Some conceptual and methodological issues in studying urbanization in Southeast Asia

Howard Dick and Peter J. Rimmer argue that the concept of desakota ignores the processes of urban sprawl. The World Bank in some of its studies has adopted a different method of estimating the population of urban agglomerations. At least the relatively low level of urbanization in Southeast Asian countries means that the process of urbanization has a long way to proceed in this region. There is no disagreement that urbanization is evolving differently in divergent countries of Southeast Asia. It is hard to see the merit of defining Cirebon as a metropolitan agglomeration comparable in population to the massive mega-urban regions of Surabaya or Bandung. There is a different point to be made about the urban-rural distinction. One of the most important issues in understanding the dynamics of urban growth and change is how to characterize the areas surrounding the big cities.