Abstract
This lecture is a personal account of an economist whose knowledge pursuit has been in the problematic of development, urbanization and environment and the professional work on the informal sector and urban environmental management. It traces a journey that began with a critique of theories of underdevelopment, which were inspired by an investigation of the relationship between urbanization and economic development that revealed cities’ innovativeness (a la Jane Jacobs) as a key causal link, and received a boost by winning a Ph.D. Thesis Award of the International Development Research Center that allowed completion of a major field research based Ph.D. dissertation on Dhaka’s informal sector. This lecture is also about how the twin background of economics and informal sector landed the author as an Assistant Professor of Asian Institute of Technology’s planning education program (Human Settlements Development Division) in 1987. Since then there have been numerous opportunities of teaching graduate level courses in development economics, urbanization, urban informal sector, urban economics, environmental economics, and urban economics & finance; research supervision of master and Ph.D. students; outreach activities (including the contribution in establishing the Asian Planning Schools Association and partnership building with the donor communities for securing scholarships and faculty secondments); and many consulting assignments on, particularly the informal sector in Thailand and Indonesia, designing of economic instruments and sustainable development which have paved the way for incorporating the informal sector as an important theme in planning education and establishment of urban environmental management as a new academic program – the planning education’s urban planning and environmental management component – in AIT.
The lecture gleans points from selected works of the speaker to show the learned audience how a legacy of the informal sector and urban environmental management seems to have emerged in planning education that is likely to flourish given the realities (huge presence of the informal sector and severe environmental degradation) of the cities in developing countries. The lecture concludes with the observation that the important roles of public policy, planning and management for social, institutional, economic, technological development and environmental improvement have not diminished in the present era of market supremacy but rather assumed greater significance for sustaining development and enhancing the quality of life for all.
Profile of the speaker
Prof. A.T.M. Nurul Amin, a national of Bangladesh, is a professor of Urban Environmental Management in the School of Environment, Resources and Development at AIT. He obtained his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Manitoba, Canada in 1982. He joined AIT in 1987 as an assistant professor. His past institutional affiliations for research and employment include the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, England in 1977 and 1986; the United Nations Centre for Regional Development, Nagoya, Japan in 1994-95; the School of Urban Studies, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China in 2000 and 2001; and Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh (1973-1975 and 1982-1986). He has served as a consultant for ILO, ESCAP, UNDP, UNESCO, Unicef, UNCRD, GHK International, IGES and UNEP. He was the Chairman of AIT’s Division of Human Settlements Development during 1991-1993, Coordinator of the Urban Environmental Management field during 1996-1999 and 2001-2004, and Director of CIDA-AIT Partnership Project on the Southeast Asia Urban Environmental Management Applications during 2003-2004. His committee work includes contributing as a Chair of Academic Senate & Doctoral Program Committee; a member of Faculty Appointment and Promotion Panel in AIT; the General Secretary of Bangladesh Economic Association; a team member of various expert committees of several international agencies; and as founding member of Asian Planning Schools Association & the Network of Institutions for Sustainable Development. He teaches graduate courses in Development Economics, Sustainable Urbanization Policy, Environmental Economics, and Urban Economics & Finance. His research interests include informal sector, urban environmental management, economic instruments, employment-income approach to poverty reduction, financing and cost recovery, policy measures to influence human behavior towards sustainable development, and incentive measures for promoting sustainable transportation. His master and doctoral students’ supervision, including Ph.D. external examinership, adds up to 104 and his research publications to 81. His editorial work includes serving as a Guest Editor, member of International Editorial Advisory Board and reviewer of many international journals and publications including that of the State of the World Cities 2008/09 of UN-HABITAT.