Desakota

Satellite image of the Bangkok Metropolitan Region: The sprawling areas at the edges and along the arterial roads are desakota -Spaces

In urban geography, Desakota describes spaces in the extended area surrounding large cities in which urban and agricultural forms of use and settlement occur side by side and are strongly mixed with one another.

The term was coined around 1990 by the New Zealand urban researcher Terry G. McGee and is derived from the Indonesian words desa 'village' and kota 'city'. Such spaces are typically found in Asia, particularly in Southeast Asia . Examples in the urbanized areas of Java are the densely populated, delta-shaped areas on the periphery of the agglomeration of Jakarta (“ Jabodetabek ”), but also the expanded metropolitan regions of Bangkok or Manila . Desakota rooms are outside the periurban areas, from which daily commuting to the actual city is possible without any problems, i.e. more than 30 km from the city center. They often extend along arteries and connecting roads, sometimes from one metropolitan area to the next. They are characterized by high population density and intensive agricultural use (especially wet rice cultivation), but differ from densely populated rural areas in that they are more city-like characteristics. These criteria are developed transport networks, high mobility of the population, increasing activity outside of agriculture, the coexistence of many different forms of land use, greater participation of women in employment and unregulated land use.

With the development of Desakota regions, due to their extensive expansion and blurring of boundaries, difficulties are associated with the administration, as uniform plans, regulations and structures can hardly be implemented. Desakota areas are characterized by high mobility of goods and services and rapid changes in settlement patterns. They largely elude the subdivision into functionally specialized zones based on the settlement area. They contain such diverse forms of use as traditional agriculture, large-scale industry and small domestic businesses, amusement parks and golf courses, shopping centers and specialist market agglomerations and types of settlement ranging from informal settlements to gated communities .

Outside of Southeast Asia, areas with comparable properties have also been described in China, India, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.

See also

• Urban sprawl

literature

• Tim Bunnell, Lisa BW Drummond, KC Ho (Eds.): Critical Reflections on Cities in Southeast Asia. Times Academic Press, Singapore 2002, ISBN 981-210-192-6 .
• Gregory Eliyu Guldin: Desakotas and Beyond. Urbanization in Southern China. In: Farewell to Peasant China: Rural Urbanization and Social Change in the Late Twentieth Century. ME Sharpe, Armonk NY 1997, p. 47 ff.
• Michael Hebbert: Sen-biki amidst Desakota . Urban Sprawl and Urban Planning in Japan. In: Planning for Cities and Regions in Japan. Liverpool University Press, Liverpool 1994, pp. 70-91.
• Terry G. McGee: The Emergence of Desakota Regions in Asia. Expanding a hypothesis. In: The Extended Metropolis. Settlement Transition Is Asia. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 1991, ISBN 0-8248-1297-2 , pp. 3-25.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stephen Cairns: Troubling Real-estate. Reflecting on Urban Form in Southeast Asia. In: Critical Reflections on Cities in Southeast Asia. 2002, p. 117.
2. ^ Terry G. McGee: Reconstructing ›The Southeast Asian City‹ in an Era of Volatile Globalization. In: Critical Reflections on Cities in Southeast Asia. 2002, pp. 33-34.
3. ^ McGee: Reconstructing ›The Southeast Asian City‹. 2002, pp. 47-48.
4. ^ McGee: The Emergence of Desakota Regions in Asia. 1991, pp. 6-7.
5. ^ Chia Lin Sien, Martin Perry: Introduction. In: Southeast Asia Transformed. A Geography of Change. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore 2003, ISBN 981-230-119-4 , p. 12.
6. ^ Cairns: Troubling Real-estate. 2002, p. 118.
7. ↑ Guldin: Desakotas and Beyond. 1997, pp. 48, 62.
8. ↑ Hebbert: Sen-biki amidst desakota. 1994, p. 71.