Urbanization In The United States: A Sociological Analysis

In the first two decades of the twentieth century, the United States experienced a large increase in political, economic, and social reforms. During this time, there had been an increase in urbanization, and industrial factories within the larger cities throughout the United States, particularly in the northeastern cities. With the addition of the industries and factories too populated also came a growing number of immigrants, and seekers of wealth and employment. As a result, the population increase would result in major issues which would overshadow the economic gains that came from industrialization. In addition, the rise of industrialization also brought about major issues within the populations of the city. After seeing

For a majority of Earth’s history, its populous has been free to roam and live off of the land, maintaining a balance between the habitat and its inhabitants. However, as technology develops the earth is placed at an even bigger disequilibrium. In the places where massive sequoias reigned, high-rise apartments now stand. Just as water rushed through rivers, cars drive down streets. The populants of Earth continue to innovate, industrialize,and urbanize, but at what cost?

When we speak of the term urbanization – the outward expansion of human population from the city-centre, many feel the sense of triumph about the current living conditions, and are enlightened to do great works on the planet. Of course, it is not wrong if one feels this sense of triumph at first, but the ambiguity comes when the environmental aspect is placed in the talk. In this capitalistic world where money and status are worshiped, many negative effects associated with urbanization are being forgotten or dismissed.

Urbanization in America was driven by the massive unskilled immigrants who wanted jobs and an opportunity to start their new life in a country known to most as “The land of opportunity”. Urbanization have made many changes to America. The cities have become a place to look for opportunities and a popular place to migrate for work either for the people from the rural area or immigrants from outside the county. Which will then lead to political issues and finally the restriction of immigration itself. The process of Urbanization started in the late 1800’s triggered by the Industrial Revolution and Industrialization. Several factors played in the process one of which is the Gilded Age who had a crucial importance in relation to the shift from

Amid the last years of the 1800s, modern urban areas, with every one of the issues brought on by quick populace development and absence of foundation to bolster the development, involved an extraordinary place in U.S. history. For every one of the issues, and there were numerous, the urban communities advanced an uncommon security amongst individuals and established the framework for the multiethnic, multicultural society that we love today.

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

Gentrification is most easily understood as occurring in various stages. During the 1950s, 60s and 70s, public subsidies and “urban renewal” altered many large cities as sporadic reinvestment battled increasing flight from the inner city to the suburbs. The second significant surge occurred in the post-recession 1970s, encouraged by public-private partnerships and assimilation into national and global economic and cultural developments. At last, in the 1990s, gentrification swelled with rising urban housing markets and increasing capital investment.

Human Geographer David Ley defines Gentrification as “the transition of inner-city neighborhoods from a status of relative property and limited property investment to a state of commodification and reinvestment.” (Ley Artists 1) In the past 50 years gentrification has swept over cities across the globe and has completely reshaped the way people think about why people live in certain neighborhoods. British sociologist Ruth Glass coined the term gentrification in 1964 to describe what was happening in the London borough of Islington, where Indian immigrants were being forced out in favor of creative young professionals. (Thomson). The term comes from the old english word gentry, which generally means wellborn well-bred and upper class people. For the most part of the last five decades gentrification has made large cities and downtown urban areas safer, more desirable for commercialization, more affluent, greener and more eco-friendly and has played a role in the vast change of demographics of many neighborhoods. This ‘urban renewal’ has been subject to many political debates, academic studies and research to figure out its positive and negative impacts on the socioeconomic nature of the cities it takes place in. Here on the eastern seaboard of the US we see gentrification in every city from Center City Philadelphia, to Chelsea, to Columbia Heights in DC. However this movement to gentrify is not reserved for the

Every settled nation will at some point go through urbanization – the mass movement to urban areas. In the United States, one of the largest examples of urbanization was in the time period 1865 to 1910. By 1900, almost forty percent of all Americans lived in urban towns and cities. This rapid movement brought about substantial change in all aspects of the country. Some aspects were altered more than others, for example society as a whole, the economy, and city government. Urbanization has had a substantial impact on city government, the economy, and society in the time period 1865 to 1910 through various contributing factors in each area. However, this impact was not always beneficial, and many times contributed to the detriment of the

The correlation in the study is due to job opportunities with higher wages rising with the revival of the a city or a community. Gentrification can also be seen in San Francisco where currently one of the most popular social media, Snapchat, is located. The author of the article expresses how Snapchat bought many neighborhood to gentrify, which als caused many of diverse and talented workers and artist to rise throughout the city (Schruers). Even the author implies, “surveying the room and admiring the diversity of the crowd” (Schruers). Cities that refused gentrification or the government refused the city to go through the process. One examples such as Detroit refused gentrification which caused the decline of the city where it was one of the most popular cities among the United States. Today Detroit is in a dying state where many moved away due to lack of jobs and now turned into a “ghost city” (Bayley). The author states how Liverpool is known as the “New York of England.” He uses that comparison to show how Liverpool become part of the experience of England when it was gentrified and has up to date technology.

making a city or more populated. Now, in America, it is an urban-city. As the years went

Regarding the recent literature in human geography field, the issue of social segregation in the cities can be related to the gentrification process. The gentrification is the population shift from the urban centers to the suburbs due to geographical modification of the area. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to investigate whether the gentrification phenomenon might lead to a global dynamics which is one of the main ethical challenges in cities. Moreover, the research is approached on a theoretical framework of the concept and a cross-sectional geographical study of the CBD district (Adelaide, Australia) and Ciutat Vella (Barcelona, Spain) during the period of 1991 to 2015. Thus, the main findings of this research suggest identifying

Ruth Glass (Britisch Sociologist) was the first one to use the term ‘gentrification’ over 50 years ago for the invasion of middle class people in previously disinvested inner city, working class neighborhoods in London, which renovated old properties and displaced working class communities (Lees, 2017). No one could think of this term expanding beyond London and even beyond the renovation of old properties. When just searching for ‘gentrification in the news’ on google, the page fills with results of almost every month a new article in various newspapers, mostly about the drawbacks of gentrification, with exemptions of one or two articles. In these articles gentrification is seen as the reason behind a lot of problems happening in cities; shortage of housing, rents that grow higher and even the end of honest cities, these problems have as common cause; inequality and exclusion.

Humans have been innovating their surrounding for thousands of years. The agricultural and industrial revolution have been seen competing side by side all throughout history. Urbanization has become a tool and weapon to society throughout the importance of population growth and environmental concerns. “Human activities associated with land uses, including agricultural activities, land development, industrial discharge, residential sewage, and urban runoff can cause surface water degradation, so land use planning and management is very important for water environment protection.” (Spatial Variations…in the Watersheds of Northern Georgia, USA) Urbanization is the process where an increasing percentage of population lives in cities and suburbs. This process is often linked to the effects brought on by industrialization and modernization. According to UN-Habitat, 70% of the world’s constantly growing population is expected to live in urban areas by 2050; and of that 81.6% of the United States population will be categorized as urban. (UN-Habitat)