Desakota in Kerala: Space and political economy in Southwest India
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Geography, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Casinader, Rex A
issued: 2008-12-16T19:12:24Z
issued: 1992
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: McGee in his recent writings on Asian urbanization highlights extended metropolitan regions and proximate non-urban settlement systems with an intense mixture of agricultural and non-agricultural activities. The latter McGee terms as desakota, a neologism coined in Bahasa Indonesian, to signify the fusion of desa (rural) and kota (urban). Some of the ecological preconditions for desakota are high rural population densities; labour intensive rice cultivation with agricultural labourers in need of non-farm work in the off seasons and/or labour shedding by green revolution effects. McGee however recognizes that desakota can also occur in other ecologically dense habitat of non-rice crops with high population densities. Kerala State in India is one such region with a mix of rice and non-rice crops. This study examines the urban-rural fusion that is observed in Kerala and provides an empirically informed assessment of the McGee desakota hypothesis. While basically affirming the desakota hypothesis, the study at the same time raises some caveats. First, desakota in Kerala is not dependent on any central urban system and intra-desakota dynamics are significant. While M c G e e has recognized that such desakota do occur, his writings tend to neglect this type of desakota. Second, McGee's writings on extended metropolitan regions and desakota are increasingly associated with the recent rapid e c o n o m i c growth occurring in some of the Asian countries. Desakota in Kerala blurs this characteristic as it appears to have occurred beginning in the late colonial p e r i o d of the British Raj. Third, a unique mix of factors in Kerala make the political economy central to making desakota in Kerala intelligible. Undoubtedly in the specificity of the Kerala context the political economy is important. Nonetheless this study raises a critique of the underemphasis of the political economy in McGee's work on extended metropolitan regions and desakota. The research on desakota in Kera…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/2924
extent: 24847624 bytes
format: application/pdf
note: DESAKOTA IN KERALA: SPACE AND POLITICAL ECONOMY SOUTHWEST INDIA by REX A.CASINADER B.A. U n i v e r s i t y of Peradeniya (1960) M.A. U n i v e r s i t y of Peradeniya (1978) A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Department of Geography) We accept t h i s t h e s i s as conforming to the r e q u i r e d standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA June 1992 © R e x A.Casinader, 1992. National Library of Canada Canadian Theses Service Bibliothèque nationale du Canada Service des thèses canadiennes NOTICE AVIS THE QUALITY OF THIS MICROFICHE IS HEAVILY DEPENDENT UPON THE QUALITY OF THE THESIS SUBMITTED FOR MICROFILMING. LA QUALITE DE CETTE MICROFICHE DEPEND GRANDEMENT DE LA QUALITE DE LA THESE SOUMISE AU MICROFILMAGE. UNFORTUNATELY THE COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS OF THIS THESIS CAN ONLY YIELD DIFFERENT TONES OF GREY. MALHEUREUSEMENT, LES DIFFERENTES ILLUSTRATIONS EN COULEURS DE CETTE THESE NE PEUVENT DONNER QUE DES TEINTES DE GRIS. In p resen t ing this thesis in partial fu l f i lment of the requ i rements for an a d v a n c e d deg ree at the Univers i ty of British C o l u m b i a , I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for re ference and s tudy . 1 further agree that pe rm i s s i on for ex t ens i v e c o p y i n g of this thesis fo r scholar ly p u r p o s e s may be granted by the head of m y depa r tmen t or by his or her representat ives . It is u n d e r s t o o d that c o p y i n g o r pub l i c a t i on of this thesis for f inancial gain shall not be a l l o w e d w i thou t my w r i t t e n pe rm i s s i on . Depa r tmen t The Univers i ty of British C o l u m b i a Vancouve r , C a n a d a Date -^^ AÂ^ DE-6 (2/88) M c C e e in his recent wr i t ings o n As ian u rban iza t ion h igh l ights e x t e n d e d met ropo l i t an regions and p rox ima te non-urban se t t l ement systems w i th an intense mixture of agricultural and non-agr icul tura l …
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 1992-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0086531
language: eng
degree discipline: Geography
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/2924