of the site-specific nature of challenges faced, this article seeks to outline the economic and structural obstacles that act as a backdrop to the lives of the poor. Such a perspective can inform attempts to improve the lot of the poor and help in outlining the moral obligation for the powerful to help the poor and vulnerable face up to the issue of Climate Change. Key words: Urbanisation, economic disadvantage, planning, sustainable urban management  AbstraK. Tulisan ini menempatkan tantangan dari urbanisasi yang sangat cepat di seluruh dunia ke dalam perspektif yang diketahui tidak sejajar dengan sejarah ekonomi. Seperti halnya dengan eksplorasi sepintas dari situs khusus alam dari tantangan yang dihadapi, tulisan ini mencoba untuk melihat halangan ekonomi dan struktural bagi masyarakat menengah bawah. Perspektif seperti itu  dapat  menjadi sebuah informasi untuk meningkatkan taraf hidup masyarkat miskin dan membantu dalam merumuskan obligasi moral bagi penguasa. Hal ini tentunya dapat membantu masyarakat miskin dalam menghadapi isu-isu perubahan iklim. Kata Kunci: Urbanisasi, kerugian ekonomi, perencanaan, keberlanjutan manajemen perkotaa

Whittingham, Neil

What are the Challenges of Increasing the Sustainability of Urban Livelihoods? (Neil Whittingham) 
 
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WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OF INCREASING THE 
SUSTAINABILITY OF URBAN LIVELIHOODS? 
 
Neil Whittingham 
Planning Contributions Officer, Lancashire Country Council, Preston, 
Lancashire, England. 
Neil.Whittingham@property.lancscc.gov.uk 
 
 
ABSTRACT. This article places the challenge of rapid urbanisation throughout 
the world into a perspective that acknowledges inequalities due to economic 
history. As well as a brief exploration of the site-specific nature of challenges 
faced, this article seeks to outline the economic and structural obstacles that act 
as a backdrop to the lives of the poor. Such a perspective can inform attempts to 
improve the lot of the poor and help in outlining the moral obligation for the 
powerful to help the poor and vulnerable face up to the issue of Climate Change. 
 
Key words: Urbanisation, economic disadvantage, planning, sustainable urban 
management 
 
 
ABSTRAK. Tulisan ini menempatkan tantangan dari urbanisasi yang sangat 
cepat di seluruh dunia ke dalam perspektif yang diketahui tidak sejajar dengan 
sejarah ekonomi. Seperti halnya dengan eksplorasi sepintas dari situs khusus 
alam dari tantangan yang dihadapi, tulisan ini mencoba untuk melihat halangan 
ekonomi dan struktural bagi masyarakat menengah bawah. Perspektif seperti itu  
dapat  menjadi sebuah informasi untuk meningkatkan taraf hidup masyarkat 
miskin dan membantu dalam merumuskan obligasi moral bagi penguasa. Hal ini 
tentunya dapat membantu masyarakat miskin dalam menghadapi isu-isu 
perubahan iklim. 
  
Kata Kunci: Urbanisasi, kerugian ekonomi, perencanaan, keberlanjutan 
manajemen perkotaan 
 
 
 
NALARs Volume 8 Nomor 1 Januari 2009 : 
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RAPID URBANISATION  
 
Based on studies in 1995 and 2000, it is considered that if everyone in the world 
were to adopt consumption patterns equivalent to those of London, it would be 
necessary to have three planets to live on rather than just Earth (Girardet, H., 
2007). Perhaps quite an arbitrary illustration, and yet with increasing 
urbanisation in the world, and the population living in cities now said to have 
reached 50%, there is increasing concern that western, consumption heavy, 
lifestyles, replicated around the world, could place the global ecosystem under 
great stress. Many lessons have been learned over the past hundred and fifty 
years over what the necessary ingredients are for successful urban 
management. London itself, from the early days of the industrial revolution, had 
experienced rapid urbanisation that had led to much overcrowding and squalor, 
with diseases such as cholera and typhoid rampant. From the mid nineteenth 
century, more effective sewerage systems and Public Health Acts were put in 
place, and from this, reforms such as the Town and Country Planning Acts 
enabled district authorities in the United Kingdom to have the powers to 
structure development with foresight, to allow for more integrated transport 
networks, affordable housing for the poor, and the provision of benefits to the 
community such as open space (Knox, 1995). 
 
It is necessary to put such developments into perspective. Reforms such as 
these have enabled successful evolution of societies, whose industrial 
generation has contributed much to global warming. Also, the economic success 
of states such as the UK, has been not only been built on the labour of its 
domestic population, but also through the establishment of colonial and post-
colonial economic systems that have favoured the western, early industrialising 
nations at the expense of the resource rich South. Even within the UK, the 
benefits of development within its capitalist economy were unevenly distributed, 
with the urban poor generally only able to afford to live in the less desirable 
areas, often downwind from the Victorian ‘dark, satanic mills’ . 
 
Developing countries then, which are now faced with rapid urbanisation, are in a 
global context of considerable economic disadvantage within which to try and 
deal with their booming urban populations (Webster, 1990). Within Africa, India 
and parts of South America up to half of the urban population now lives in 
What are the Challenges of Increasing the Sustainability of Urban Livelihoods? (Neil Whittingham) 
 
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squatter settlements in what Girardet describes as ‘extreme existential 
insecurity’. Many seek the opportunities that tend to be concentrated in urban 
areas; not only job opportunities, but access to health and education services 
and cultural and telecommunication networks. However, not only are there 
pressing matters of overcrowding, pollution and disease, in these emerging 
urban areas, the picture, increasingly portrayed by the international scientific 
community, is that the development of cities has to be conducted with a view to 
the implications for Climate Change. This is not just a desirable policy aspiration; 
many cities of the developing world are coastal and already under threat from 
rising sea levels and coastal storm surges. The costs of works to ensure port 
viability for shipping, for example, may lead to the diversion of valuable 
economic support to social services within cities, and to the rural poor. 
 
THE NATURE OF URBAN GROWTH 
 
In comparison with developed countries, cities in developing economies have a 
much smaller ecological footprint and yet have much more pressing 
environmental health problems. Sewerage systems are lacking in squatter 
settlements, and over the years, they have been seen by some Governments as 
embarrassments, such as the infamous mass slum clearances by the Marcos 
regime in the Phillipines to make way for the Miss World contest. Also, large 
squatter areas were knocked or burned down in places such as Nairobi, with the 
government permitting settlements that were out of sight of potential tourists. Of 
course, every city is unique, both in terms of economic context, and its social, 
political and cultural geography. Also, its actual unique site specific 
characteristics has a bearing on the quality of life of its occupants, the nature of 
problems and vulnerability encountered, and the chances and costs for 
governments in seeking to facilitate sustainable livelihoods.  
 
Within the developed countries, many of the rich have abandoned city centres 
and moved to more affluent suburbs, made viable by integrated transport 
networks. In many contrasting developing contexts, economic elites have 
maintained an, albeit highly securitised, foothold in city centres and squatter 
settlements have grown in vulnerable locations on the urban fringes, such as 
gullies that are prone to flooding. Their location can be led by a prestigious 
housing development, for example, from which there is the potential to tap into 
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supply lines for water or electricity. The character of the settlements themselves 
can also depend on the nature of materials to hand, perhaps discards from a 
factory or assembled items from a nearby rubbish tip. Earthquakes have 
revealed that shoddy workmanship can lead to devastating results, such as the 
huge number of fatalities in Mexico City.  Even if more substantial materials 
could be afforded, a house could be in such a perilous location that it would be 
prone to sinking in mud or flooding. Cash strapped governments have tended to 
adopt a position of benign neglect over such poor housing conditions. Indeed, 
urban capital stands to benefit greatly from the labour of the residents, and often 
clearance has only been part of an isolated landmark modernisation project, with 
little expenditure put aside to cater for the displaced. This brief exploration 
serves to illustrate that the challenges faced within developing countries are 
extremely varied. Within the context of a very harsh global economic 
environment, exacerbated by unequal trade relations and debt crisis, 
enlightened managers and planners throughout the developing world have a 
huge task in seeking to improve the livelihoods of urban dwellers, and 
attempting to do so in an environmentally sustainable way. 
 
TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT 
 
A useful framework within which to view the necessary ingredients of a 
successful urban area is provided by Sattherthwaite, D. (1999). He gives five 
broad categories to which managers of the urban polity both in the developed 
and developing worlds aspire. See Table 1. 
 
Table 1. 
Five Broad Categories of environmental action for assessing the performance of cities (based 
on Sattherthwaite, D., 1999) 
 
A. Controlling infections and parasitic diseases and the health burden they take on city 
populations, including reducing city populations’ vulnerability to them 
B. Reducing chemical and physical hazards within the home, workplace and wider city 
C. Achieving a high quality city environment for all city inhabitants – e.g. open space, and 
provision for sport and culture 
D. Minimising the transfer of environmental costs to the inhabitants and ecosystems 
surrounding the city 
E. Ensuring progress towards what is referred to as ‘sustainable consumption’, - i.e. ensuring 
that the goods and services required to meet everyone’s consumption needs are delivered 
without undermining the environmental capital of nations, the world or future generations. 
What are the Challenges of Increasing the Sustainability of Urban Livelihoods? (Neil Whittingham) 
 
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Such objectives are clearly sensible, regardless of culture. However for urban 
planners in poor countries, the economic feasibility for achieving these 
objectives has led to a more ‘make do’ culture. Certain authors have written of 
the necessity of capacity building in developing countries, and yet without more 
international co-operation in providing relief from the squeeze of trade 
agreements and debt, many aspirations will simply remain on the drawing board. 
Perhaps the Climate Change debate within developed countries, and the 
appreciation of the transboundary and global nature of environmental issues will 
focus minds on seeking to help developing countries meet their aspirations for 
sustainable urban management (Stiglitz, 2006).  
 
In terms of housing, from the 1970s academics began to increasingly value the 
role squatter settlements were playing in establishing a foothold for the poor 
migrant, from which to organise a livelihood. In the increasingly pressured global 
economy, support for incremental development in situ, began to be seen as the 
appropriate way forward for cash strapped governments. This however, did not 
eradicate problems that arose from the random, or seemingly anarchic, 
urbanisation process of the grindingly poor. From the fall of the Berlin Wall, the 
strident blueprint approach to modernising urban development lost a standard 
bearer. However, post-modern policy ideas such as the sustainable livelihoods 
framework can help in identifying a clearer picture of what an actual migrant 
experiences, and so policies can be tailored accordingly (Hall, A. and Midgley, 
J.,2004 and Greig, A., Hulme, D., & Turner, M.,2007).  
 
Encouragingly, examples of enlightened urban participatory planning have 
begun to take shape in developing countries. Curitiba in Brasil, is an example of 
a city government that has sought to engage with the population in the design 
and layout of its high rise housing, extensive parks and exemplary public 
transport network. Dongtan Eco-City in the Yangtze river delta has a long term 
plan to eventually house half a million inhabitants, with well distributed 
greenspaces, and mixed use layouts that reduce the necessity to travel far to 
work (Girardet, 2007).The urbanisation process in China is being followed 
closely given the vast numbers of people involved, however there are fears that 
the wider economic and industrial growth of China, along with India, maybe 
seriously accelerating Climate Change. As alluded to above, nations that 
industrialised earlier have been responsible for the vast majority of historical 
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impacts upon the global environment, and continue to generate a large 
proportion of atmospheric pollutants (Dow, K. and Downing, T.E., 2006). There 
is a moral imperative on rich nations to help in fostering international co-
operation to help in working towards sustainable urban livelihoods throughout 
the world.  
  
 
REFERENCES 
 
Dow, K. and Downing, T.E. (2006) The Atlas of Climate Change. 
Brighton:Earthscan. 
Girardet, H. (2007). Creating Sustainable and Liveable Cities. In Girardet, H. 
Ed. Surviving the century: Facing Climate Chaos & Other Global 
Challenges. London: Earthscan, pp103-125. 
Greig, A., Hulme, D., & Turner, M. (2007). Challenging Global Inequality: 
Development Theory and Practice in the 21
st
 century. Palgrave 
MacMillan: Houndmills, Basingstoke.  
Hall, A. and Midgley, J. (2004). Social Policy for Development. London: Sage 
Knox, P. (1995). Urban Social Geography: An Introduction. 3
rd
 edn. Harlow: 
Longman. 
Stiglitz, J. (2006). Making Globalization Work: The Next Steps to Global 
Justice. London:Penguin 
Webster, A. (1990). Introduction to the Sociology of Development. 2
nd
 edn. 
London: MacMillan 
 


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