Urbanization

Urbanization is a term that describes the process of movement of people from a rural area to an urbanized area. This phenomenon is closely connected [Page 1497]with migration flows, labor supply, and innovations in the means of production. It had (and still has) a strong impact on the physical shape of the urbanized area and on the experience of urbanized people.

Urbanization is also related to the concept of modernization. Through the observation of changes occurring in the city during the Industrial Revolution, philosophers and social scientists described the birth of the modern era in many European and American cities.

Urbanization also brings diverse groups of individuals into a particularly intense daily contact, producing the conditions for the achievement of cityness, different forms of urbanities, and conflicts. The density and heterogeneity of people also imply the development of cultural disposition that, together with the concentration and reproduction of capital, has a strong impact on the development of consumer culture. According to Max Weber, cities are, above all, market settlements and places of commerce and trade. In addition, according to Georg Simmel, cities are centers for the promotions of culture and places where self-expression could be possible.

Since urbanization began, it has continued to evolve. It has changed its geography and proportion according to the global relocalization of production systems, moving from Western cities (such as Manchester and Chicago) to today's main centers for global economy in developing countries (e.g., Shanghai in China or São Paulo in Brazil), which have registered unprecedented rates of urbanization. According to the Global Urban Observatory at the United Nations, the rate of urbanization has been so considerable in the past fifty years that the majority of the world's population now lives in urban areas and it is expected to reach five billion people by 2030.