Mortality differentials between rural and urban areas of states in the Northeastern United States 1890-1900.

Data from a number of countries show much higher mortality rates in urban than in rural areas in the nineteenth century. In this paper we examine the urban-rural mortality differential in the death registration states of the United States in 1890 and 1900. Before proceeding with the analysis, the data are evaluated and we determine that the data used for the 1900 analysis are more complete than data used in other analyses for the same date. An attempt is made to correct for the deficiencies in the 1890 data. When the urban and rural mortality levels are examined for individual states at both dates, urban mortality is generally higher than rural mortality. However, there is variability across states in urban mortality levels, rural mortality levels, and the urban-rural mortality differences. In general, the urban-rural mortality difference is larger in 1890 than in 1900. When the urban-rural mortality differences are examined in terms of the causes of death which account for the differential, we conclude that higher urban mortality rates are generally attributable to a few diseases—tuberculosis, diarrheal diseases and several other communicable diseases—the transmission of which depend heavily on close human contact or contamination of the environment.     

Decomposing the Rural-Urban Differentials in Childhood Malnutrition in India, 1992–2006

Using data from multi-waves of the National Family Health Survey conducted in India between 1992 and 2006, this study examines the pattern of rural–urban differentials in childhood malnutrition in India over time. Furthermore, it identifies the factors responsible for the rural–urban gap in childhood malnutrition and quantifies their contribution. The result shows a considerable and widening gap in childhood malnutrition across rural–urban residence in the country over the study period. The rural–urban gap in childhood malnutrition has narrowed in a few states whereas it widened in most states over time. The economic status of the household and parental education was the most significant contributors to the rural–urban gap in childhood malnutrition in India. Based on the findings, this study suggests that to reduce the rural–urban gap in childhood malnutrition, focus should be given to the rural poor.     

SOCIOECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF TEMPORARY LABOUR MIGRATION IN INDIA

Temporary labour migration has rarely been studied at macro level despite its high prevalence in India. Drawing from the recently available Indian National Sample Survey (2007–08), this paper aims to study the basic differentials between temporary and permanent labour migration at the national level and examines the socioeconomic determinants of temporary labour migration at the state level. The study shows that temporary migration is seven times larger than permanent migration, and is largely a rural phenomenon dominated by rural to urban migration. A regional pattern in temporary labour migration is evident in the low-income Central and North Indian states. Low economic, educational and social status significantly induces temporary labour migration in contrast to permanent labour migration. As such, temporary labour migration appears to be a survival strategy of the rural poor in India.     

Adult Male Mortality in India

This paper presents levels and trends of adult male mortality in India and its major states during the post-independence period applying the widowhood method on census data. It also estimates adult male mortality for all the districts from major states of India. We adjusted widowhood estimates for possible bias due to remarriages and examined the sensitivity of adjusted estimates to different scenarios of remarriage rates. Comparison of widowhood estimates with direct estimates from official sources supports the credibility of widowhood estimates. Information obtained from widows aged 40–44 and 45–49 provided the most convincing patterns of adult mortality. Trends in adult mortality suggest that maximum gain in ₄₅q₁₅ for India and its states occurred during 1949–1960. Adult male mortality varied substantially across the states of India. Although adult life expectancy has been rising in India, the rate of mortality reduction has been decreasing over the last few decades.     

The effects of ageing and urbanisation on China’s future rural and urban populations

This paper estimates China’s future population and labour force by developing a novel forecasting model for population. It combines information about age-specific parameters on fertility and mortality for both rural and urban areas using information about rural–urban migration and the transformation of rural areas into urban ones. This model takes into account the effects of urbanisation on changes in the age structure of the Chinese population; and provides separate projections on the rural and urban populations. Our findings show that (i) the shares of people aged 65 and over, in China’s rural and urban populations, will double between 2010 and 2030; this implies that the ageing problem in rural areas will continue to be more serious than in urban areas; (ii) the rural labour force will shrink by 45 per cent, between 2010 and 2030, while the urban labour force will grow by 34 per cent; and (iii) China’s urbanisation rate will increase to 71 per cent by 2030.     

中国城乡协调发展空间格局与演化研究

本文从三个方面构建了城乡协调发展度指数,对中国2000-2008年31个省城乡协调发展程度的整体变化及在大区上的空间差异进行了评价和原因探讨。结果显示,中国城乡协调发展程度整体呈现上升趋势,主要原因是城乡增长率差异系数的降低,说明我国近些年的支农惠农和统筹城乡发展的政策效果显著。东部和西部地区城乡发展逐步协调,而中部和东北地区城乡发展协调度下降。东部城市和农村基本实现共同富裕,而西部是较低水平上的协调。东北地区先大幅下降后缓慢上升,中部地区的城乡协调发展度目前是最低的,变化较为复杂。     

In Situ Urbanization in Rural China: Case Studies from Fujian Province

In most parts of the developing world, the urbanization process has been dominated by rural–urban migration and the growth of existing cities. However, case‐studies in China’s Fujian Province suggest that this process can also be achieved mainly by in situ transformation in rural areas. Such in situ transformation of rural areas has been driven mainly by two forces, the development of township and village enterprises (TVEs) and the inflow of foreign investment; and facilitated by the relevant policies adopted by the Chinese government since 1978. The former has been very effective in the transformation of rural employment structure, while the latter has brought many physical changes to the previously rural landscape. Being mutually complementary, these two ways of rural transformation have not only benefited and urbanized the rural areas, but kept many farmers in their hometowns, replacing the dominant role of rural–urban migration and the growth of existing cities in the urbanization process.     

基于地理学视角的乡村生活质量研究进展及展望

提高生活质量是社会发展的核心目标之一,一直是国内外社会学、经济学、地理学、城乡规划学等不同学科关注的热点课题。近年来乡村生活质量相关研究成果逐渐增多,并取得了一系列高水平的研究成果,有必要对其进行系统梳理。国内外基于地理学视角的乡村生活质量研究主要集中在乡村生活质量的空间格局、演变及形成机制、存在的突出问题、调控与优化等方面内容。从理论研究、研究方法、研究内容等方面对国内外乡村生活质量相关研究进行述评,并展望了地理学研究框架下乡村生活质量研究有待进一步深化的方向。     

Rural–Urban Migration and Gender Disparities in Child Healthcare in China and India

This article assesses the impact of rural–urban migration on gender disparities in children's access to healthcare in China and India. Much research has shown widespread discrimination against girl children in both countries, including in health investments, contributing to the well‐known problem of Asia's ‘missing’ women. Much less clear is the impact of the massive rural–urban migration now occurring in China and India on discrimination against daughters. Migration is usually thought to have a positive effect on child health, because of improved access to healthcare facilities, but this is not necessarily equally beneficial for both sons and daughters. Based on fourteen months of fieldwork with rural migrant families in Shenzhen (China) and Mumbai (India), this article argues that where migration improves access to healthcare, it may increase rather than decrease the gender gap in treatment of child illness in the short term, as resources are concentrated on the treatment of sons. Furthermore, it is not the case that rural–urban migration necessarily leads to better access to healthcare even for sons: some forms of migration may actually have an overall negative effect on child health outcomes. For these two reasons, development strategies focusing on large‐scale rural–urban migration should not be seen as a short‐term solution to problems of gender inequity in child health.     

Local employment growth patterns and the Great Recession: The case of Spain

The 2008 financial and economic crisis has led to widespread destruction of employment in Spain. Using municipality data, I examine employment growth differences between urban cores, urban hinterlands, and rural areas during the pre‐crisis period and the recession period. The data show that patterns of growth and decline have been very uneven across different types of areas. While in the boom years, hinterlands and rural areas experienced higher growth, urban core areas have done better during the recession years. I then test three strands of explanations for local growth differences: (i) the role of the local sectoral composition, (ii) the role of human capital, and (iii) the role of access to urban core areas. Estimations for employment growth in the two periods show that the crisis has altered some of the drivers of local employment growth and that human capital has been a key determinant of local resilience during the Great Recession.     

Declining,transition and slow rural territories in southern Italy Characterizing the intra-rural divides

As metropolitan areas around the world keep expanding, behind them, rural areas continue to be affected by greater rates of depopulation. This is not a new phenomenon: rural to urban migration has been reported in the developed world at least from the period between the two world wars. However, recent rural depopulation trends have dramatically intensified in both the developed and the developing countries worldwide. In planning literature, greater emphasis is placed on the “urban–rural” divide, that is, people leaving the countryside to look for better opportunities in urban areas. However, a growing body of literature points to the fact that not all rural areas are declining at the same rate. Indeed, some rural towns have managed to retain population and even to grow. Therefore, at least in developed countries, an “intra-rural” divide notion is emerging. To exemplify this notion, we have studied rural towns in Southern Italy.     

Health in Papua New Guinea: a Decline in Development

Papua New Guinea has experienced the start of an epidemiological transition in health status from infectious towards non-communicable diseases, though the latter were absent until the post-war years. This transition is particularly marked in urban and coastal areas, where life expectancies are higher and mortality rates lower. Tropical diseases remain significant, malaria has worsened and new mobility has increased the severity of epidemics of influenza and measles. Indigenous medical systems have increasingly given way to modern medical systems, though disease aetiology is usually perceived through traditional cognitive models. Modern medical systems were mainly developed in the 1960s and 1970s, on either side of independence, but despite an official focus on primary health care, have had much reduced effectiveness since the 1980s. Rural health centres have been poorly maintained and serviced, and health workers have limited skills and access to resources. The health budget has been increasingly concentrated in urban areas, though the bulk of the population and of the health problems are in rural areas, resulting in a worsening ‘inverse care law’, that is particularly significant for women. Overall health status has declined in the past decade despite overseas advocacy of new policies and the prospects for improvement are poor.     

Time-space trends in Swedish divorce behaviour, 1911-1974

This study examines how the divorce rates in Sweden have varied over time and across different geographical areas during the period 1911-1974, and how these variations can be connected to the political, socio-economic and cultural development in Sweden. The analysis provides empirical support for the hypothesis that increased divorce rates have been the result of changes in the structural conditions that determine the degree of economic interdependence between spouses. There is a strong connection between the degree of urbanization and the divorce rate on a regional level for the entire research period. The statistical analysis of the regional data indicates that these patterns are connected to the more diversified economy that has developed in urban settings, in the form of a more qualified labour market and higher wages for females. These characteristics resulted in a faster and more pronounced reduction of economic interdependence between spouses, which made divorce more attainable in these areas as compared with rural settings.     

The changing geography of the Canadian manufacturing sector in metropolitan and rural regions, 1976–1997

This paper documents the changing geography of the Canadian manufacturing sector over a 22‐year period (1976–1997). It does so by looking at the shifts in employment and differences in production worker wages across different levels of the rural/urban hierarchy—central cities, adjacent suburbs, medium and small cities and rural areas. The analysis demonstrates that the most dramatic shifts in manufacturing employment were from the central cities of large metropolitan regions to their suburbs. Paralleling trends in the United States, rural regions of Canada have increased their share of manufacturing employment. Rising rural employment shares were due to declining employment shares of small cities and, to a lesser degree, large urban regions. Increasing rural employment was particularly prominent in Quebec, where employment shifted away from the Montreal region. The changing fortunes of rural and urban areas were not the result of across‐the‐board shifts in manufacturing employment, but were the net outcome of differing locational patterns across industries. In contrast to the situation in the United States, wages in Canada do not consistently decline, moving down the rural/urban hierarchy from the largest cities to the most rural parts of the country. Only after controlling for the types of manufacturing industries found in rural and urban regions is it apparent that wages decline with the size of place .     

Gender Bias in China,South Korea and India 1920–1990: Effects of War,Famine and Fertility Decline

How has the history of the twentieth century affected the extent of female disadvantage in child survival in China, South Korea and India, and how has this in turn shaped spousal availability and marriage payments? These three countries have similar kinship systems which generate discrimination against girls, and they show the highest levels of excess female child mortality in the world. This article explores how the extent of excess female child mortality was influenced by historical events in these countries in the period 1920–90, and discusses some of the substantial social ramifications of resulting changes in sex ratios. The authors hypothesize that these changes encouraged the retention of brideprice in China while dowry became the norm in India, and illustrate how these demographic changes have influenced the extent and manifestations of violence against women.     

Improving Child Nutrition? The Integrated Child Development Services in India

Levels of child malnutrition in India have fallen only slowly during the 1990s, despite significant economic growth and considerable expenditure on the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme, of which the major component is supplementary feeding for malnourished children. To begin to unravel this puzzle, this article assesses the programme's placement and its outcomes, using NFHS data from 1992 and 1998. The authors find that programme placement is clearly regressive across states. The states with the greatest need for the programme — the poor Northern states which account for nearly half of India's population and which suffer from high levels of child malnutrition — have the lowest programme coverage and the lowest budgetary allocations from the central government. Programme placement within states is more progressive: poorer and larger villages have a higher probability of having an ICDS centre, as do those with other development programmes or community associations. In terms of outcomes, the authors find little evidence of programme impact on child nutrition status in villages with ICDS centres.     

The Pace of Indian Urbanization

In contrast with conventional formulations of urban growth, Tolley proposed a simple, supply-driven model relying upon the intersectoral differential in nonlabor productivity growth as the prime motivator of urbanization in developing countries. In the present paper, we apply Tolley's model to India over the period 1951–1981 and attempt to explain its mixed performance in tracking the pace of urbanization in that country. A modified version, adjusted for inter-regional migration, is then simulated for individual Indian states; the exercise confirms actual urban growth during 1971–81 to have been generally below that predicted by Tolley's model. Tolley's assumptions then are tested through an examination of the relationship between urban growth rates and translog indexes of intertemporal productivity growth. Finally, exploratory analysis of Tolley-model deviations in the various states is used to suggest directions for extending urban growth formulations for India. We conclude with a normative examination of policy implications.     

The structure of mortality in mid-nineteenth century England and Wales

Most analyses of the origins of the secular decline of mortality in mid-nineteenth-century England and Wales have not dealt with the wide range of mortality experienced by the population in that period. The Registrars' General Annual Reports provide data for a set of 631 registration districts that may be used in examining the spatial variations in life expectancy at birth and infant mortality. This evidence, differentiating clearly between urban and rural areas, suggests that the changing urban environment and a variety of factors that in combination led to improvements in public health standards, local administration and housing quality played important parts in mortality decline.     

Regional variations of mortality in Norway

Regional and rural and urban differences in mortality in Norway are examined since the mid-nineteenth century. "A levelling-out of variations took place as an aspect of the rapid reduction of mortality during the first half of this century. The northeasternmost part of the country, however, still stands out as a region of relatively high mortality. Particularly low levels of mortality are found in the predominantly rural parts of East, South and West Norway...." A higher level of mortality in urbanized areas is also noted.     

Heritage and rural gentrification in Spain: the case of Santiago Millas

Although gentrification has been mostly understood as an urban phenomenon, the permanent establishment of urban dwellers in rural areas is becoming a widespread trend across the world. Despite its relevance to postindustrial societies, rural gentrification has been largely overlooked by heritage scholars, and has been explored very little in the context of Spain. In this article, I examine the relationship between heritage and rural gentrification through the case study of Santiago Millas, a village located in the Maragatería region of Spain. Based on long-term ethnographic engagement with different actors (newcomers, local residents, and public officials), I examine a specific instance of the globalizing phenomenon of rural gentrification, highlighting the key role heritage plays in this phenomenon, including (1) the impact on local governmentalities based on heritage discourse; (2) the refurbishing of houses and changes in the social spaces of villages; and (3) the transformation of social life and rituals into metacultural discourses of heritage. I emphasize the urgency to carry out more research in order to improve our understanding of the complex and multifaceted phenomenon of rural gentrification from a heritage perspective.