Geography Study Materials and Hand-outs

An alternative and complementary perspective is provided by Rimmer (1977) who outlined the development of a hybrid transport system in less-developed countries, derived from the colonization process by which metropolitan powers used revolutionary modes ot transport to penetrate indigenous systems and to gain both political control and cultural and economic dominance. The resultant restructuring of resource use, patterns of circulation, organization and outlook transformed the indigenous system, and instituted an interdependen relationship in which the colonizing power to a substantial extent controlled a two-way exchange of goods and services. This process eventually yielded a hybrid transport system in developing countries containing both indigenous and imported elements, often inadequately integrated. Using terminology derived from Brookfield (1972, 1975), Rimmer identified four phases in the evolving interrelationships between metropolitan and Third World co...