Urbanization and City Formation

The Early Days of Urbanization

• Cities have been around for thousands of years, with the first cities emerging after the Neolithic Revolution when people shifted from a nomadic lifestyle to a lifestyle of farming and settlement.
• People gathered around water sources, such as rivers and lakes, and built non-nomadic or permanent settlements, which gradually expanded into small cities.
• Densely populated settlements emerged, along with specialization and division of labor among people living in the city.
• Trade, bartering, or other forms of economic exchange also took place, and architecture, centralized administrations, and political structures became part of a city.

Growth of Cities

• Two hundred years ago, only Beijing, China had a population of over one million people, but today, there are over 500 cities with over a million people.
• The Industrial Revolution contributed to the development of faster means of transportation and communication methods, allowing cities to exist and grow.
• As more cities formed, an increasing proportion of the population moved into cities, a phenomenon known as urbanization.
• In 1800, only 3% of the world’s population lived in cities, but by 2008, more people lived in cities than rural areas.
• Urbanization has been occurring especially rapidly in less developed parts of the world.

Why People Move to Cities

• People have become less attached to land as a means of production, making cities more attractive for job opportunities.
• Cities offer a wide variety of jobs and products and services for their residents.
• The development of schools has made education more accessible, increasing the importance of human capital (knowledge and creativity).

Cities in the US

• The US was largely rural in the beginning, but today, 80% of Americans live in cities.
• The top 5 growing cities in the US are Raleigh, Las Vegas, Provo, Cape Coral-Ft. Myers, and Greeley, while the top 5 shrinking cities are New Orleans, Youngstown, Cleveland, Detroit, and Flint.
• Edge cities have appeared, which are clusters of houses, stores, and hotels located near major highway intersections, often without their own mayors and belonging to a bigger city or town.

Urban Development Patterns

• Gentrification is a prominent phenomenon in the US, where the middle class moves into under-maintained areas of a city, driving up rent prices and displacing the poor.
• Suburbanization is another pattern, where residents migrate to suburbs, which are communities adjacent to but outside of the city, often becoming car-dependent.

Urban Growth Models

• Urban ecologists study how residents adapt to their environments and how cities form as a result of natural growth.
• The concentric zone model describes how a city grows from the center outwards, with different zones containing different types of housing and activities.
• The sector model is an updated version, taking into account transportation developments and how cities expand outwards along railways, highways, and water.
• The multiple nuclei model describes how a city may have several centers of business districts, with each nucleus containing specialized activities.

Growth Machine Theory

• Some argue that a city is a growth machine, driven by a coalition of interest groups who benefit from a city’s continuous growth and expansion, rather than the outcome of a natural process.
• The growth machine theory points out that urban growth is driven by social, political, and planned actions, rather than geography, transportation, or space.

The Early Days of Urbanization

• Cities have been around for thousands of years, with the first cities emerging after the Neolithic Revolution when people shifted from a nomadic lifestyle to a lifestyle of farming and settlement.
• People gathered around water sources, such as rivers and lakes, and built non-nomadic or permanent settlements, which gradually expanded into small cities.
• Densely populated settlements emerged, along with specialization and division of labor among people living in the city.
• Trade, bartering, or other forms of economic exchange also took place, and architecture, centralized administrations, and political structures became part of a city.

Growth of Cities

• Two hundred years ago, only Beijing, China had a population of over one million people, but today, there are over 500 cities with over a million people.
• The Industrial Revolution contributed to the development of faster means of transportation and communication methods, allowing cities to exist and grow.
• As more cities formed, an increasing proportion of the population moved into cities, a phenomenon known as urbanization.
• In 1800, only 3% of the world’s population lived in cities, but by 2008, more people lived in cities than rural areas.
• Urbanization has been occurring especially rapidly in less developed parts of the world.

Why People Move to Cities

• People have become less attached to land as a means of production, making cities more attractive for job opportunities.
• Cities offer a wide variety of jobs and products and services for their residents.
• The development of schools has made education more accessible, increasing the importance of human capital (knowledge and creativity).

Cities in the US

• The US was largely rural in the beginning, but today, 80% of Americans live in cities.
• The top 5 growing cities in the US are Raleigh, Las Vegas, Provo, Cape Coral-Ft. Myers, and Greeley, while the top 5 shrinking cities are New Orleans, Youngstown, Cleveland, Detroit, and Flint.
• Edge cities have appeared, which are clusters of houses, stores, and hotels located near major highway intersections, often without their own mayors and belonging to a bigger city or town.

Urban Development Patterns

• Gentrification is a prominent phenomenon in the US, where the middle class moves into under-maintained areas of a city, driving up rent prices and displacing the poor.
• Suburbanization is another pattern, where residents migrate to suburbs, which are communities adjacent to but outside of the city, often becoming car-dependent.

Urban Growth Models

• Urban ecologists study how residents adapt to their environments and how cities form as a result of natural growth.
• The concentric zone model describes how a city grows from the center outwards, with different zones containing different types of housing and activities.
• The sector model is an updated version, taking into account transportation developments and how cities expand outwards along railways, highways, and water.
• The multiple nuclei model describes how a city may have several centers of business districts, with each nucleus containing specialized activities.

Growth Machine Theory

• Some argue that a city is a growth machine, driven by a coalition of interest groups who benefit from a city’s continuous growth and expansion, rather than the outcome of a natural process.
• The growth machine theory points out that urban growth is driven by social, political, and planned actions, rather than geography, transportation, or space.

The Early Days of Urbanization

• Cities have been around for thousands of years, with the first cities emerging after the Neolithic Revolution when people shifted from a nomadic lifestyle to a lifestyle of farming and settlement.
• People gathered around water sources, such as rivers and lakes, and built non-nomadic or permanent settlements, which gradually expanded into small cities.
• Densely populated settlements emerged, along with specialization and division of labor among people living in the city.
• Trade, bartering, or other forms of economic exchange also took place, and architecture, centralized administrations, and political structures became part of a city.

Growth of Cities

• Two hundred years ago, only Beijing, China had a population of over one million people, but today, there are over 500 cities with over a million people.
• The Industrial Revolution contributed to the development of faster means of transportation and communication methods, allowing cities to exist and grow.
• As more cities formed, an increasing proportion of the population moved into cities, a phenomenon known as urbanization.
• In 1800, only 3% of the world’s population lived in cities, but by 2008, more people lived in cities than rural areas.
• Urbanization has been occurring especially rapidly in less developed parts of the world.

Why People Move to Cities

• People have become less attached to land as a means of production, making cities more attractive for job opportunities.
• Cities offer a wide variety of jobs and products and services for their residents.
• The development of schools has made education more accessible, increasing the importance of human capital (knowledge and creativity).

Cities in the US

• The US was largely rural in the beginning, but today, 80% of Americans live in cities.
• The top 5 growing cities in the US are Raleigh, Las Vegas, Provo, Cape Coral-Ft. Myers, and Greeley, while the top 5 shrinking cities are New Orleans, Youngstown, Cleveland, Detroit, and Flint.
• Edge cities have appeared, which are clusters of houses, stores, and hotels located near major highway intersections, often without their own mayors and belonging to a bigger city or town.

Urban Development Patterns

• Gentrification is a prominent phenomenon in the US, where the middle class moves into under-maintained areas of a city, driving up rent prices and displacing the poor.
• Suburbanization is another pattern, where residents migrate to suburbs, which are communities adjacent to but outside of the city, often becoming car-dependent.

Urban Growth Models

• Urban ecologists study how residents adapt to their environments and how cities form as a result of natural growth.
• The concentric zone model describes how a city grows from the center outwards, with different zones containing different types of housing and activities.
• The sector model is an updated version, taking into account transportation developments and how cities expand outwards along railways, highways, and water.
• The multiple nuclei model describes how a city may have several centers of business districts, with each nucleus containing specialized activities.

Growth Machine Theory

• Some argue that a city is a growth machine, driven by a coalition of interest groups who benefit from a city’s continuous growth and expansion, rather than the outcome of a natural process.
• The growth machine theory points out that urban growth is driven by social, political, and planned actions, rather than geography, transportation, or space.