The book is about residents of Dhaka: migrant and non-migrant, poor and non-poor, men and women, young and old. It is about how they have experienced the city's rapid transition for the two decades between 1991 and 2010 in terms of quality of life and livelihoods, and their prospects for a shared future. It is not so common to come across urban studies based on longitudinal data largely due to the high mobility of urban households. Over the 20-year period, the city's population more than doubled and reached double digit figures at 15 million. At the same time, its contribution to the national economy almost trebled from 13 per cent to 36 per cent. An unmistakable trend of economic growth is evidenced along with the rapid decline of urban poverty and a downward trend in inequality in the country during the same reference period. At the other end of the spectrum are the environmental challenges in the context of high density and Dhaka's worst livability ranking. The book answers some of the doubts generated by these contradictory signals of rapid urbanization: is the poorer segment of urban population that migrates with dreams for better lives and livelihoods benefitting from positive economic trends? Are these benefits sustainable in the long run? Have these benefits brought qualitative changes creating scope for this group to have a stake in the city's growing prosperity like their non-poor counterparts?
Foreword Preface Acknowledgements List of Abreviations List of Tables, figures, and boxes Glossary 1. Dhaka's Changing Landscape: Prospects for Economic Development, Social Change, and Shared Prosperity 2. Rapid Urbanization and Population Changes in Dhaka City: The Demographic Dividend 3. Migration and Rural-Urban Connectivity: The Need for Reconstructing New Theoretical Approaches 4. Migration and Occupational Changes: Dreams and Relaities of Better Livelihoods 5. Dynamics of Livelihoods, Income, and Proverty: The Scope for Shared Prosperity 6. Quality of Life: Shared Modes of Basic Services and the Sustainable Development Goals 7. Impact of Urbanization on Health and Education: Progress and Inter-generational Prospects for Shared Prosperity 8. Migration, Modernization, and Social Change: An Enquiry into Migrants' Attitudinal Changes 9. Better Lives, Better Incomes but Slip Prospects for Shared Prosperity Bibliography Appendices Index About the Authors
Rita Afsar is Research Fellow (Hon), Faculty of Arts, School of Social Sciences, University of Western Australia. Mahabub Hossain was Advisor to Executive Director, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), Dhaka, and distinguished professor and chair, Department of Economics and Social Sciences, BRAC University Mahabub Hossain was Advisor to Executive Director, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), Dhaka, Bangladesh, and chairperson of BRAC University's Department of Economics and Social Sciences.
Reviews for Dhaka's Changing Landscape: Prospects for Economic Development, Social Change, and Shared Prosperity
This book provides a rich summary of urbanization in the context of the Global South and an excellent systems-level insight on how to approach the analysis of complex urban systems amid growth, social change, global pandemic, and climate change. Its insights are relevant for planning and management of cities in the Global South that have experienced a similar level of growth and change in recent years. This book should capture the attention of scholars, practitioners, and students whose work particularly focuses on urban studies and urban and regional planning in the Global South. It is a solid foundational as well as advanced-level book for those who seek exposure to the rapidly evolving urbanization process in international context. * Saleh Ahmed, Journal of the American Planning Association *
