RELATIONSHIPS AMONG PAPERS IN THIS VOLUME
Zeynep Asligul Gocmen

Although my research was the only one directly related to urbanization, I can easily say that there is a link with most of the other research. Two major aspects of my research were the examination of the urbanization transition from a developing nation’s perspective and comparing the findings with a set of developed nations.

The findings of the research showed that there are vast differences among urbanization in developed versus developing countries. The study also concluded that there are various factors shaping urbanization in a nation. It also showed a need to emphasize on the fact that urbanization should not be seen as an independent transition. Other transitions such as demographic, industrial, and technological transitions are important factors shaping urbanization and likewise, urbanization is an important factor shaping various transitions including toxicity, epidemiological, and fossil fuel transitions.

It was really interesting to see how these transitions fit together. For example, although AIDS may not be conceived as related to urbanization, Mark Schmidt’s research showed that rapid urbanization is a main cause of AIDS in Uganda. Another example is the existence of a high number of street children in Ghana investigated by Chandra Sivakumar. With rapid urbanization, there is a high unemployment ratio and high numbers of street children all over the world, particularly in developing countries.

Moira Zellner’s and Marnie Boardman’s papers show that without planning efforts and controlling the growth of urban population, water management is a big concern. Among these two studies, Moira’s work relates more to mine. Buenos Aires, one of the world’s most populous metropolitan areas is similar to Istanbul in terms of primacy and environmental issues related to that. In Istanbul, water management, supply of infrastructure, and environmental injustice are important issues and they are not usually addressed.

There are other research papers that have close relations to mine. The study of the transitions in Mexico undertaken by Natalie Henry shows that Mexico has been experiencing very similar transitions as Turkey. These similar transitions are apparent in the demographic, urbanization, and industrial transitions. Moreover, the insufficiency of government policies has resulted in similar outcomes in both countries; increasing regional disparities and problems related to overcrowding in the primate cities.

Another paper that showed relation was the one prepared by Taufik Hanafi on the decentralization of the health care in Indonesia. A common theme is the five-year development plans in these countries. Even though Taufik’s research shows the need of decentralization in planning efforts due to the geography and the unique situations in the country, I recommend policy changes at the central level to direct the future of the urbanization pattern as well as more regulatory measures at the local level.

As concluding remarks, I would like to say that urbanization is a very complex and dynamic process and is related to many aspects of population and environment dynamics. The research undertaken by my colleagues have proved my point and made me realize there are many avenues for future research in urbanization transition.