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2 - World urbanization, 1750 to the present

from Part I - Social developments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

J. R. McNeill
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
Kenneth Pomeranz
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Summary

Urbanization creates a hierarchy of central places, which house a range of political, economic, and cultural institutions, distributing them in space according to levels of demand. The largest cities in many national systems have tended to be political capitals: Moscow, Jakarta, Cairo, and Buenos Aires, for example, each of which also serves as a national commercial and cultural center. Extensive deurbanization of Western Europe followed the collapse of the Roman Empire in the fifth century CE. Debates about the consequences of urban life have continued throughout the twentieth century as analysts from many political and disciplinary camps have weighed in. Market-driven economies work through inequality, which can be extreme, but they also concentrate wealth and other resources in the larger cities, where they encourage investment. Urban spaces and their allocations signal social values and shape everyday life for ordinary citizens. Industrialization and economic development made possible extensive rearrangements of urban spaces.
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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References

Further reading

Bairoch, Paul. Cities and Economic Development, trans. Braider, Christopher. University of Chicago Press, 1988.Google Scholar
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Clark, David. Urban World/Global City. London: Routledge, 2003.Google Scholar
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Hall, Peter. Cities of Tomorrow: An Intellectual History of Urban Planning and Design Since 1880. 4th edn. Oxford:Wiley-Blackwell, 2014.Google Scholar
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Laquian, Aprodicio A. Beyond Metropolis: The Planning and Governance of Asia’s Mega-Urban Regions. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2005.Google Scholar
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United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. World Urbanization Prospects: The 1999 Revision (New York: United Nations, 2001) and World Urbanization Prospects: The 2003 Revision (New York: United Nations, 2004).Google Scholar

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