This is the first quantitative, cross-national study that incorporates predictors designed to test hypotheses linking overurbanization to environmentally induced migration. The study is based on a sample of fifty-eight developing countries using lagged dependent variable panel regression. Our major findings are quite clear with respect to newer ruralpush and urban-pull arguments that developing countries suffering from various forms of environmental degradation are prone to overurbanization. Deforestation exerts a positive and significant effect on overurbanization, whereas environmental sustainability exerts a negative and significant effect on overurbanization. In addition, our results support hypotheses derived from the political modernization perspective that civil society and democratic regimes help to reduce overurbanization, as well as hypotheses suggested by neo-Malthusian theory that high levels of population growth contribute to high levels of overurbanization. We also find support for dependency theory in that transnational economic linkages based on multinational corporations and international lending institutions foster increased overurbanization in the developing world.
References
1.
BarkanJoel D.McNultyMichael L.AyeniM. A. O., 1991. “Hometown Voluntary Associations, Local Development, and the Emergence of Civil Society in Western Nigeria.”Journal of Modern African Studies28: 457–80.
2.
BellMichael M.1999. An Invitation to Environmental Sociology. New York: Pine Forge.
3.
BoliJohnThomasGeorge M., 1997. “World Culture in the World Polity.”American Sociological Review62: 171–90.
4.
BollenKenneth. 1983. “World System Position, Dependency, and Democracy: A Cross-National Analysis.”American Sociological Review48: 468–79.
5.
BollenKennethJackmanRobert. 1985. “Regression Diagnostics: An Expository Treatment of Outliers and Influential Cases.”Sociological Methods and Research13: 510–42.
6.
BornschierVolkerChase-DunnChristopher. 1985. Transnational Corporations and Underdevelopment. New York: Praeger.
7.
BornstedtGeorge W.1969. “Observations on the Measurement of Change.” Pp. 113–16 in Sociological Methodology, edited by BorgattaE. F.BornstedtG. W., New York: Jossey-Bass.
8.
Bradshaw, York. 1985. “Overurbanization and Underdevelopment in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Cross-National Study.”Studies in Comparative Development20: 74–101.
9.
Bradshaw, York. 1987. “Urbanization and Underdevelopment: A Global Study of Economic Modernization, Urban Bias, and Economic Dependency.”American Sociological Review52: 224–39.
10.
BradshawYorkHuangJ., 1991. “Intensifying Global Dependency: Foreign Debt, Structural Adjustment, and Third World Underdevelopment.”Sociological Quarterly32: 321–42.
11.
BradshawYorkSchaferMark J., 2000. “Urbanization and Development: The Emergence of International Non-Governmental Organizations Amid Declining States.”Sociological Perspectives43: 97–116.
12.
BroadRobinCavanaghJohn. 1993. Plundering Paradise: The Struggle for the Environment in the Philippines. Berkeley: University of California Press.
13.
CampSharon L.1993. “Population the Critical Debate.”Foreign Policy90: 126–44.
14.
CrenshawEdward M.JenkinsCraig J., 1996. “Social Structure and Global Climate Change: Sociological Propositions Concerning the Greenhouse Effect.”Sociological Focus29: 341–58.
15.
CrenshawEdward M.OakeyDoyle Ray. 1998. “Jump Starting Development: Hyperurbanization as a Long-Term Economic Investment.”Sociological Focus31: 321–39.
16.
Ehrhardt-MartinezKaren. 1998. “Social Determinants of Deforestation in Developing Countries: A Cross-National Analysis.”Social Forces77: 767–85.
17.
EvansPeter. 1979. Dependent Development: The Alliance of Multinational, State, and Local Capital in Brazil. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
18.
FieldTed. 1992. “Wandering Souls and Disappearing Forests.”American Forests98: 33–38.
19.
FinkelSteven L.1995. Casual Analysis with Panel Data. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
20.
FirebaughGlen. 1979. “Structural Determinants of Urbanization in Asia and Latin America.”American Sociological Review44: 199–215.
21.
FischerJulie. 1999. Non-Governments: NGOs and the Political Development of the Third World. West Hartford, CT: Kumarian.
22.
FrankAndre Gunder. 1967. Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America. New York: Monthly Review Press.
23.
GereffiGary. 1989. “Rethinking Development Theory: Insights from East Asia and Latin America.”Sociological Forum4: 505–33.
24.
GhilsPaul. 1992. “International Civil Society: International Non-Governmental Organizations in the International System.”International Social Science Journal44: 417–31.
25.
HamiltonKirk. 2000. “Genuine Savings as an Indicator of Sustainability.” Environmental Economic Series No. 77. World Bank Environment Department, World Bank Group, Washington, DC.
26.
HarperCharles. 1998. Exploring Social Change. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
27.
HarperCharles. 2001. Environment and Society: Human Perspectives on Environmental Issues. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
28.
HawleyAmos H.1971. Urban Society: An Ecological Approach. New York: Ronald. Homer-Dixon, Thomas. 1991. “On the Threshold: Environmental Changes as Causes of Acute Conflict.”International Security19: 5–40.
29.
HawleyAmos H.1994. “Environmental Scarcities and Violent Conflict: Evidence from Cases.”International Security16: 76–116.
30.
HongJeanhee. 2001. “Refugees of the 21st Century: Environmental Injustice.”Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy10: 323–49.
31.
JackmanRobert W.1980. “A Note on Measurement in Growth Rates in Cross–National Analysis.”American Journal of Sociology86: 604–17.
KarlinerJoshua. 1997. The Corporate Planet. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
34.
KasardaJohn D.CrenshawEdward. 1991. “Third World Urbanization: Dimensions, Theories, and Determinants.”Annual Review of Sociology17: 467–501.
35.
KennedyPeter. 2001. A Guide to Econometrics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
36.
KentorJeffrey. 1981. “Structural Determinants of Peripheral Urbanization.”American Sociological Review46: 201–11.
37.
LeonardH. Jeffrey. 1988. Pollution and the Struggle for World Product: Multinational Corporations, the Environment, and International Comparative Advantage. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
38.
Lewis-BeckMichael B.1980. Applied Regression: An Introduction. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
39.
LondonBruce. 1987. “The Structural Determinants of Third World Urban Change: An Ecological and Political Economic Analysis.”American Sociological Review52: 28–43.
40.
LondonBruceRossRobert J. S., 1995. “The Political Sociology of Foreign Direct Investment: Global Capitalism and Capital Mobility, 1965–1980.”International Journal of Comparative Sociology36: 198–219.
41.
LondonBruceWilliamsBruce A., 1990. “National Politics, International Dependency, and Basic Needs Provision: A Cross-National Analysis.”Social Forces69: 564–84.
42.
MullerGeorge P.1988. Comparative World Data. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
43.
MyersNorman. 1993. The Ultimate Security: The Environmental Basis of Political Stability. New York: Norton.
44.
MyersNorman. 1997. “Environmental Refugees.”Population and Environment19: 167–75.
45.
NdegwaStephen N.1996. Two Faces of Civil Society: NGOs and Politics in Africa. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
46.
PendletonBrianWarrenRichard D.ChangH. C., 1979. “Correlated Denominators in Multiple Regression and Change Analysis.”Sociological Methods and Research7: 83–106.
47.
PolitDenise F.1996. Data Analysis and Statistics for Nursing Research. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
48.
RichBruce. 1994. Mortgaging the Earth. Boston: Beacon Press.
49.
RossRobert J. S.TrachteKent C., 1990. Global Capitalism: The New Leviathan. Albany: State University of New York Press.
50.
RostowWalter W.1990. The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto. New York: Cambridge University Press.
51.
RudelThomas K.1989. “Population, Development, and Tropical Deforestation: A Cross-National Study.”Rural Sociology54: 327–38.
52.
SchaferMark J.1999. “International Non-Governmental Organizations and Third World Education in 1990: A Cross-National Study.”Sociology of Education72: 69–88.
53.
SmithDavid. 1987. “Overurbanization Reconceptualized: A Political Economy of the World System Approach.”Urban Affairs Quarterly23: 270–94. SnyderDavidKickL. Edward. 1979. “Structural Position in the World System and Economic Growth, 1953–1970: A Multiple Analysis of Transnational Interactions”American Journal of Sociology84: 1096–1126.
54.
SuhrkeAstri. 1994. “Environmental Degradation and Population Flows.”Journal of International Affairs47: 473–96.
55.
TabachnickBarbara G.FidellLinda S., 2001. Using Multivariate Statistics. New York: Allyn and Bacon.
56.
TaylorCharles L.JodiceDavid A., 1983. Handbook of Political and Social Indicators. New Haven: Yale University Press.
57.
TimberlakeMichael. 1987. “World System Theory and the Study of Comparative Urbanization.” Pp. 37–65 in The Capitalist City: Global Restructurings and Community Politics, edited by SmithM.FeaginJ., New York: Blackwell.
58.
TimberlakeMichaelKentorJeffrey. 1983. “Economic Dependence, Overurbanization, and Economic Growth: A Study of Less Developed Countries.”Sociological Quarterly24: 489–508.
59.
WallersteinImmanuel. 1974. The Modern World System. New York: Academic Press.
60.
WaltonJohnRaginCharles. 1990. “Global and National Sources of Political Protest: Third World Responses to the Debt Crisis.”American Sociological Review55: 875–90.
61.
WeeksJohn R.1996. Population: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
62.
World Bank. 1998. World Development Indicators. CD. New York: World Bank.
63.
World Bank. 2000. World Development Indicators. CD. New York: World Bank.
