Author Description

As the fast-growing cities of South-East Asia expand into the surrounding countryside, they first affect and then absorb rural communities in their peripheries. Not much has been written about this important transformation in the life, livelihood, and land use of villages around the cities. This book analyses what has happened to four such villages around Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. This pioneer study of in-situ urbanization, shows how traditional land-use practices have become neglected, how inflationary pressures have effected land values, and how the economic basis of these rural communities has come to depend increasingly on urban employment as they are engulfed within the compass of a modern city.