Urbanization

Urbanization Aysin Dedekorkut Green Ethics and Philosophy: An A-to-Z Guide, edited by Julie Newman DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412974608.n142 This article explores the alternative meanings of the concept of urbanization, describes the processes that facilitate it and the different forms it takes, the problems that are associated with it, and concludes with a brief overview of recent philosophies of urbanization. Urbanization is a process of population concentration by which large numbers of people live in relatively small areas called cities, towns, or urban areas. It can most generally be defined as the increase in the urban area's density, extent, or population through migration and/or natural growth. Defining a city is not as simple as it looks. Commonly used quantitative thresholds are rarely consistent from one place to another. Alternatively or sometimes additionally, functional, administrative, or political criteria are used as well. As with the question of what makes a city, defining what the urbanization process entails is no easy matter. Definitions of urbanization range from the demographic to the structural to the behavioral. As a demographic process, urbanization may refer to the absolute growth of populations living in urban areas as well as the growth of urban population relative to the whole due to the redistribution of population between rural and urban areas, or it may even refer to the rate at which the proportion of urban populations is increasing over time. Concentration of population in the larger urban settlements of a given territory or increasing density of population within urban settlements may also be termed urbanization. There are arguments, however, that residing in an urban area is not sufficient for being “urban.” It is not possible to separate the urbanization discussion from that of economic shifts and technological and societal developments. “Structural urbanization” refers to the shift from a nomadic, hunter-gatherer, or agrarian society to an urban one. This involves a shift in employment and brings an economic transition from primary production to industrial, commercial, and service economy. With this shift, household self-sufficiency is lost and specialization in production begins. These changes follow from industrialization and capitalization processes. Urbanization and structural economic change have a complex relationship. “Behavioral urbanization” refers to the sociocultural effects of an increasing part of the population living in cities. This is intermingled with the related concept of urbanism, which is sometimes used interchangeably with urbanization and refers to a way of life associated with living in an urban area. Urban areas are centers of social change: values, attitudes, and behavioral patterns are modified in urban life and new forms are spread through the urban system by diffusion processes. Ideas such as democracy are products of urban life. On the other hand, more frequent and diverse but less personal human interactions mark urban life, diluting urban dwellers’ ties with the natural environment. Viewed in this light, some see urbanization as a social pathology of modern society that results in alienation. The argument is that the three criteria for distinguishing urban places—their size, density, and heterogeneity—result in social disorganization. Studies of urbanization focus on the structure and form of urban growth including trends of suburbanization, centralization and decentralization, or emergence of edge cities; distribution of urban areas; their relative size and hierarchy; and their relationship with each other. While the origin of cities remains uncertain, urbanization has been accelerating, first as a result of developments in agriculture and transportation and then by industrialization. Increase in agricultural productivity created agricultural surplus and freed large numbers of people from rural lands. Evolving technology and transportation systems made carrying the surplus and other necessities to urban areas possible. These early cities were limited in size by availability of water and transportation technology. Development of these technologies enabled urbanization to continue. The Industrial Revolution was another important driver of urbanization, both with its insatiable need for workers and with developments it brought technologically. Current trends in worldwide urbanization indicate that scale and rate of urbanization are escalating. More and more people are living in cities. Today half the world's population is urbanized. Cities are increasing in number as well as in size. The very high rate of urbanization in some areas of the world and the sheer size of some cities are unprecedented. The world's fastest-growing and largest cities are in developing countries. With these extraordinary sizes, rates, and densities, a number of problems appear. “Overurbanization” is the case where urban population growth is significantly in excess of the growth of jobs and housing in the area. This is closely related to the condition of “pseudourbanization” in which a large city has formed in an area without a functional infrastructure to support it. This is the dominant form of urbanization in the third world. The rate of urbanization is generally inversely correlated with the level of economic development and the rates of growth observed in less-developed countries result in a lag in the provision of essential infrastructure and services such as housing, education, transportation, clean water, and waste removal, law enforcement, etc. A widespread belief argues that the optimum city size over which costs of growth are higher than the benefits has been exceeded in many cases. The urban entities that transcend the traditional concept of a city are labeled as “metropolis,” “megalopolis,” “conurbation,” “urban region,” or “megacity.” Along with multiple definitions of urbanization, there are diverging and sometimes contrasting trends in worldwide urbanization. “Counterurbanization” is the trend of decrease or slower levels of increase of population of the central metropolitan areas relative to the small and medium-sized urban areas and the countryside. This trend that started in the last quarter of the 20th century is yet again a reflection of structural changes in the economy that go hand in hand with technological developments. This phenomenon is observed more commonly in developed countries. For a long time, the urbanization process took place without guidance or planning, although some interventions such as aqueducts to carry water supplies were provided to facilitate it. With the problems observed in cities during the Industrial Revolution, urban planning efforts gained pace to protect people from hazards caused by urbanization and to manage urban growth in an orderly fashion. The current scale and rates of urbanization and the size of the cities offer new challenges on this front and require more aggressive planning efforts. In response, novel philosophies of urbanization such as “new urbanism/neotraditional development/transit-oriented development,” “growth management/smart growth,” “sustainable urbanization/green urbanism” appeared. Some of these ideas target parts of cities, whereas others bring principles to be adhered to throughout the whole urban area. The purpose is to provide sustainable human settlements in an urbanizing world by balancing environment and economy. This involves providing adequate shelter for all as well as infrastructure and services without depleting or destroying the world's limited resources. Strategies have to be comprehensive to include provision of food and other supplies to an increasing population and sustainable land management, water use, waste management, energy, transportation, and housing. Strategies also have to be fair and just, decided democratically, and implemented locally with stakeholder participation. Further Readings Allen, Adriana and Nicholas You Sustainable Urbanisation: Bridging the Green and Brown Agendas. London: University College, Development Planning Unit, 2002. Beatley, Timothy. Green Urbanism: Learning From European Cities. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2000. Mumford, Lewis. The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects. New York: MFJ Books, 1961.