6 Settlement dynamics
6.2 Urban trends and issues of urbanisation Urban trends
Revised
The first cities and the urban industrial revolution
Gordon Childe used the term urban revolution to describe the change in society marked by the emergence of the first cities some 5,500 years ago. The second ‘urban revolution’ based on the introduction of mass production in factories commenced in Britain in the late eighteenth century. This was the era of the industrial revolution when industrialisation and urbanisation proceeded hand in hand. As the processes of the industrial revolution spread to other countries the pace of urbanisation quickened. By the beginning of the most recent stage of urban development in 1950, 27% of people lived in towns and cities, with the vast majority of urbanites still living in the developed world.
The Post-1945 urban ‘explosion’ in the developing world
The urban revolution was a major change in the form and growth of settlements due to significant technological advance. Urbanisation is the process whereby an increasing proportion of the population in a geographical area lives in urban settlements. Urban growth is the absolute increase in physical size and total population of urban areas.
Throughout history urbanisation and significant economic progress have tended to occur together. In contrast, the rapid urban growth of the developing world in the latter part of the twentieth century has in general far outpaced economic development. Because urban areas in the developing world have been growing much more quickly than the cities of the developed world did in the nineteenth century the term ‘urban explosion’ has been used to describe contemporary trends. Typical mistake
Current patterns
The most urbanised world regions are North America, Europe, Oceania and Latin America. The lowest levels of urbanisation are in Africa and Asia. In contrast, urban growth is highest in Asia and Africa, as these regions contain the fastest-growing urban areas. By 2025 half of the populations of Asia and Africa will live in urban areas and 80% of urban dwellers will live in the developing world. In the developed world levels of urbanisation peaked in the 1970s and have declined since then due to the process of counterurbanisation.
The cycle of urbanisation
The development of urban settlement in the modern period can be seen as a sequence of processes known as the cycle of urbanisation. The key processes are: suburbanisation, counterurbanisation and reurbanisation. In Britain suburbanisation was the dominant process until the 1960s. From then on counterurbanisation impacted increasingly on the landscape. Reurbanisation of some of the largest cities, beginning in the 1990s, is the most recent phenomenon.
Reurbanisation
Counterurbanisation
Urbanisation
Suburbanisation
Students are often not clear about the difference between urbanisation and urban growth. Urbanisation involves an increasing proportion of a population living in urban areas. Urban growth can occur without this happening if urban areas are growing at a rate below the rate of population growth.
The cycle of urbanisation comprises the stages of urban change from the growth of a city to counterurbanisation through to reurbanisation. Suburbanisation is the outward growth of towns and cities to engulf surrounding villages and rural areas. Counterurbanisation is the process of population decentralisation as people move from large urban areas to smaller urban settlements and rural areas. Reurbanisation occurs when, after a clear period of decline, the population of a city, in particular the inner area, begins to increase again.
Figure 6.3 The cycle of urbanisation
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Cambridge International AS and A Level Geography Revision Guide
