Editing Urbanization (section)

{{short description|Process of population movement to cities}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=June 2013}}
[[File:CityPop PercUrban-2018.png|alt=Global urbanization map|thumb|upright=1.35|Global urbanization map showing the percentage of urbanization and the biggest global population centres per country in 2018, based on UN estimates.]]
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| image1            = Guangzhou dusk panorama.jpg
| caption1          = [[Guangzhou]], a city of 14.5 million people, is one of the 8 adjacent metropolises located in the largest single agglomeration on Earth, ringing the [[Pearl River Delta]] of China.
| image2            = Mumbai skyline.jpg
| caption2          = [[Mumbai]] is the [[List of most populous cities in India|most populous city in India]], and the eighth [[List of cities proper by population|most populous city in the world]], with a total [[metropolitan area]] population of approximately 18.5&nbsp;million and with the smallest area under the metropolitan of comparable cities in the world.
| image3            = Business Centre of Moscow 2.jpg
| caption3          = [[Moscow]], the capital and [[List of cities and towns in Russia by population|largest city]] of [[Russia]], is the [[List of metropolitan areas in Europe|largest metropolitan area]] in [[Europe]]; with over 20 million residents in its [[Moscow metropolitan area|metropolitan area]].
| image4            = Ho Chi Minh City Skyline (night).jpg
| caption4          = [[Ho Chi Minh City]] is the largest city in Vietnam with a population in the [[Ho Chi Minh City metropolitan area|Ho Chi Minh metropolitan area]] of over 21.2 million people.
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'''Urbanization''' (or '''urbanisation''' in [[British English]]) is the population shift from [[Rural area|rural]] to [[urban area]]s, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It can also mean population growth in urban areas instead of rural ones.<ref>{{cite web|title=Urbanization|url=https://www.nlm.nih.gov/cgi/mesh/2014/MB_cgi?term=Urbanization|website=MeSH browser|publisher=National Library of Medicine|quote=The process whereby a society changes from a rural to an urban way of life. It refers also to the gradual increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas.|access-date=5 November 2014|archive-date=16 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160316100546/http://www.nlm.nih.gov/cgi/mesh/2014/MB_cgi?term=Urbanization|url-status=live}}</ref> It is predominantly the process by which [[town]]s and [[City|cities]] are formed and become larger as more people begin to live and work in central areas.<ref>{{cite web|title=Urbanization in|url=http://demographicpartitions.org/urbanization-2013/|website=demographic partitions|access-date=8 July 2015|archive-date=22 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181022011821/http://demographicpartitions.org/urbanization-2013/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Although the two concepts are sometimes used interchangeably, urbanization should be distinguished from [[Urban sprawl|urban growth]]. Urbanization refers to the ''proportion'' of the total national population living in areas classified as urban, whereas urban growth strictly refers to the ''absolute'' number of people living in those areas.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Urbanisation, rural-urban migration and urban poverty|last=Tacoli|first=Cecilia|date=2015|publisher=International Institute for Environment and Development|others=McGranahan, Gordon, Satterthwaite, David|isbn=9781784311377|location=London|oclc=942419887}}</ref> It is predicted that by 2050, about 64% of the [[developing world]] and 86% of the [[developed world]] will be urbanized. This is predicted to generate artificial scarcities of land, lack of drinking water, playgrounds and other essential resources for most urban dwellers.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21564998-cities-are-turning-vast-data-factories-open-air-computers |title=Urban life: Open-air computers |newspaper=The Economist |date=27 October 2012 |access-date=20 March 2013 |archive-date=5 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170905002945/https://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21564998-cities-are-turning-vast-data-factories-open-air-computers |url-status=live }}</ref> The predicted urban population growth is equivalent to approximately 3 billion urbanites by 2050, much of which will occur in [[Africa]] and [[Asia]].<ref name="unfpa.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.unfpa.org/urbanization|title=Urbanization|work=UNFPA – United Nations Population Fund|access-date=11 May 2015|archive-date=26 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200526235019/https://www.unfpa.org/urbanization|url-status=live}}</ref> Notably, the United Nations has also recently projected that nearly all global population growth from 2017 to 2030 will take place in cities, with about 1.1 billion new urbanites over the next 10 years.<ref>{{cite news| title = Urbanization, City Growth, and the New United Nations Development Agenda| author = Barney Cohen| publisher = Cornerstone, The Official Journal of the World Coal Industry| volume = 3| issue = 2| pages = 4–7| date = 2015| url = http://cornerstonemag.net/urbanization-city-growth/| access-date = 26 June 2015| archive-date = 27 June 2015| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150627045821/http://cornerstonemag.net/urbanization-city-growth/| url-status = dead}}</ref> In the long term, urbanization is expected to significantly impact the quality of life in negative ways.<ref name="Dutt Noble Venugopal Subbiah 2006 p. ">{{cite book | last1=Dutt | first1=A.K. | last2=Noble | first2=A.G. | last3=Venugopal | first3=G. | last4=Subbiah | first4=S. | title=Challenges to Asian Urbanization in the 21st Century | publisher=Springer Netherlands | series=GeoJournal Library | year=2006 | isbn=978-1-4020-2531-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sezdBgAAQBAJ | access-date=2023-03-22 | page=}}</ref><ref name="Sridhar Mavrotas 2021 p. ">{{cite book | last1=Sridhar | first1=K.S. | last2=Mavrotas | first2=G. | title=Urbanization in the Global South: Perspectives and Challenges | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2021 | isbn=978-1-000-42636-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wE85EAAAQBAJ | access-date=2023-03-22 | page=}}</ref>

Urbanization is relevant to a range of disciplines, including [[urban planning]], [[geography]], [[sociology]], [[architecture]], [[economics]], [[education]], [[statistics]], and [[public health]]. The phenomenon has been closely linked to [[globalization]], [[modernization]], [[industrialization]],  [[marketization]],  [[Institution|administrative/institutional power]], and the [[Sociology|sociological]] process of [[rationalization (sociology)|rationalization]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schroeder |first1=Ralph |title=The Oxford Handbook of Max Weber |date=2020 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-067954-5 |pages=150–166 |url=https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/34236/chapter-abstract/290271822 |chapter=Weberian Social Theory: Rationalization in a Globalized World |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679545.013.9}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Gries | first1 = T. | last2 = Grundmann | first2 = R. | year = 2018 | title = Fertility and modernization: the role of urbanization in developing countries | journal = Journal of International Development | volume = 30 | issue = 3| pages = 493–506 | doi = 10.1002/jid.3104 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gu |first1=Chaolin |title=Urbanization: Processes and driving forces |journal=[[Science China Earth Sciences]] |date=2019 |volume=62 |issue=9 |pages=1351–1360 |doi=10.1007/s11430-018-9359-y |bibcode=2019ScChD..62.1351G |doi-access=free}}</ref> Urbanization can be seen as a specific condition at a set time (e.g. the proportion of total population or area in cities or towns), or as an increase in that condition over time. Therefore, urbanization can be quantified either in terms of the level of urban development relative to the overall population, or as the [[Rate (mathematics)|rate]] at which the urban proportion of the population is increasing. Urbanization creates enormous social, economic and environmental challenges, which provide an opportunity for [[sustainability]] with the "potential to use resources much less or more efficiently, to create more sustainable land use and to protect the biodiversity of natural ecosystems." However, current urbanization trends have shown that massive urbanization has led to unsustainable ways of living.<ref name="unfpa.org"/> Developing [[urban resilience]] and [[Sustainable urbanism|urban sustainability]] in the face of increased urbanization is at the centre of international policy in [[Sustainable Development Goal 11]] "Sustainable cities and communities."

Urbanization is not merely a modern phenomenon, but a rapid and historic transformation of human [[Social network|social roots]] on a global scale, whereby predominantly [[rural culture]] is being rapidly replaced by predominantly [[urban culture]]. The first major change in settlement patterns was the accumulation of [[hunter-gatherers]] into villages many thousands of years ago. Village culture is characterized by common bloodlines, intimate relationships, and communal behaviour, whereas urban culture is characterized by distant bloodlines, unfamiliar relations, and competitive behaviour. This unprecedented movement of people is forecast to continue and intensify during the next few decades, mushrooming cities to sizes unthinkable only a century ago. As a result, the world urban population growth curve has up till recently followed a quadratic-hyperbolic pattern.<ref>[https://www.academia.edu/22215616/Introduction_to_Social_Macrodynamics_Secular_Cycles_and_Millennial_Trends ''Introduction to Social Macrodynamics: Secular Cycles and Millennial Trends.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180918112553/http://www.academia.edu/22215616/Introduction_to_Social_Macrodynamics_Secular_Cycles_and_Millennial_Trends |date=18 September 2018 }} Moscow: URSS, 2006; Korotayev A. [https://www.academia.edu/17729205/The_World_System_urbanization_dynamics_a_quantitative_analysis The World System urbanization dynamics. ''History & Mathematics: Historical Dynamics and Development of Complex Societies''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200229135115/https://www.academia.edu/17729205/The_World_System_urbanization_dynamics_a_quantitative_analysis |date=29 February 2020 }}. Edited by [[Peter Turchin]], [[Leonid Grinin]], Andrey Korotayev, and Victor C. de Munck. Moscow: KomKniga, 2006. [https://www.academia.edu/17729205/The_World_System_urbanization_dynamics_a_quantitative_analysis The World System urbanization dynamics. ''History & Mathematics: Historical Dynamics and Development of Complex Societies''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200229135115/https://www.academia.edu/17729205/The_World_System_urbanization_dynamics_a_quantitative_analysis |date=29 February 2020 }}. Edited by [[Peter Turchin]], [[Leonid Grinin]], Andrey Korotayev, and Victor C. de Munck. Moscow: KomKniga, 2006. {{ISBN|5-484-01002-0}}. P. 44-62</ref>