WORD URBAN

Historic Settlements the Word Urban, Urban Structure Urbanization and Urban Area



Historic Settlements the Word Urban, Urban Structure Urbanization and Urban Area

I. Introduction

The inevitable process of urbanization bears chances and problems the like and it is a challenging the form of societal life. The first challenge for a social scientist is to entirely understand the phenomenon. On a horizontal or spacial level urbanization refers to a high density of urbanized areas as opposed to rural areas; on a vertical or timely level it refers to the process of the growth of cities. When adding more detail to this broad definition, one encounters some difficulties: Cities are centres of industry and education, of government, culture and intellectual life and provide the infrastructure of health care, shelter, food and water supply. However, urbanization is at the same time associated with the lack of these primary and secondary life supplies. Factories and universities do not suffice for all city dwellers; theatres, film and publishing are oftentimes exclusive and moreover, meeting basic physical needs is the greatest problem in the large slums of cities. Furthermore, while urbanization is on the one hand determined by stronger infrastructure including politics, economy and intellectual life, it must also be regarded as a simple relation of inhabitants per area who benefit from the facilities; as it increases and the inhabitants exceed the supplies, the flipside of urbanization comes to the fore. Again, this might be due to the lack of space (horizontal) or the lack of time for the supplies to increase accordingly (vertical).

Saad Eddin Ibrahim provides a summarized definition of urbanization, referring to it as “a process of redistributional shifts of population from the countryside to towns and cities. The latter are human settlements characterized by a higher degree of population concentration living in a contiguously built up area and engaged in mostly non-agricultural activities.”

There are various approaches to the phenomenon of urbanization - the analysis might focus on the causes, consequences and reactions to it. As far as the causes are concerned, rural-urban migration accounts for most growth of cities, furthermore population growth, refugees of droughts and wars as well as the underlying “classical” factor of industrial and economic growth. The consequences are diverse and can be divided into positive and negative, depending on whether the population exceeds the possible provisions. Cities certainly correspond to a higher living standard, job and education opportunities, access to information, possibilities of participation in political and cultural life. On the other hand, over-urbanization causes supply shortage of basic physical needs, employment and education leading to political unrests, the latter accounting for both positive and negative consequences. Reactions towards these developments appear from economic, political or governmental side and from the “people”, those city dwellers affected through urbanization. The economy might react by taking advantage of the large work force, industry flourishes or new businesses emerge; the government most probably engages in urban planning and the supply of shelter and infrastructure and is possibly occupied with responding to political movements ...