Suburbanization

Residential suburbanization, or population deconcentration, refers to the relocation or movement of the population from the core of a city to new housing in peripheral, suburban zones. The process of suburbanization effects population settlement, environment, and society. Understanding the role that suburbanization plays in a society and its economy is vital background for all who are interested in the sociology of population, urbanization, and the environment. This article explores the sociology of suburbanization in four parts: an overview of the history of suburbanization in the United States; a discussion of urban and suburban planning; an explanation of the ways in which social scientists study suburbanization in different nations and cultures; and an exploration of the effect of suburbanization on American cities.

Keywords Congestion Pricing; Decentralization; Deficits; Federal Government; Public Policy; Reverse Commuting; Society; Sociology; Suburbanization; Suburbs; Urban Planning; Urban Sprawl

Social Issues & Public Policy > Suburbanization

Overview

Residential suburbanization, or population deconcentration, refers to the relocation or movement of the population from the core of a city to new housing in peripheral, suburban zones. Suburbs, a twentieth- century phenomena, refer to residential clusters on the periphery of a city or town. During the twentieth century, urban centers transformed into business zones while suburbs became residential zones. Residential and commercial suburbanization is a global phenomenon, which began in the twentieth century in response to new transportation technologies, the development of highway systems, federally guaranteed mortgages, new single-dwelling construction, changing family structures, telecommuting, new conceptions of employment and public policy.

This article explores the sociology of suburbanization in four parts:

An overview of the history of suburbanization in the United States;

A discussion of urban and suburban planning;

An explanation of the ways in which social scientists study suburbanization in different nations and cultures; and

An exploration of the effect of suburbanization on American cities.

The History of Suburbanization in the United States

According to 2000 U.S. Census data, approximately half of the US population lived in suburbs in 2000. The demographic composition of suburbs favors non-Hispanic whites, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and the elderly. More than half of senior citizens lived in the suburbs in 2000. Between 2000 and 2010, the suburbs grew as much as three times faster than the cities did, despite the elderly remaining in and young adults moving into cities as a result of the Great Recession (Sanburn, 2014). American suburbs have grown in quantity and size since the 1920s. For example, more than 60 percent of new housing between 1990 and 2000 was constructed in the suburbs (Hobbs & Stoops, 2002). The urban-suburban environment in the United States has been shaped by forces including the development of the automobile, federally guaranteed mortgages, Supreme Court racial integration rulings, and the highway system. For instance, the Federal Highway Act of 1956 funded the construction of 41,000 miles of interstate highway over a twenty-year period.

Urban growth and development in the United States has proceeded through four main periods:

• Inner cities developed by 1900,
• Inner suburbs developed between 1900 and 1940 with the support of streetcars and railroads,
• Suburbs developed between 1940 and 1980 with the support of automobiles and federally guaranteed mortgages for single family homes, and
• Outer suburbs developed after 1980 as residential subdivisions connected by highways and serviced by commercial and retail efforts.

In the post–World War II United States, federal subsidies, such as GI loans and FHA mortgages, facilitated the movement of the population from high population density areas to low-density areas. GI loans were made available to veterans following World War II as part of the 1944 Serviceman's Readjustment Act. FHA loans, which began during the 1930s, are guaranteed by the Federal Housing Authority and intended to promote home ownership among America's lower economic class. Home-ownership, promoted through commercial advertisement and facilitated by government policy and a strong economy, became a shared cultural value during the post–World War II years. In the United States, there have been multiple waves of suburbanization. Each phase of suburbanization increased the decentralization of homes, marketplaces, and jobs. The US population pattern since World War II has changed significantly. In 1950, seven out of ten Americans lived in urban centers, but by 1990, six out of ten Americans lived in suburban areas (Stahura, 1986).

In the twenty-first century, the trend in population settlement patterns finds the majority of Americans living in metropolitan regions with one million residents or more. That said, some economically depressed metropolitan areas, such as Detroit, are not able to attract and maintain large populations. Urban planners predict that decentralization patterns will continue, causing a population growth in suburban areas. Employment influences the urban-suburban divide. The shift from a manufacturing economy to an information-driven service economy has changed the location and character of workplaces and occupations. Businesses are no longer dependent on urban centers as transportation hubs. Businesses may choose to locate in the suburbs without economic penalty. Reverse commutes, available employees, information technology, settlement patterns, tax incentives, business-friendly zoning, and the availability of new construction sites all draw businesses to the suburbs (Garreau, 1992).

Urban & Suburban Planning

Suburbanization affects environments, communities, families, and economies. For instance, local environments, as measured by air quality as well as the health of animal species and bodies of water, may be endangered by the rise in commuter pollution caused by suburban residents commuting by car to their jobs in urban centers. Strategies for reducing the negative environmental impact of suburbs include carpooling, rapid transit train, bus and ferry systems, bicycle commuting, and reverse commuting (Smith, 1996).

Urban planning, which refers to the interdisciplinary efforts to coordinate commercial and residential land use, transportation systems, and community needs, attempts to control, address, and prevent urban sprawl, decentralization, and urban decay caused, in part, by suburbanization. Urban sprawl refers to the unplanned and unorganized growth of development into the periphery of urban centers. Decentralization refers to population shifts that occur between regions during periods of rapid economic growth or change.

Urban and suburban planners use multiple types of policies of programs to manage the environmental, social, and economic effects of large population shifts from urban to suburban regions. Examples of public policies that attempt to address and halt urban sprawl and urban decline caused, in part, by suburbanization, include impact fees, congestion pricing, tax-base sharing, special taxing districts, concurrency planning, affordable housing strategies, regional government, and growth management. Cities around the world are incorporating these development strategies, described below, to address the economic problems of urban decline, urban sprawl, and deconcentration (Keil, 2006).

• Congestion pricing is a mechanism that accounts for traffic-related costs and imposes them on local businesses and commuters. One of the main examples of congestion pricing is peak-hour road pricing in which motorists are charged higher tolls on congested highways during peak hours.
• Impact fees refer to "charges that localities impose on developers to generate revenue instead of making existing residents pay for the new or improved capital projects" necessitated by development.
• Concurrency planning refers to "planning in which public services and infrastructure must be provided at the same time as new development is built."
• Reverse commuting programs promote and, in some cases, "provide inner-city residents with transportation to and from suburban jobs."
• Affordable housing programs aid city residents in moving to the outer suburbs and gaining access and proximity to the new centers of job growth. These programs may include loans, information, zoning changes, grants, and subsidized suburban housing.
• Tax-base sharing programs refer to a tax system in which urban and suburban municipalities share revenue with each other rather than keeping funds for the exclusive use of their area. Tax-sharing programs address the problem of unequal taxable property and businesses.
• Growth management refers to "an explicit, ongoing program to shape or control growth through some combination of intervention techniques and policies." Examples of growth management programs include "constraints on the density of development permitted through zoning or limitations on subdivisions; design and human capacity standards for lots and buildings; requirement of adequate public facilities or imposition of impact fees; urban growth boundaries; greenbelts; and regional review."
• Regional governance refers to a governance model that includes greater geographic scope. Under this model, cities and their suburbs share governance and resources. The regional governance model reduces public resource inequalities and disparities between the central city and its outer suburbs (Wiewel, Persky & Sendzik, 1999).

Applications

Social & Political Effects of Suburbanization

Social scientists and urban planners study the process of suburbanization as a means of understanding the relationship between economics, politics, social life, and settlement patterns. In particular, sociologists have studied the connections between suburbanization patterns and race, political change, and crime. This section will describe a diverse range of studies examining suburbanization as a social, political, and economic phenomenon.

Black Suburbanization

John Stahura (1986) hypothesized that the civil rights climate of the 1960s had a profound effect on the suburbanization of African Americans. During the civil rights era, numerous African American families sought improved educational and housing options in suburban areas. Stahura studied the post–World War II connections between race relations and changes in African American communities (related to region, age, distance to the central city, socioeconomic status, population size, and job concentration). Stahura concluded that the data support the idea that the changing civil rights climate of the United States after World War II influenced the growth of black suburbanization (Stahura, 1986).

Edward Shihadeh and Graham Ousey studied the suburbanization-city crime connection. Criminologists have long been interested in the link between the size of the suburban population in a metropolitan area and the rate of crime in the city center. Researchers Shihadeh and Ousey tested this assumed truth and explored the assumption that the degree of suburbanization in an area is directly related to the degree of serious crime in the city center. The study, based on data from 1980, covered 136 cities in the United States with 100,000 or more residents in total and at least one thousand black residents. The researchers used race-disaggregated crime data (on homicide, robbery, rape, assault, burglary, larceny, and auto theft) from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Data suggest that a growth in suburbanization increases center-city rates of crime among black residents but not among white residents. This finding suggests that suburbanization increased black center-city crime rates by socially isolating black communities and allowing or promoting social problems. Researchers concluded that the link between growth in suburbanization and high inner-city crime results from a complex ecological process in which the city center is changed and isolated as people move to the periphery (Shihadeh & Ousey, 1996).

Suburbanization in Eastern Europe

Kadri Leetmaa and Tiit Tammaru studied suburbanization in countries undergoing political transitions. In particular, Leetmaa and Tammaru examined the post-socialist transition process in Estonia. Estonia became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991. Researchers Leetmaa and Tammaru studied suburbanization patterns in the Tallinn metropolis in Estonia to learn more about population settlement in post-socialist societies. The study covered the period from 1989 to 2000 and examined the rate and probability of different subgroups moving to the suburbs. Researchers relied on anonymous census data. The study found that suburbanization divided Estonian society. Individuals and families belonging to the lower economic classes had the highest likelihood of moving away from the city center to higher economic classes and had the highest likelihood of remaining in centrally located city-center housing. In the case of Estonian suburbanization patterns in the 1990s, a lack of a developed transportation system made city living more advantageous than suburban living. Researchers undertook the study with the aim of improving the post-socialist suburbanization process for individuals and communities. Researchers believe that the post-socialist suburbanization process observed in Estonia may be easily generalized to post-socialist societies (Leetmaa & Tammaru, 2007).

Martin Ourednicek investigated different types of suburban development in the Prague urban region during the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first centuries. He considers residential suburbanization, more so than commercial or industrial suburbanization, to be one of the most significant spatial processes at work in the settlement systems of post-socialist countries. Ourednicek's research, which involved examining the migration flows in Prague's urban region, gathered data on the composition of migrant groups that chose to relocate to suburban Prague. Ourednicek analyzed data from the Czech Statistical Office and, based on the findings, developed field studies of different suburban regions experiencing rapid development and growth. Ourednicek's research suggests that there are seven settlement processes at work in Prague, including classical suburbanization migration to older housing stock, elderly migration to senior citizens' homes, migration to recreational houses and cottages, migration to remote places, tangential migration, and long-distance centripetal migration. Each process has a different impact on both suburban and inner city areas in Prague. Ourednicek presents his finding in the hopes that the research will be used to inform future suburban settlement in Prague (Ourednicek, 2007).

The research projects described in this section encompass a wide range of perspectives on suburbanization. The studies as a group illustrate the ways in which residential suburbanization is both a global phenomenon and a nation-specific enterprise. Residential suburbanization may be a socially and economically positive or negative process depending on the characteristics and needs of the region.

Issues

The Effect of Suburbanization on American Cities

American cities are considered to be in social and economic crisis (as measured by budget deficits, failing schools, and unemployment). American cities are suffering as a result of suburbanization, declining populations, depressed wages, lack of new building projects, lowered tax base, and a reduction in retail sales. Throughout the twentieth century, centers of industry have moved from highly industrialized cities to urban-suburban hubs. As a result of industry transformations, the population switch from urban to suburban living, and globalization, American cities experience uneven development and, in many instances, urban decline. Urban decline, urban sprawl, and decentralization affect industry, quality of life, availability of services and infrastructure. Urban planners and policymakers are working to support and revitalize cities as well as fight the growth of suburbs caused by decentralization. For instance, public-private development programs, expanded tourism, historic preservation, and artistic and cultural efforts are increasingly common in American inner cities (Garreau, 1992).

Urban Policy

The local, state, and federal governments use urban policy to address the economic and social decline of American cities. Urban policy refers a broad range of social, economic, and related public policy issues that affect the quality of life and the economic well-being of people in cities. For example, urban public policy regulates and oversees contemporary urban problems such as health care, education, economic development, employment and training, immigration, housing and land development, welfare, drug control, environmental policy, transportation, local government, leadership, social policy, information access, poverty, historical preservation and community development.

Urban policy in the United States, which has existed in some form since federal and state governments evolved as specified in the US Constitution, has always reflected the needs of society at the time the policy was developed and implemented. For example, much of twentieth-century public policy, created in response to the world wars and cycles of economic depressions, centered on economic development (Weiner, 2005). Contemporary urban policy (along with urban affairs and urban planning) works to improve the experience of city living around the world. Cities, with high concentrations of population and annual spending power, influence both national economy and position in global economy. Despite substantial resources, American cities are considered to be in crisis as evinced by state and city fiscal budget deficits, unemployment, and struggling public schools ("A New Direction," 2006).

Different public policy institutes offer very different perspectives on and solutions to the problem of funding urban public policy. For example, the Cato Institute, a nonprofit libertarian public policy research foundation committed to broadening the public policy debate to include the principles of limited government, individual liberty, and free markets, argues that American cities are financially troubled for two main reasons. First, many American cities send more tax funds to the federal government than they receive in support and aid. Second, many American cities are burdened by unfunded mandates. Unfunded mandates, as described by the Cato Institute, are a method used by federal lawmakers to intervene in the affairs of state and local governments.

In contrast to the Cato Institute's perspective, Living Cities (a nonprofit development agency founded on the idea and practice of public-private partnerships) wants more, not less, government involvement in American cities and urban policy. Living Cities advocates for policies that strengthen cities and increase opportunities for low-income neighborhoods and their residents to participate fully in the American and global economies. Living Cities wants significant and consistent federal funding. Living Cities' policy agenda includes ensuring reliability in federal funding, providing flexibility in the use of federal funding, and fostering innovation through a new competitive challenge grant.

There have been numerous examples of urban policy that significantly changed life in American cities and suburbs. For example, the Housing Act of 1954, which replaced public housing with commercially oriented urban renewal in numerous cities, is believed to have marked a historic turn in housing policy and federal-city relations. The Housing Act, which facilitated new alliances between mayors of major cities and business groups, created national consensus around urban redevelopment policies (Flanagan, 1997). In addition to the tendency of significant urban policy to change lives in American cities, life in American cities, such as significant social events, can also shape and change the direction of urban policy. For example, the 1992 Los Angeles race riots brought the issues of poverty and race relations to the forefront of policy agendas.

Conclusion

In the final analysis, residential suburbanization, along with commercial suburbanization, affect population settlement patterns, the environment, and society. Residential and commercial suburbanization is a global phenomenon that began in the twentieth century in response to new transportation technologies, development of highway systems, federally guaranteed mortgages, new single-dwelling construction, changing family structures, telecommuting, new conceptions of employment, and public policy. During the twentieth century, urban centers transformed into business zones while suburbs became predominantly residential zones.

Terms & Concepts

Congestion Pricing: A mechanism that accounts for traffic-related costs and imposes them on commuters.

Decentralization: Population shifts that occur between regions during periods of rapid economic growth or change.

Deficits: The amount of money that governments, companies, or individuals Spend in excess of its income.

Federal Government: A form of government in which a group of states recognizes the sovereignty and leadership of a central authority while retaining certain powers of government.

Public Policy: The basic policy or set of policies that serve as the foundation for public laws.

Reverse Commuting: A practice that promotes, and in some cases provides, inner-city residents with transportation to and from suburban jobs.

Society: A group of people living and interacting in a defined area, such as a country or other geographic region, and sharing a common culture.

Sociology: The scientific study of human social behavior, human association, and the results of social activities.

Suburbs: Residential clusters on the periphery of a city or town.

Suburbanization: The relocation or movement of the population from the core city to new housing in peripheral, suburban zones.

Urban Planning: The interdisciplinary effort to coordinate commercial and residential land use, transportation systems, and community needs.

Urban Policy: A broad range of social, economic, and related public policy issues that affect the quality of life and the economic well-being of people in cities.

Urban Sprawl: The unplanned and unorganized growth of development into the periphery of urban centers.

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Martinez-Fernandez, C., Audirac, I., Fol, S., & Cunningham-Sabot, E. (2012). Shrinking cities: Urban challenges of globalization. International Journal of Urban & Regional Research, 36, 213–225. Retrieved January 12, 2015 from EBSCO online database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=71885223&site=ehost-live&scope=site

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Suggested Reading

Boustan, L., & Shertzer, A. (2013). Population trends as a counterweight to central city decline, 1950-2000. Demography, 50, 125–147. Retrieved January 12, 2015 from EBSCO online database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=88152004&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Holmes, J. (1971). External commuting as a prelude to suburbanization. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 61, 774–790. Retrieved October 16, 2008 from EBSCO online database SocINDEX with Full Text: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=12953258&site=ehost-live

Landry, B. (2005). Places of their own: African American suburbanization in the twentieth century. Social Forces, 84, 617–618. Retrieved October 16, 2008 from EBSCO online database SocINDEX with Full Text: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=18558446&site=ehost-live

Martinez-Fernandez, C., Audirac, I., Fol, S., & Cunningham-Sabot, E. (2012). Shrinking cities: Urban challenges of globalization. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 36, 213–225. Retrieved October 30, 2013 from EBSCO online database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=71885223

Tammaru, T. (2001). Suburban growth and suburbanisation under central planning: The case of Soviet Estonia. Urban Studies, 38, 1341–1357. Retrieved October 16, 2008 from EBSCO online database SocINDEX with Full Text: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=5025246&site=ehost-live