Urban Primacy in Urban System of Developing Countries; Its Causes and Consequences

Abstract

In the current world, cities have become the main arms of the actuator in the movement of social system of human communities. Nevertheless, urban systems in developing countries, despite the vast potentials, are faced with serious problems such as rapid urbanization, constant migration of rural people to cities, and concentration of population and activities in one or two cities, or, in other words, urban macrocephaly. Despite the primacy or dominance of one city in some developed countries, we do not observe clear negative features of urban primacy; on the other hand, although it is not evident in all countries of the developing world, there are evident features of urban systems in most of these countries. This paper aims to identify and understand the formation of the phenomenon of urban primacy in developing countries. The method of this study is descriptive-analytical and is based on document studies and the results of different urban projects in different area of the developing world and it is responding to these questions about the background and causes of the formation of urban primacy in these countries and its consequences of this phenomenon which led this conclusion that this phenomenon should be analyzed from different dimensions of economic, social, cultural, historical, and political and lastly its causes and consequences should be observed with regard to these dimensions.

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