Govt needs to address urbanisation

I’D like to comment on the effects of the urbanisation process on domiciliary behavioural patterns in PNG.
Urbanisation and development process are inextricably linked. Both create economic, social-cultural and technological change, may vary from place to place.
Urbanisation is a process whereby a country or region undergoes a transition from agrarian subsistence to a cash modern dependence.
This process is often accompanied by changes in land-use, increase in urban population, economic growth, industrial and technological developments.
Nonetheless, almost everywhere, the process of urbanisation is often accompanied by serious problems such as socio-cultural change, shortage of housing, employment, lack of adequate social and physical infrastructural facilities.
Similar concerns have often been echoed. It is for these reasons that urbanisation in PNG is merely tolerated by successive governments for lack of realistic alternatives.
Several attempts to slow urbanisation process, for example, forced repatriation of urban migrants have had little success.
Urbanisation process in PNG has had significant effects on traditional socio-cultural norms despite its low level.
The rate of cultural change has of course been exacerbated by many years missionary and colonial activities.
Using ethnographic and anthropological evidence the paper first traces what has, for many years, been considered traditionally acceptable and expected domiciliary behavioural patterns.
These are then examined in the context of the current urbanisation process and its attendant effects.
It is then argued that any severances of the traditional domiciliary behavioural patterns are likely to cause considerable stress among household members and kinship group.
The government must call for detailed studies into cultural domiciliary patterns.
This will enable for the designing of appropriate dwellings in which culturally acceptable behaviours can unfold unimpeded.

Seth Yumbi Rake,Via email