Man is certainly a social being, striving for the society of other people. That is why the world's population continues to rapidly "flow" into large cities. On the other hand, man is a natural being. It is an integral part, part of the natural, natural landscape. Thus, cities and natural areas - without industry and exhaust gases, remain today the two main axes around which the life of modern society revolves.
In this article, we will consider concepts related to the urban section. What are suburbanization, deurbanization and urbanization? What is the meaning of these three concepts?
The meaning of the concept of "urbanization"
The term "urbanization" comes from the Latin word "urbanus", which translates as "urban". Urbanization (in the broad sense) means the growing role of the city in human life and society. In a narrower sense, this is a process of urban population growth and the "flow" of residents from rural areas - to cities and megacities.
Urbanization, as a socio-economic phenomenon and process, began to be actively discussed in the middle of the 20th century, when the percentage of the urban population began to grow rapidly. The reason for this was the development of industry in cities, the emergence of new jobs in them, as well as the development of cultural and educational functions in urban settlements.
Scientists identify several aspects of urbanization processes, namely:
- outflow of population from rural areas to cities;
- transformation of villages and villages into urban-type settlements;
- the formation of large and integral suburban areas of settlement.
To the questions "what is suburbanization, urbanization, deurbanization, ruleization?" meets the science of geo-urbanism - one of the important sections of modern social geography.
The so-called phenomenon of false urbanization, which is characteristic of such regions of the world as Latin America and Southeast Asia, is closely connected with the concept of "urbanization." What is false urbanization? In fact, this is an unjustified urban growth that is not accompanied by the necessary job growth and the development of appropriate infrastructure. As a result, the rural population is simply “crowded out” into large cities. False urbanization, as a rule, is accompanied by a surge in unemployment and the appearance in the city of the so-called "slums" - urban neighborhoods not intended for normal human life.
The level of urbanization in different countries of the world
The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs annually prepares another rating of urbanization of the countries of the world. These studies have been conducted since 1980.
The level of urbanization is a percentage of the urban population of the total population of a country. And he is not the same in different countries of the world. Thus, the highest rates of urbanization (if you do not take into account the dwarf states consisting of one city) are recorded in Qatar, Kuwait, Belgium and Malta. In all of these countries, urbanization rates exceed 95%. Also, the level of urbanization is quite high in Iceland, Argentina, Japan, Israel, Venezuela and Uruguay (above 90%).
According to UN estimates, Russia's indicator in this rating is 74%. At the bottom of the urbanization rating are Papua New Guinea and Burundi (with urbanization rates of 12.6 and 11.5%, respectively). In Europe, the lowest urbanization rate is typical for Moldova (49 percent).
The concept of urban agglomeration
City agglomerations are a phenomenon that is inextricably linked with the process of urbanization. This is the process of combining neighboring urban settlements into one complex and integral system. Within this system, stable and intense ties are formed: industrial, transport, scientific and cultural. City agglomerations are one of the natural stages of urbanization processes.
There are two main types of agglomerations:
- monocentric (formed on the basis of one central core city);
- polycentric (accumulation of several equivalent urban settlements).
The following distinctive features are characteristic of urban agglomeration:
- The connection of the central city with other cities and settlements adjacent to it (without significant territorial gaps).
- The share of built-up territories in the agglomeration must necessarily exceed the percentage of agricultural land.
- Every agglomeration is characterized by daily pendulum migrations - labor, educational, cultural and tourist.
According to the UN, on our planet there are at least 450 urban agglomerations, in each of which at least one million people live. The largest metropolitan area in the world is the urban metropolitan area of Tokyo, in which about 35 million people live. The leading countries in the total number of urban agglomerations are: China, USA, India, Brazil and Russia.
City agglomerations in Russia
It is interesting that in Russia at the state level there is no accounting for urban agglomerations within the country. Therefore, the actual data on this subject may differ slightly from each other.
Nevertheless, it is customary to distinguish 22 agglomerations in the territory of Russia. The largest of them are the following (the approximate population is indicated in brackets):
- Moscow (about 16 million).
- St. Petersburg (5.6 million).
- Samara-Togliatti (2.3 million).
- Ekaterinburg (2.2 million).
- Rostov (1.7 million).
High urbanization of the territory, a high level of infrastructure development, a large number of research and higher education institutions are typical of Russian urban agglomerations. The bulk of the agglomerations in Russia are monocentric, that is, they have one distinct center, which subordinates all other settlements and suburbs.
Suburbanization: Definition
Now it is worth considering other concepts that are actively used in urban studies. Suburbanization - what is this concept and what is its essence?
This term came into active use in the second half of the twentieth century. Suburbanization is a phenomenon accompanied by the active development of suburbs - zones located around large megacities.
Toward the end of the last century, an increasing number of people began to move to the outskirts of cities, away from the noise of factories and dirty air and closer to the natural landscape. At the same time, such "settlers" do not begin to plow the land and breed chickens. They continue to work in the city, spending several hours daily to get to the place of work. Of course, suburbanization became possible only thanks to the development of mass motorization.
From urbanization to suburbanization!
Recently, The Economist magazine published a curious article called Planet of the Suburbs. According to the text of this article, suburbanization is nothing but a “masked” urbanization! Indeed, all over the world today, cities and megacities are growing exclusively due to the suburbs. The exception “The Economist” calls only two modern megalopolises - these are London and Tokyo.
And now we can observe an interesting picture: if 30-40 years ago, the outskirts of big cities became the “home” for the poorer segments of the population, today everything has changed dramatically. And now quarters of elite housing can be increasingly seen in suburban areas.
What is deurbanization?
Finally, you need to deal with another concept. Desurbanization is the opposite of urbanization (from the French “dez” means negation).
Desurbanization is characterized by population resettlement processes outside cities. In a more global sense, this term also means a denial of the positive role of the city in society. The main goal of the theory of deurbanization is to eliminate all the major cities in the world.
