Editing Urbanization (section)

==Causes==
{{More citations needed section|date=June 2021}}
[[File:Rural flight.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.15|Population age comparison between rural [[Pocahontas County, Iowa]] and urban [[Johnson County, Iowa]], illustrating the flight of young adults (red) to urban centres in [[Iowa]].<ref>based on 2000 U.S. Census Data</ref>]]
[[File:Chicago Downtown Aerial View.jpg|thumb|right|The City of [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]] is an example of the early American grid system of development. The grid is enforced even on uneven topography.]]

Urbanization occurs either organically or planned as a result of individual, collective and state action. Living in a city can be culturally and economically beneficial since it can provide greater opportunities for access to the labour market, better education, housing, and safety conditions, and reduce the time and expense of commuting and transportation. Conditions like density, proximity, diversity, and marketplace competition are elements of an urban environment that deemed beneficial. However, there are also harmful social phenomena that arise: alienation, stress, increased cost of living, and mass marginalization that are connected to an urban way of living.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}} [[Suburbanization]], which is happening in the cities of the largest developing countries, may be regarded as an attempt to balance these harmful aspects of urban life while still allowing access to the large extent of shared resources.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

In cities, money, services, wealth and opportunities are centralized. Many rural inhabitants come to the city to seek their fortune and alter their social position. Businesses, which provide jobs and exchange capital, are more concentrated in urban areas. Whether the source is trade or tourism, it is also through the ports or banking systems, commonly located in cities, that foreign money flows into a country.

Many people move into cities for economic opportunities, but this does not fully explain the very high recent urbanization rates in places like China and India. [[Rural flight]] is a contributing factor to urbanization. In rural areas, often on small family farms or collective farms in villages, it has historically been difficult to access manufactured goods, though the relative overall [[quality of life]] is very subjective, and may certainly surpass that of the city. Farm living has always been susceptible to unpredictable environmental conditions, and in times of [[drought]], [[flood]] or pestilence, survival may become extremely problematic.

{{quote box | width=25em| bgcolor=#B0C4DE |align=left|qalign=left |quote=<div style="text-align:left;">Thai farmers are seen as poor, stupid, and unhealthy. As young people flee the farms, the values and knowledge of rice farming and the countryside are fading, including the tradition of long kek, helping neighbours plant, harvest, or build a house. We are losing what we call Thai-ness, the values of being kind, helping each other, having mercy and gratefulness.</div> |source=– Iam Thongdee, Professor of Humanities, Mahidol University in Bangkok<ref name="NYT Thai Farm">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/05/world/asia/thai-youth-seek-a-fortune-off-the-farm.html |title=Thai Youth Seek a Fortune Away From the Farm |newspaper=The New York Times |date=5 June 2012 |access-date=5 June 2012 |first=Thomas |last=Fuller |archive-date=5 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120605030102/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/05/world/asia/thai-youth-seek-a-fortune-off-the-farm.html |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

In a New York Times article concerning the acute migration away from farming in Thailand, life as a farmer was described as "hot and exhausting". "Everyone says the farmer works the hardest but gets the least amount of money". In an effort to counter this impression, the Agriculture Department of Thailand is seeking to promote the impression that farming is "honorable and secure".<ref name="NYT Thai Farm"/>

However, in Thailand, urbanization has also resulted in massive increases in problems such as obesity. Shifting from a rural environment to an urbanized community also caused a transition to a diet that was mainly carbohydrate-based to a diet higher in fat and sugar, consequently causing a rise in obesity.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Jitnarin|first1=Nattinee|last2=Kosulwat|first2=Vongsvat|last3=Rojroongwasinkul|first3=Nipa|last4=Boonpraderm|first4=Atitada|last5=Haddock|first5=Christopher K.|last6=Poston|first6=Walker S. C.|last7=Jitnarin|first7=Nattinee|last8=Kosulwat|first8=Vongsvat|last9=Rojroongwasinkul|first9=Nipa|date=2010-01-21|title=Risk Factors for Overweight and Obesity among Thai Adults: Results of the National Thai Food Consumption Survey|journal=Nutrients|volume=2|issue=1|pages=60–74|doi=10.3390/nu2010060|pmid=22253992|pmc=3257614|doi-access=free}}</ref> City life, especially in modern urban slums of the developing world, is certainly hardly immune to pestilence or climatic disturbances such as floods, yet continues to strongly attract migrants. Examples of this were the [[2011 Thailand floods]] and [[2007 Jakarta flood]]. Urban areas are also far more prone to [[violence]], [[drugs]], and other urban social problems. In the United States, [[Factory farming|industrialization]] of [[agriculture]] has negatively affected the economy of small and middle-sized farms and strongly reduced the size of the rural labour market.

{{quote box | width=25em| bgcolor=#B0C4DE |align=right|qalign=right|quote=<div style="text-align:left;">These are the costs of participating in the urban economy. Your increased income is canceled out by increased expenditure. In the end, you have even less left for food. </div>|source=– Madhura Swaminathan, economist at Kolkata's Indian Statistical Institute<ref name="Bloomberg 900 Million">{{cite news |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-13/early-death-assured-in-india-where-900-million-go-hungry.html |title=Early Death Assured in India Where 900 Million Go Hungry |publisher=Bloomberg |date=13 June 2012 |access-date=13 June 2012 |archive-date=14 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120614160919/http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-13/early-death-assured-in-india-where-900-million-go-hungry.html |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

Particularly in the developing world, conflict over land rights due to the effects of [[globalization]] has led to less politically powerful groups, such as farmers, losing or forfeiting their land, resulting in obligatory migration into cities. In China, where land acquisition measures are forceful, there has been far more extensive and rapid urbanization (54%) than in India (36%), where peasants form militant groups (e.g. [[Naxalites]]) to oppose such efforts. Obligatory and unplanned migration often results in the rapid growth of slums.
This is also similar to areas of violent conflict, where people are driven off their land due to violence.

Cities offer a larger variety of services, including specialist services not found in rural areas. These services require workers, resulting in more numerous and varied job opportunities. Elderly people may be forced to move to cities where there are doctors and hospitals that can cater to their health needs. Varied and high-quality educational opportunities are another factor in urban migration, as well as the opportunity to join, develop, and seek out social communities.

Urbanization also creates opportunities for women that are not available in rural areas. This creates a gender-related transformation where women are engaged in paid employment and have access to education. This may cause fertility to decline. However, women are sometimes still at a disadvantage due to their unequal position in the labour market, their inability to secure assets independently from male relatives and exposure to violence.<ref name="UNFPA">{{cite web |url=http://www.unfpa.org/resources/urbanization-gender-and-urban-poverty |title=Urbanization, gender and urban poverty:Paid work and unpaid carework in the city |year=2012 |publisher=UNFPA |access-date=11 May 2015 |archive-date=22 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150722015749/http://www.unfpa.org/resources/urbanization-gender-and-urban-poverty |url-status=live }}</ref>

People in cities are more productive than in rural areas. An important question is whether this is due to [[Economies of agglomeration|agglomeration effects]] or whether cities simply attract those who are more productive. Urban geographers have shown that there exists a large productivity gain due to locating in dense agglomerations. It is thus possible that agents locate in cities in order to benefit from these agglomeration effects.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Di Clemente |first1=Riccardo |last2=Strano |first2=Emanuele |last3=Batty |first3=Michael |title=Urbanization and economic complexity |journal=[[Scientific Reports]] |date=2021 |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=3952 |doi=10.1038/s41598-021-83238-5 |pmid=33597604 |pmc=7889875 |arxiv=2009.11966 |bibcode=2021NatSR..11.3952D |doi-access=free}}</ref>