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The patterns and driving forces of uneven regional growth in ASEAN countries: A tale of two Thailands' path toward regional coordinated development
Author(s) -
Lang Wei,
Pan Muzhe,
Wu Jiemin,
Chen Tingting,
Li Xun
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
growth and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.657
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1468-2257
pISSN - 0017-4815
DOI - 10.1111/grow.12459
Subject(s) - urbanization , geography , economic geography , livelihood , urban planning , development economics , population , developing country , ranking (information retrieval) , economic growth , economics , ecology , sociology , demography , archaeology , machine learning , biology , agriculture , computer science
Uneven development has long been a critical issue in geography and urban studies, leading to economically inefficient urbanization, environmentally unbalanced regions, and socially unequal livelihoods. As one result, primate cities and urban primacy form within a hierarchical urban system, to which urban and regional planning must positively respond. It is worth noting that Thailand has experienced a number of important urbanization issues related to developing countries, such as semicolonialism and internal colonialism. This study aims to investigate regional uneven development based on primacy theory and the rank‐size rule, which are common in most Asian and developing countries. We examined the urbanization processes in Thailand, from 2000 to 2015, by looking at factors of population, GDP, land use, transportation networks, and nighttime light, which provide very recent regional development patterns. The second set of analyses explained the degree of primacy among different provinces and their ranking hierarchies. By presenting the persistent disparities of contemporary urbanization in Thailand and exploring its driving forces, this study offers insights into planning and policy and underscores the importance of regional coordinated development for achieving sustainable urbanization in Southeast Asian countries.