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The article comments on the novel "Tono-Bungay" by H. G. Wells and the romance of modern commerce. Topics include "Tono-Bungay" published in 1909 at a time that witnessed the rapid growth of urbanization, imperial expansion, and industrialization, and with dwindling resources at home, the expropriation of raw materials from abroad spurred the impetus to capitalist accumulation, along with the creation of a market for goods manufactured from raw materials.

The article looks at the impacts of urbanization, industrialization and globalization on rural villages in China. It highlights the emergence of industrial districts in the country, especially in Southern China, and the disappearance of numerous rural villages to make way for urban sprawls, factories and express ways. The effect of tourism on the economy and environment is discussed, as well as the portrayal of home villages in works written by migrant-worker poets.

This article proposes and illustrates an analytical approach to understanding the relationship between urbanisation and the middle-income trap. The analytical approach is based on the view that in order to understand the nature of the middle-income trap, it is necessary to understand the development process and policy ingredients of countries that have successfully made the transition from low-income to high-income countries without getting stuck in the middle. Alice Amsden's work is an essential source for this task. She does not, as far as I am aware, use the term "middle-income trap", and apart from Amsden (1991), she largely ignores the urban question. Yet her work contains important insights that illuminate the nature of the middle-income trap. Focusing on Vietnam, the first part of the article identifies these insights and extends them to propose an analytical approach, whilst the second part describes the speed, distribution and form of urbanisation in Vietnam and applies the analytical approach to discuss ways in which the process of urbanisation is contributing to the country falling into, or avoiding, the trap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]