TCW-FINALS 2 PDF Chapter 10 - Global City

1  2 Chapter 10 Global City Introduction Urbanization is defined as the process of gradual shift from agricultural society to the industrial society...

1  2 Chapter 10 Global City Introduction Urbanization is defined as the process of gradual shift from agricultural society to the industrial society coupled with a wide access to information, government and other social institutions. means of transportation, and other manifestation of a city or urban life. Generally however, it means the process or rate of concentration or migration of population in a There appears to have no uniform rate of particular area. The tempo of urbanization is urbanization across regions, as some regions have defined as the speed of urbanization which shows higher urban growth rates than others. Please refer the rate of change brought about by. urbanization. to table 10.1 The tempo is measured in various ways, but the simplest and the most common one is by calculating Surprisingly, the highest growth rate the percentage of population in urban areas, which between 1995 to 2015 was clearly in the least is usually calculated on the basis of annual developed regions, while the least growth rate is population growth rate (Farooq. 2013). seen among the developed regions. This can rather be explained on the fact that these developed According to the World Cities Report (2016), countries had already been urbanized long time more than half of the world's population today ago, while the developing countries are trying to already resides in urban areas. Expectedly, this is catch up with the urbanization trend. In particular. the result of continuing industrialization, as more Africa has the most rapid urban growth rate, with and more segment of the population migrates to its urbanization rate 11 times more rapid compared urban areas for non-agricultural sources of living. to Europe. Critical analysis on Africa's rapid urban Cities create wealth, generate employment and growth rate reveals that such growth was "driven drive human progress by harnessing the forces of mainly by natural increase, rural-urban migration, agglomeration and industrialization (ibid., 2016:1). and spatial expansion of urban settlements (ibid., This trend is not new, as this has been projected 2016:7). several decades ago. In whatever way, absolute figure is overwhelming. Between 1990-2000, the yearly average of urban dwellers is estimated at 57 million. Between 2010-2015 however, it rose to an average of 77 million yearly (ibid., 2016:6). Although only 48 percent of its areas are urbanized. Asia has by far the highest number of people living in urban areas. This is perhaps expected considering that Asia is the home of 2.11 billion population. Following Asia are Europe, Africa and Latin America.  3 From the said table, four largest cities in Because of the unprecedented increase in terms of population come from India namely, Surat, urban growth rate, large and mega cities Mumbai, Vjayawada and Malegaon. Two of these subsequently emerged. Large cities are those with largest cities come from China namely Macau and five (5) to ten (10) million inhabitants while Hong Kong. In terms of concentration of people in megacities are those with more than 10 million urban area, Dhaka in Bangladesh is the largest city inhabitants. In 1995, there were only 22 large with a population of 47,400 population per square cities, and 14 megacities. In 2015, there were kilometer. Other largest cities include Mogadishu of already 44 large cities and 29 megacities. World Somalia, Al Raqqa of Syria, and Tshikapa of Congo. Cities Report (2018:7) revealed that "most megacities are located in developing countries" and 1. INDICATORS OF URBANIZATION "this trend will continue as several large cities in Urbanization is not only a mere gradual shift Asia, Latin America and Africa are projected to from agricultural industry to non- agricultural one become megacities by 2030 (ibid)". and the eventual migration of people from rural to urban area. Otherwise stated, it does not only Table 10.2 shows the ten (10) largest cities pertain to a change of residence of the population in terms of population density. This does not from rural to urban places. More so, it is not only a necessarily follow that they are the most advanced matter of re-classifying rural to urban places. More cities (sometimes known as world class cities) in than these, it means the presence or existence of terms of other indicators of urbanization. In this several indicators of urbanization. table. only urban population is taken into account. One indicator of urbanization is the continuing industrialization. By industrialization, it means the proliferation of industries that are basically non-agricultural in nature, although initially, the expansion of establishments was aimed at increasing services for agricultural and non-agricultural production. History reveals that the onset of urbanization was the continuation of industrialization where places considered urban are those where non-agricultural industries proliferate. The emergence of cities is the aftermath of this trend. These cities contribute to national income that is greater than their source of national population. In fact, 80 percent of the global gross domestic product is accounted by cities. This is because industrialization is at the core of urbanization.  4 Another indicator is the expanded and entertainers. They have been drawn to the city employment opportunity. This means employment because of its conveniences and cultural benefits. opportunities both in formal and informal sectors. Particularly, cities are responsible for generating The Singles. Young unmarried people come new private sector jobs. According to World Cities to the city seeking jobs and entertainment. Report (2018:33), "the 750 cities in the world Businesses and services such as singles bars, single created 87.7 million private sector jobs, or 58 apartment complexes, and high rise condominium percent of all new private sector jobs in their units cater to their needs. Their stay in the city respect 129 countries". This is between the year often reflects a stage in their life course, for most 2006 and 2012 alone. moves to the suburbs after they marry and have children. Still another indicator is better access to information and communication technology. The The Ethnic Villagers. United by fact-paced environment in the cities or highly race-ethnicity and social class, these people live in urbanized areas is usually driven by high powered tightly knit neighborhoods that resemble villages technology to hasten production. Since the goal is and small towns. Moving within a close circle of mass production, technology is obviously an family and friends, the ethnic villagers try to isolate important tool to meet the need of the industries themselves from what they view as the harmful and the mass of people. There is no city in the effects of city life. world today that is not adherent of accessing and improving its ICT for obviously, this is the call of the On the contrary, the next two groups, the fast-paced environment. deprived and the trapped, have little choice about where they live. Better infrastructure facilities can also be regarded as an indicator of urbanization. In an The Deprived. The deprived live in blighted effort to provide efficient social services to urban neighborhoods more like urban jungles than urban dwellers, and in order to boost economic villages. Consisting of the very poor, the deprived production, infrastructure improvement is a must in represent the bottom of society in terms of income, the urban environment. education, social status and work skills. Finally, better medical facilities can likewise The Trapped. The trapped can find no be considered an indicator of urbanization. It escape either. They consist of people who could not cannot be denied that morbidity and mortality in afford to move when their neighborhood was urban areas are significantly lower compared to "invaded" by other migrant groups. rural areas. Although this ought not to be the case, as everyone has the right to equal access on health The Development of Cities services, it is an undeniable fact that improved Cities are not new to the world scene. services for various types of medical complaints can Perhaps as early as seven to ten thousand years ago, be better availed of in urban areas. people built small cities with massive defensive walls such as CatalHuyuk and biblically famous Who Lives in the City? Jericho, Cities on a larger scale originated in about Sociologist Herbert Gans, as quoted by 3500 BC about the same time writing was invented. Ullmann (2002:2) identified five types of people At that time, cities appeared in several parts of the who live in the city. The first three types live in the world first in Mesopotamia (Iraq) and later in Nile, city by choice, finding in it a valued sense of Indus, and Yellow River valleys, in West Africa, community. around the Mediterranean, in Central America, and in the Andes (Flanagan 1990). The Cosmopolites. The cosmopolites are the city's students, intellectuals, professionals, artists,  5 The key to the origin of cities is the longer adequate to describe them. The term development of more efficient agriculture. Only metropolis is used instead. This term refers to a when farming produces surplus can some people central city surrounded by smaller cities and stop being food producers and gather in cities to suburbs. They are connected economically, spend time in other pursuits. A city, in fact, can be sometimes political through governing bodies, and defined as a place in which a large number of socially by transportation and. communication people are permanently based and do not produce networks. their own food. The invention of the plow between five and six thousand years ago created widespread Some metropolises have grown so large and agricultural surpluses, stimulating the development influential that the term megalopolis is used to of towns and cities. describe them. This term refers to an overlapping area consisting of at least two metropolises and In 1900's, the number of cities flourished. their many suburbs. The reason is the Industrial Revolution, which drew people to cities by providing work. It also Urban growth, which is mostly due to natural stimulated the invention of mechanical means of increase, is inevitable. However, the speed and size transportation and communication, and allowed of the growth are not fixed, and vary widely among people. resources, and products to be moved regions. The most effective way to slow rates of efficiently all essential factors on which large cities urban growth is to reduce unwanted fertility in both depend. Today, almost 300 cities have a million or rural and urban areas. Lowering poverty, more people. empowering women and providing quality reproductive health services all influence fertility 2. THE PROCESS OF URBANIZATION preferences and ability to meet them. Although cities are not new to the world scene, urbanization is. Urbanization is worldwide. For the record, fertility rates are lower in In 1800, only three (3) percent of the world's urban than in rural areas throughout the world. population lived in cities. Today, more than half However, the fact that such large percentage of (54) percent) of the world population already people in many developing countries are young resides in urban areas (WCR, 2018). Without the means that urban population growth will continue Industrial Revolution this remarkable growth could rapidly for years to come. Moreover, impoverished not have taken place, for an extensive urban women are significantly less likely than their infrastructure is needed to support hundreds of more affluent counterparts to have access to thousands and even millions of people in a reproductive health or contraception. Not relatively small area. surprisingly, they have higher fertility rates. The world is undergoing the largest wave of If there is another phenomena link to urban growth in history. In 2008, for the first time urbanization which cannot be delineated, this in history, more than half of the world's population would be migration. Migration is al significant is living in towns and cities. By 2030, this number contributor to urbanization, as people move in will swell to almost five (5) billion, with urban search of social and economic opportunity. growth concentrated in Africa and Asia. While Environmental degradation and conflict may drive mega-cities have captured much public attention, people off the land. Often people who leave the most of the new growth will occur in smaller towns countryside to find better lives in the city have no and cities, which have fewer resources to respond choice but to settle in shantytowns and slums, to the magnitude of the change. where they lack access to decent housing and sanitation, health care and education-in effect, Some cities have grown so large and have trading in rural for urban poverty. such influence over a region that the term city is no  6 3. MULTICULTURAL CITIES one-third of the Londoners are foreign-born, with Another natural consequence of urbanization people speaking around 200 various languages other IS the convergence of people with diverse cultural than English. Still another multicultural city is background. Sociologists most often call it multi- Amsterdam, the largest city in the Netherlands. culturalism or cultural pluralism, which pertains to This city caters diverse population with approximately 178 different cultural backgrounds. a situation where various ethnic groups converged in a mixed ethnic community area, resulting to the Expectedly, it is a city of multilingual people, existence of multiple cultural traditions. It has been although language classes are offered by the city theorized that the existence of multi- cultural cities free of charge to help the new residents. Los Angeles in California USA is likewise a multicultural is the byproduct of continuous development and city with a population speaking approximately 86 urbanization, which primarily became the high magnet for people coming from different culture. languages and migrants from 140 countries. Los Angeles is also considered as the city with no majority population. Included in the list are Paris in Urban abode, particularly in large and mega cities, have high tolerance and respect for cultural France, New York City and San Francisco in USA, Sao pluralism. This is highly understandable in the light Paulo in Brazil, Singapore, Sydney in Australia, and of the existing reality that urbanity is primarily Toronto in Canada. coupled with anonymity, where individualism is the trend, and where social cooperation exists only in areas that best benefit the society, as it affects oneself. In the process, a multicultural city "incorporates ideas, beliefs or people from many different countries and cultural background (Garcia, 2015)". This multiculturalism appears to be the "coexistence of various races, religions, or cultural groups manifested in customary behaviors, cultural assumptions and values, patterns of thinking, and communicative styles (ibid). Hence, the blending of different culture and the consequent adaptability of people as they are exposed to various cultures are some of the many advantages of multiculturalism. In fact, it has been observed that countries, and cities in particular, with high tolerance and respect to multiple culture are the more advanced and progressive cities, an indication that "openness" to ideas, culture and belief makes a nation a progressive one. On the other side of the coin however, one perceived disadvantage of The contemporary world recently foresees the proliferation of large and megacities. As already multiculturalism is the difficulty to manage in terms mentioned, large cities are defined as having of government matters, and surely of state between five (5) to ten (10) million inhabitants, regulation, owing to such cultural differences (ibid.) while megacities are those with ten (10) million or more inhabitants (WCR, 2018:7). Both large and Marcelina Morfin (2018) in her blog Culture megacities are loci of new socio-political Trip, identified ten (10) most multi-cultural cities in terminologies, the world class city and the global the world. Topping the list is London, the largest city. city in the United Kingdom. It is estimated that  7 World class city is said to be the best cities in global trade, boosted by the city's high financial in the world. In determining world class city power and high technology infrastructure. category, various indicators are set including but not limited to major international standards, In elaborating the concept of a global city, political systems, cultural or commercial centers Sassen claims that a global city is one that is not and very open commercial markets. It is used confined only to a specific geographical location. interchangeably with the word alpha city or global Instead, a global city is one that has a "geographic city, although as will be discussed later, the world dispersal of economic activities" to states other class city is distinct and separate from the global than its own. This pertains to companies or city. corporations where the flow of capital, labor, goods, raw materials or tourists operate not only in In 2017, the Institute for Urban Strategies at the place of origin but also in the place of the Mori Memorial Foundation in Tokyo listed the marketing and/or consumption or distribution. top ten (10) global power cities based on six According to Sassen, the birth of the global city in categories namely, economy, research and the contemporary world is the byproduct of development, cultural interaction, environment and "privatization, deregulation, the opening of national accessibility, with 70 individual categories among economies to foreign firms, and the growing them. Respondents in such study include managers, participation of national economic actors in the researchers, artists, visitors and residents. Based on global markets" (Sassen, 2005:27). the aforementioned indicators, London is the world's best city in the world, followed by New How is global city born then? Imagine this York. Tokyo, Paris, Singapore, Seoul, Amsterdam, simple scenario. A canteen proprietor, out of her of Berlin, Hongkong, and Sydney (GPCI, 2017). hard work, wit and perseverance, is able to expand her business in a national scale, and even gaining wide popularity abroad. In order to cope with the business demands, she needs to redesign the business such that she turned it to a fast-food chain in order to cater the needs of the customers in the fast-paced environment. She employed thousands of personnel, ranging from service crews to supervisors and managers, in all branches nationally and later internationally. She likewise allowed the franchise of her business, but devised ways to protect and maintain its original and popular state. To avoid further entanglement with possible labor disputes and legal intricacies, she eventually outsourced some of the functions of her business, and including It can be observed however, that most of the it as part of the business design in her franchised world class cities listed above are likewise the cities branches or headquarters. Thus, she outsourced the with the most number of cultural pluralism. Does it service and security personnel from a manning follow that cultural plurality or diversity is the key agency in a particular country, the marketing of its towards economic growth and development? business from an advertising agency in another country, the legal and accounting works and many The term global city, as already mentioned, others in some other countries, thereby focusing is used interchangeably with world class city or only on maintaining the formula of her product. alpha city. The term global city connotes something Eventually, she entered franchise contracts. that is more than a specific place on the face of the applying the said strategy abroad. In the process, earth. The term was first used by sociologist Saskia without her knowing it, she helped in the creation Sassen in 1991 to mean a city that heavily involved of agglomeration economies one in which large  8 companies, services, and industries exist in close center of gravity of the urban world is moving to proximity to one another and benefit from the cost the developing countries, particularly towards reductions and gains in efficiency that result from Southeast Asia (WCR, 2018:9) this proximity. Such agglomeration economy, in the concept of Sassen, constitutes the so-called the Although the rate is highest in this part of global city. But since the entire world is now shrunk the world, there appears to have disproportionate into a global village, where it appears that urban planning efforts among these countries. communication to various headquarters appears to Ideally, as the level of urbanization increases, the be just at the tip of the fingers, all those involved level of fertility rate conversely decreases. This is in the services of the once a "former canteen not true however among developing countries. proprietor", it can now be said that various parts of African countries for example remain having the the world can be said to have global cities. lowest level of urbanization (although the fastest in pacing) but have high fertility rates. It has also Aside from arguing that a global city has a been observed that highest fertility rates in the geographic dispersal of economic activities, Sassen world are for poor, rural countries. Nevertheless, it hypothesized that in the process, said global city, is expected that these developing countries that are owing to its complex and dispersed functions, would urbanizing would eventually show lower fertility eventually focus on its central and specialized rates (ibid.) functions, thereby compelled to outsource its other peripheral or non-specialized functions. Eventually, But while fertility rate is high among the process of outsourcing some its intended developing countries, infant mortality is declining services would transform the business environment over time. This resulted to significant increase in into an agglomeration economy. Sassen further the population, thereby labeling the developing hypothesized that since the business is highly countries as source of young population in the dependent on the demand of the market, these world. As already stated, majority of these global cities are free to opt for any location. In population in the developing world are informally other words, there is an unhampered business settling in the cities where city officials having no mobility. On a final note, a global city is one where concrete plans for adequate housing, where basic global service is being provided through global services remain inadequate when compared to network of affiliates or some other form of global standards, and where vulnerability to climate partnership, which in reality, is actually the change is high. beginning of transnational urban system (Sassen, 2005:27-30) Brazil, as one of the countries in the developing world, has ubiquitous slums in its urban Cities in the Underdeveloped World abode, although according to the experts, the It cannot be denied that cities in the problem of informal settling in the cities remains a underdeveloped world, also known as low-income persistent issue in all urban places in the world. countries, are still lagging behind in terms of Meanwhile, developing countries in Sub-Saharan infrastructure, technology, provision of basic Africa, Oceania, and South Asia are still falling services and other indicators of urbanization. It is behind in terms of water provision, an indication interesting to note however, that underdeveloped that "cities have not been able to keep up with the countries have the highest rate of urbanization, demands of the services (ibid.:14-15)". In the surpassing those in the middle-income and Philippines, worsening traffic condition remains a high-income countries (see Table 10.1). This goes to perennial problem, and city commuters patiently show that the underdeveloped countries are queue daily to and from their place of work, catching up with the middle and high income spending around three (3) hours in the city countries in so far as urbanization is concerned. highways. According to the World Cities Report (2018), the  9 the World Bank and the UN Habitat. After several years of implementing the project, support agencies dropped the plan as a policy option on the ground that they cannot cope with the increasing demands, coupled with the difficulty of identifying the primary beneficiaries. Further study amazingly divulges the reasons behind the thickening of the slum areas in the metropolis. In a study in Ecuador, it was found out that living in slum areas is merely a part of the two-stage migration scheme of people from rural to urban serving as the first stage, and eventually to the big cities as the second stage. In such study, poor migrants "move to low- income neighborhood often of big cities, and then later they and their families spread outward and find opportunities in Challenges and Issues in Urbanization the more established parts of the cities (ibid.:14)". Urbanization generally appears to bring good Recently however, with proper and life to the urban migrants as there are higher appropriate urban planning, the proportion of urban employment opportunities, better access to population living in slums in the developing world transport and communication facilities, better decreased from 46.2 percent in 1990 to 29.7 educational facilities, and an increased standard of percent in 2014 (ibid.). living. However, urbanization must be at a point detrimental to its sustainability (see discussion The provision of adequate basic services and below on urbanization and development); infrastructure is another challenge in the continuing otherwise, it would result to multifarious challenges pace of urbanization. This is especially true for and issues that need to be properly addressed by growing cities in Asia and Africa, although not the urban managers. necessarily in highly developed countries. These basic social services include transport networks, Most of the challenges and issues currently water and sanitation connection, electricity, health, confront urban managers are more of the concerned education, and a whole host of other ancillary of the developing countries. For the developed services such as street cleaning, the maintenance of countries, these challenges and issues are public spaces and parks, public lighting, archives minimized if not totally eradicated. and cemeteries (ibid.:14). As already discussed above, the growth of There are three trends on how countries the slums is the primary challenge in the urban provide basic social services to their urban setting. According to a study in 2001, there are "924 dwellers. The first trend is that, countries tended million people, or 31.6 percent of the total urban to improve the proportion of their urban population population in the world that lived in slums to access basic services. However, the trend is (ibid.:13)". This becomes a global issue and thus, uneven, and it goes to show that cities have not efforts were previously exerted to abate the been able to keep up with the demand of the seemingly worsening situation in the cities. Tracing services. The second is that, some countries back history, during the 1960s and 1970s, large attempted to find innovative ways of dealing with scale, low cost public housing were organized, in the infrastructure challenge through strengthening various cities where slums were thickening, with public management particularly initiating the support of the international agencies such as decentralization to the local governments.  10 However, most of the local government units This is confirmed in United Nation's study of 48 appeared lacking the technical know-how to keep selected cities. In such study. Africa has shown to with the rapid demands. Private sector participation have the highest levels of persisting urban was attempted but has shown mixed results. Public inequality, while Asia the lowest level. The study Private Partnership (PPP) was also tested, a further revealed that the phenomenon of gated mechanism which involves contractual relationship communities in urban places is one of the physical between a public oversight agency and a private manifestations of increasing level of inequality, company. This approach was employed in 90 because these communities separate them from countries and found to be successful although there their neighborhood through mechanisms such as are some disappointing results in few low-income selective entry. The rise of these gated communities countries (ibid.:15). Lastly, the third general trend in urban places eventually led to "disproportionate is that common public services are still very poor. and more intense consumption of public space, At the bottom of the urban system, problems such increasing polarization, privatization and as garbage pickup and removal, public toilets, segmentation of urban space" (ibid.:20). New York is well-funded public education, and quality health now considered as the capital city of inequality, services, transport facilities, leisure open spaces, where the top five percent of households earned 88 and even good local food markets remain wanting if times as much as the poorest 20 percent, according non-existent (ibid.:14-16). to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. (ibid.) Still another equally pressing issues of the modern cities is the issue on climate change. Urban Risk and Insecurity Recent studies reported that between 1950 to 2005, As partly discussed previously, living a city the global carbon emissions from burning increased life is not a life without a risk. In fact, it is in city by almost 500 percent. It appears that urbanization where risk and insecurity is higher because of the brings about fundamental change in production and volume of people living in a limited space. Some of consumption patterns which eventually resulted to the risks that urban dwellers are facing include the higher level of energy consumption and greenhouse health risk, terrorism attacks, war, cyber insecurity, gas emission by increasing proportion of people and other related urban crime and violence. living in urban areas. While efforts are initiated to reduce the vulnerability of cities to climate change, People in urban areas are at a higher health cities in the developing world are found to be more risk. As mentioned earlier, the inability of the city vulnerable to because of lack of urban planning and government to provide basic services to the most disaster preparedness (ibid.:16). number of people appears to be putting these people into a higher health risk. It has been found The World Cities report (2018) identified the out that communicable diseases of all types are factors that causes vulnerability or invulnerability related to inadequate, poor, or inefficient urban of cities to climate change, namely patterns of infrastructure. In the recent years, cities around urbanization, economic development, physical the world are seriously disturbed with exposure, urban planning and disaster communicable health risks such as but not limited preparedness. However, it likewise emphasized that to Ebola fever, SARS, AH1N1, and many others. the critical factor in shaping urban responses to State monitoring particularly on returning nationals climate change is "government capacity, which is from abroad was found to be effective mechanism hindered by factors that are institutional, technical, to prevent the spread of such viruses. economic, or political in character (ibid.:17)". Aside from the health risks, there is another Increasing urban divide has also become a problem that people in urban areas need to be wary major emerging issue. Expectedly, the gap between about. It is not an understatement to say that urban the rich and the poor is significantly more elaborate places are the primary targets for terrorism, as it is in the developing than the developed countries. in urban areas, particularly in cities, where there is  11 high concentration of people and where, in any act indicators of economic development but the two of terrorism, devastating attacks are highly felt. For most important ones include gross domestic product example, the New York terrorist attack in 2001 (GDP) per capita, and the level of urbanization killed around 3,500 people and resulted to 2.8 (ibid). Hence, the higher the GDP per capita and million squares meters of spaces. To respond to this the higher the level of urbanization of a certain kind of urban risk, states employ militarization of country, the higher is the level of development. civil societies as the immediate solution. However, modern scholars argue that Just like terrorism, war is becoming development should not only be measured urbanized. This is because "warfare in cities has according to the capability of production of a greater civilian death. It also means greater certain country, as measured according to its GDP. casualties in terms of city infrastructure that Many of them believe that real development is eventually cripples the economy of the attacked something that can sustain over time, something city. Just like terrorism too, militarization is the that takes into consideration the ability to prolong immediate solution to this kind of risk, although its benefit for the generation and generations to there are also alternative solutions such as come. Hence, the concept of sustainable intensification and privatization of security and development emerged as the new concept. surveillance to counter perpetrators and initiators Sustainable development is defined as a of war. development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future Cybercrime is a crime that is committed generations to meet their own needs (World Cities with the use and the employment of digital Report, 2016:38)". technology. This is a new kind of urban risk that the digital world is currently facing. Hacking and While it is maintained that development is cyberattacks are just few of the most commonly visible and useful to cater the demand of the committed crimes in cyber technology. Estimates present times, it takes precautionary measures to reveal that urban cities. having relied and employed protect the future generation. It may not be the most number of electronic services, are the immediate, but it certainly includes aspect of more prone to cybercrime, incurring a loss of quality change that creates a condition for the billions of dollars per year. Recently, state funds are continuation of such change (SID- Israel, 2018). being defrayed to counterattack cybercrime. Similarly, as how development is defined in its broader context, sustainable development is 4. URBANIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT grounded on a similar understanding urban As aptly defined, development is the development which strives to meet the essential "process that creates growth, progress. positive needs of all, without overstepping the limitations of change or the addition economic, social and of the natural environment (ibid.). physical, environmental, demographic components (Society for International Development, 2018)". In But, is there a direct relationship between its broadest sense, development entails a "rise in development and urbanization? Is urbanization a the level and quality of life of the population, and factor of development, or does development result the creation or expansion of local regional income to urbanization? These questions become the and employment opportunities, without damaging subject matter of several researches, in the light of the resources of the environment (ibid)". the factual milieu that there has been a substantial The most important indicator of change in global urbanization levels and economic development is economic development, which is development over the past 30 years. Although there the "increase in the value of goods and services has been universal conformity among all scholars produced by a country or regional economy over that urbanization has a direct relationship with time (Chen et al., 2014:1)". There are various development, some of them appear to challenge whether one is the result of the other or vice-versa.  12 One study suggests that "it is not urbanization or city per se that induces economic growth. but rather infrastructure and institutional settings The aforecited claim is further supported by a study conducted by Chen et al (2014) which states that the "increasing level of urbanization is a natural consequence of economic development, as many rural populations flow to non-agricultural sectors and urban areas. Reasonable urbanization generally also has a positive impact on economic growth. It further reveals that accelerated urbanization without parallel economic growth often occurs in the world, but a higher speed of urbanization does not. as a rule, lead to more rapid economic growth. While urbanization per se may not lead to economic development. relative or other factors have played an important role in inducing economic growth and raised living standards. Some of these factors include urban concentration, agglomeration economies, and expansion of built-up areas. These factors, which are related to urbanization, may help to stimulate economic growth and development. In other words, there is an indirect relationship between level of urbanization and economic growth.