Urbanization
Urbanization refers to the process through which cities emerge as central living spaces for growing populations, particularly those migrating from rural areas. This phenomenon encompasses not only the physical relocation of people and the construction of urban environments but also the evolution of distinct social structures, cultures, and economies. Historically, urbanization has been linked to significant societal shifts, such as the transition from agricultural to industrial activities, which began in earnest during the Industrial Revolution. This period marked a rapid urban expansion, leading to challenges such as housing crises, sanitation issues, and the spread of diseases due to increased population density.
In contemporary society, urbanization has reached a global scale, with the United Nations projecting that by 2050, approximately 70% of the world's population will reside in urban areas. While regions like North America, Latin America, and Europe have already undergone substantial urbanization, Africa and Asia are anticipated to experience significant growth in urban populations in the coming decades. However, urbanization also brings challenges, including spatial segregation and social fragmentation, often rooted in economic disparities. Addressing these challenges is crucial for city planners as they strive to promote inclusive and sustainable urban development in the twenty-first century.
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Subject Terms
Urbanization
Urbanization is the emergence of cities as settled living spaces for an increasing number of people, generally migrating from rural locales. The process of becoming urbanized entails not only the physical movement of the population and the construction of cities but also the rise of a distinctive society, culture, and economy. Significantly, Chicago sociologist Louis Wirth (1897–1952), one of the first observers and analysts of urban space, entitled his pioneering essay on the topic “Urbanism as a Way of Life” (1938).
As the directed concentration of population into urban space, urbanization is the result of a conscious human effort. Historically, the movement from rural villages to urban areas brought about parallel moves from agricultural to industrial activities and from face-to-face kinship networks to more impersonal and more competitive social circles.
Brief History
The shift from the nomadic life of Neolithic hunter-gatherers to the creation of agricultural settlements prompted the establishment of increasingly developed societies characterized by both complex institutions and the division of labor. While the society of the Middle Ages was predominantly rural and heavily dependent on the countryside, the Renaissance witnessed the emergence of new social figures: people who lived in cities but also owned farmland and sold its products on urban markets. The growth in productivity of these early rural villages allowed the reinvestment of surplus resources. Yet the model for urban expansion continued to be the fortress; cities were still contained within walled fortifications, and their concentric development with the building of successive bulwarks allowed for only limited growth.
Starting with the Industrial Revolution in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, urban areas began to develop at an unprecedented speed due to investments in technology and manufacturing. The fortress model was no longer suitable, and modern cities started to develop suburban areas. The sudden increase in population led cities to face an unparalleled housing crisis, with high rents, unhealthy living conditions, and the spread of diseases and epidemics. The outer areas of cities offered cheaper accommodations, although often at the price of sanitation and security. At the beginning of the twentieth century, these social problems led reformers such as Jane Addams (1860–1935) and sociologists such as those of the Chicago School to investigate urban spaces more closely in an attempt to find solutions to overcome spatial segregation.
During the twentieth century, urbanization took on an increasingly global dimension, leading to the rise of huge megalopolises throughout the world. The problem of uncontrolled and ungoverned city space—the so-called urban sprawl first detected in North America—became a thorny issue for city planners around the world.
Urbanization Today
The loss of structure resulting from urban sprawl continues to plague cities in the twenty-first century. According to the UN’s World Urbanization Prospects, the year 2007 represented a watershed in the history of urbanization as the total global urban population surpassed the total global rural population for the first time. In 2024, the United Nations estimated that 50 percent of the world’s population lived in cities, a figure expect to rise to 70 percent by 2050. While areas such are North America, Latin America, and Europe have already experienced widespread urbanization, experts expect Africa and Asia to rapidly urbanize throughout the twenty-first century. The population of Africa in particular was expected to double by roughly 2050.
Issues related to urbanization include spatial segregation and fragmentation in cities. Spatial segregation is as old as urban space itself, often based on social and economic lines. The global increase in social and economic inequality and exclusion has led to the fragmentation of cities. Rescuing the integrative function of urbanization from this social fragmentation is one of the major challenges faced by city planners and analysts in the twenty-first century.
Bibliography
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"World Urban Forum: The Search for Solutions to the Global Housing Crisis Moves to Cairo." United Nations, 2 Nov. 2024, news.un.org/en/story/2024/11/1156381. Accessed 19 Nov. 2024.