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URBANIZATION

Broadly speaking…

•  the process in which rural populations shift to urban areas •  Increases the urban population/total population

Specifically…

3 definitions of urbanization

1.  Demographic definition: urban growth – urban population •  Urban growth? •  Natural increase in population

•  Net in-migration

•  Changes in city boundaries (redefining city boundaries)

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2.  Socioeconomic transformation •  More people in a region- not only population growth –

changes in the social, cultural, and economic structures

3.  Social production of spatial forms •  Spatial forms; how does the city look like? •  Sirkeci-Eminönü-Karaköy vs. Levent-Maslak

Urbanization Theories

1.   Modernization theory •  Rural/traditional -- Urban/modernist •  Rapid urbanization and modernization •  Classical economics •  Wage differential – migration – equilibrium •  Land constraints (housing prices, cost of living, investment in

housing rather than manufacturing)

•  Convergence: mobility and industrial output •  High wages – high consumption – further urbanization •  Agricultural sector?

•  Urban/rural gap to narrow

2.   Urban bias theory •  Government policies biased in favor of urban/

metropolitan areas, why? •  Migration to country/city – growth in city size –

temporary growth in cities

•  Investing domestic capital in more industrial cities

•  National tax policies (subsidies) to protect domestic industry from foreign industries (quota/tariffs)

•  Favoring rich farmers (conglomerates) in expense of small farmers (to decrease the cost of urban food)

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3.   Dependency theory •  (world systems theory) •  Challenge to modernization theory •  Transnational and interregional division of labor between

[core, semi-peripheral, and peripheral countries]

•  Western contact not necessarily beneficial •  External factors, rather than an emphasis on state-society

relationship •  Foreign investment as an engine for modernization [and

urbanization] – foreign investment and urbanization •  False expectations – ends up benefiting specific groups in the

society

4.   Spatial forms (Castells) •  Urban environment representing symbolic and spatial

manifestations of other social forces •  Skyscrapers, what do they mean?

•  City as a process of collective consumption •  Shopping malls and residences? What do they symbolize?

•  Physical shape of the city •  Market forces •  Power of government •  And those who don’t have control over the means of

production (villa vs. gecekondu)