|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Introduction: Urbanization and the Arab World
| Article
# : |
11056 |
|
|
Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
|
| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1986 |
1,254 Words |
| Author
: |
Editor
|
"A living culture needs constant reference to the 'collective memory' which is largely embodied in the built form of cities. The erosion of this 'collective memory' results in a loss of identity…Due to the forced pace of modernization, the conflict between traditional values and imported ideas has been sharp in some of the Islamic countries and, recently, the resulting resentment has given to rise to fundamentalist movements not only in Iran and Lybia but even in such secularized nations as Turkey."
--Ervin Y. Galantay
Contrary to the prevailing stereotype of the Middle East as a desert populated by nomads, the region has been the birthplace of many of the world's earliest cities. Damascus is the oldest continuously populated city in recorded history. Baghdad was the first city to reach a population of one million. Urban centers have had as central a place in the development of Islamic culture as urban areas have had in the development of all other great cultures.
At present, about 50 percent of the Arab population lives in cities. By the year 2000, however, it is estimated that 80 percent of the population will be living in urban areas. The population of the Arab world has been growing and is continuing to grow more rapidly than the population of any other area of the world. This rapid population growth has resulted in mounting pressure on cultivable and pastoral land. Population surpluses have flowed into the cities, and thus the cities have had to contend with newcomers as well as with their own internal growth.
Other factors have added to the flow of population to the cities. Protracted Arab-Israeli, intraregional, and civil conflicts have resulted in massive displacement of civil populations. Many of these people have become "temporary" residents in already overcrowded cities.
Rapid urbanization has not proceeded without the creation of urban problems. City dwellers are plagued by traffic jams and other forms of congestion, administrative inefficiencies and corruption, housing shortages, air and water pollution, noise pollution, less and less private and public space, and severe unemployment leading to high rates of crime and lawlessness.
The cities are full of contradictions and glaring contrasts. Newcomers are forced into slums while modern development goes on nearby.
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
