Town life is not new; indeed, it is more than just a play on words to say that it is as old as civilization. However, while hunting and food-gathering people had no towns, and the neolithic culture which was the basis of the pre-industrial civilizations supported an urban minority, the rise of industry has been associated with a process of urban growth in which most people in developed countries have come to live in towns. Although in the present-day poor countries the urban population is smaller, it is growing, and indeed one of the most obvious changes that is taking place in these countries is a worldwide movement of people from the country to towns which are experiencing rapid, even headlong growth. But in a world in which the dominant technology is capital-intensive, that migration is not generally matched by a corresponding expansion in modern-sector employment. It is this which gives contemporary urbanization in the poor countries its special character, and many of its special problems.

Urban development in historical perspective

The first towns, such as Ur of the Chaldees and Mohenjo-Daro in India, seem to have arisen before 4000 BC, and their life was clearly related to aspects of neolithic technology. Agriculture made it possible to accumulate stores of food, and this enabled some people to live by working at crafts other than agriculture and selling the products for food.