With the start of globalization and international expansion cities became a more significant part for various industry sectors. By 2000, more than 500 cities had more than one million inhabitants. According to the United Nations, 54% of the world’s population currently live in urban areas. Urbanization combined with the overall growth of the world’s population could add another 2.5 billion people to urban populations by 2050, with close to 90 percent of the increase concentrated in Asia and Africa. This significant change of urbanization will lead to challenges in satisfying the needs for housing, infrastructure, transportation, energy supply and employment, as well as for basic services such as education and health care . This report will critically discuss three key elements in relation to urbanisation: political economy, economic growth in urban areas and urban sociology. With this discussion, I will argue that the shift in urban areas from centralization and neoliberal globalisation had effected society in different parts of the world differently. Since this essay is only looking at three main aspects, this is not a complete discussion of the matter, but it is intended to provide an insight in the main aspects of economic development in urban areas. POLITICAL URBAN DEVELOPMENT The study of urban politics is the study what occurs on the ground, among people who share the same space for day-to-day living. This makes the study of urban politics particularly challenging
Recent data has shown that the world’s total population is doubling; however, the world's urban population is tripling. In the early 1800s, only 2 percent of the world’s population lived in urban areas (Urbanization; an environmental force to reckon with). This is a sharp contrast to what we have today. The promise of ample job opportunities, higher wages, and a better standard of living have been the main luring factors for attracting people into cities. Today about 50 percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas. It is estimated that by 2050 about 60-70 percent of the world’s population will be living in urban areas (Urbanization; an environmental force to reckon with). This growth trend of the urban populace is troubling since it has tremendous bad effects on our environment which in turn has bad effects on our health and well-being.
The readings by Alba, Massey and Sampson discussed below all focus on the relationship between demographic living patterns and urban social and economic development. Cities as our author's explain are more than a homogenous center but rather an accumulation of various parts. One of the vital elements of a city is its people. People interact with cities in several manners, as workers, citizens, tourists, developers, each influencing and being influenced by the urban environment. The arguments provided by the author's this week stress the importance of understanding how a city interacts with its citizens in order to understand the larger, more general social and economic trends present.
Urbanization is a concept that is deeply rooted in the increase in a population within a region in response to the availability of unique opportunities. The opportunities may include the availability of employment chances in factories, investments opportunities in the urban areas, and the presence of sufficient housing and social infrastructure. It is apparent that urbanization began centuries ago in different regions of the world. However, the development of suburban areas has also been an interesting phenomenon over the centuries. Initially, people strived to live in the luxurious houses in major towns and cities. Nevertheless, there was a gradual shift in the desire to live in the cities when various negative impacts of overpopulation
It is estimated that over 50% of the world’s population now lives in urban areas and that this will rise to 70% by 2050. Such a change will
Thesis: The study of urban politics using traditional definitions of urban, especially sociological research inadequately defines or captures the daily activities of localities. There is a missing link between community power and local economy in the literature. To bridge the gap Molotoch demonstrates that the underlying interest of local politics is growth. Local power centers around landed-elite who promote and compete against other localities for resources in order to turn a locality into a growth machine. Growth is measured by the increase in population.
Humans have evolved immensely throughout centuries and the trend toward urbanization is a worldwide phenomenon that impacts the environment, economy and various aspects of human life. In America before the 18th century, manufacturing was done by hand using homemade tools and basic machinery, the industrialization of America led to an increase of immigration and an influx of people drawn to cities where new economic opportunities were available. “Urbanization is the process by which town and cities are formed and become larger as more people begin living and working in central areas”. It occurs casually from individual and corporate efforts to reduce expense in commuting and transportation. The level and growth of urbanization differs by region
We are experiencing the new era of urbanization and globalization. These days, developing societies are faced with the highest rate of urbanization, since it is considered as a direct indication of social and economic development.
World cities are connected to each other by a range of transport networks and services. They are also connected to other major cities and a variety of urban and rural centres at global, national, regional and local scales. Global centres function as frameworks of world growth and dominate the world technologically, financially and culturally engage in strategic decision making. World cities therefore exist at the top of this hierarchy of cities. A net transfer of funds exists between the worlds developed countries to the developing world. Information, goods and services, people and capital flow can be traced to analyse the operation of the global network of cities. A cities prominence in the global economy is a considerable factor but other social political and cultural aspects have also been acknowledged by geographers who recognise innovation, equity, wellbeing and liveability across all these spheres as an important aspect. There is considerable agreement, however that advanced economic growth and development on a global scale is a
The level of urbanization in the world as a whole was about 46.6 percent in 2000, 50.6 percent in 2010 and it is supposed to reach 57.2 percent in 2025. The corresponding figures for African countries are 36.0 percent, 40.0 percent, and 47.2 percent respectively. Ethiopia was 14.9 percent urban in 2000 and 16.7 percent in 2010 and it is projected to be 21.3 percent urban by 2025. However, urbanization is occurring rapidly in Ethiopia, and it is expected that urban growth rate will remain the fastest with some decline in Ethiopia than in other African countries on average (UN World Urbanization Prospects, 2011).
My conception of cities has changed this semester due to its unequal environmental burdens and risks, and uneven access to opportunity demands. In “Urbanism as A way of Life,” author Wirth defines a city “as a relatively large, dense, and permanent settlement of socially heterogeneous individuals” (Wirth 90). A city is the organized
Urbanization is defined as rapid population growth in urban areas. There are four major causes for urbanisation including: rapid economic growth, population increase, economies of scale and multiplier effect. The environment around us is heavily affected by urbanisation, bringing advantages and disadvantages along with it. Almost 45 per cent of the world's population which is two and a half billion people are living in urban areas.
From 2011 to 2050 it is expected that the world urban population is rise from 7.4 billion to 9 billon. Much of this will be in the cities of developing and less developing countries (World Urbanization Prospects the 2011 Revision, 2012). Therefore maximum of the development will happen in Asia and Africa. Population will be living in urban areas by 2020 and 2035 respectively. It is forecast that the world’s urban population will grow by 1.4 billion during the period of 2011 and 2030. China will be Share 276 million and India be 218 million in this increment. India will account for slightly over 15.5% of increase the world urban population (World Urbanization Prospects the 2011 Revision, 2012). Urban population is growing and that are going to be face problem like congestion and pollution.
Today two massive trends can be seen in the development of the world: the process of rapid urbanization, and the process of globalization. The two seem to go hand in hand. The 40 largest mega-regions produce two-thirds of global economic output and 90 percent of global global innovation, while housing just 18 percent of the world’s population. For those reasons urbanization and globalization trends keep rising at a pace that the world has never seen before, especially in Asia. As we enter the second decade of the 21st century, the international
percentage of the world population is living in the cities and by the year 2050, the figure continue to
At the start of the 21st century, for the first time, the global population of cities outnumbered the rural population. In 1950, there were a mere fifty cities with a population of over one million; today there are over five hundred. By 2020, rural populations will cease to increase and virtually all population growth will be in urban centers, expected to peak around ten billion over the next thirty years. In the past, we had seen rapid growth in European and American cities like London in the early 20th century. Today, however, the growth in Third World cities dwarfs the growth we 've seen in the past; London had seen its greatest population growth from 1800-1910, where it grew seven times larger. Today cities like Dhaka, Kinshasa and