URBANIZATION

1
Paul Sanyaolu and 2Comfort Okosun Sanyaolu

1
Department of Chemistry, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria.

2
Department of Political Science and International Relations, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria.

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses primarily on urbanization, the causes and ways forward. Urbanization is the

way the population shift from rural to urban areas, "the gradual increase in the proportion of

people living in urban areas", and the ways in which each society adapts to the change.

Exploratory research method was used, secondary data were collected and critically analyzed..

The results were used to derived the characteristics of urbanization, and major factors that

favoured urbanization before the industrial revolution were expanciated. The effects of

urbanization, forms of urbanization and the conceptual theoretical framework were detailed. In

conclusion, the level of urbanization growth is at geometrical level. The characteristics of

urbanization include, structured facilities, residential, employment centre, communication

network, infrastructural facilities, size, density of population, family, marriage, occupation, class

extremes, social heterogeneity, social distance, system of interaction and mobility. The causes of

urbanization include; western liberal, Marxist capitalist and ecological or self-generated. The

major factors of that favoured Urbanization after the industrial revolution, include, rural-urban

migration, push and pull factors, push factors and pull factors, The effects of urbanization

embraced, economic effect, environmental effects, health and social effects, forms of

urbanization and the conceptual theoretical framework is based on urban bias theory. It is
recommended that government should design policy that will prevent this migration of the grass

root masses. This will reduce if not elimination the state unemployment problem.

Keywords: urbanization, rural to urban migration, characteristics, geometrical growth, urban bias

theory

1
Corresponding Author: paul.sanyaolu@stu.cu.edu.ng 08148026557

INTRODUCTION

Urbanization refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, "the gradual increase in the

proportion of people living in urban areas", and the ways in which each society adapts to the

change. The process whereby a society changes from a rural to an urban way of life (NLM,

2014). It is predicted that by 2050 about 64% of Africa and Asia and 86% of the developed

world will be urbanized (The Economist, 2012). Notably, the United Nations has also recently

projected that nearly all global population growth from 2017 to 2030 will be absorbed by cities,

about 1.1 billion new urbanites over the next 13 years. (Barney, 2015).

The major change in settlement patterns was the accumulation of hunter-gatherers into villages

many thousand years ago. Village culture is characterized by common bloodlines, intimate

relationships, and communal behavior, whereas urban culture is characterized by distant

bloodlines, unfamiliar relations, and competitive behavior. This unprecedented movement of

people is forecast to continue and intensify during the next few decades, mushrooming cities to

sizes unthinkable only a century ago. As a result, the world urban population growth curve has

up till recently followed a quadratic-hyperbolic pattern (Peter et al., 2006).

BACKGROUND OF URBANIZATION

From the development of the earliest cities in Mesopotamia and Egypt until the 18th century, an

equilibrium existed between the vast majority of the population who engaged in subsistence

agriculture in a rural context, and small centres of populations in the towns where economic

activity consisted primarily of trade at markets and manufactures on a small scale. Due to the

primitive and relatively stagnant state of agriculture throughout this period, the ratio of rural to

urban population remained at a fixed equilibrium. Also, significant increase can be traced to

Mughal India, where 15% of its population lived in urban centers during the 16th–17th centuries,

higher than in Europe at the time (Abraham, (2007) and Paolo, (2009)).

Urbanization rapidly spread across the Western world and, since the 1950s, it has begun to take

hold in Africa and Asia as well. At the turn of the 20th century, just 15% of the world population

lived in cities. Yale University in June 2016 published urbanization data from the time period

3700 BC to 2000 AD, the data was used to make a video showing the development of cities on

the world during the time period (United Nations (2014) and Reba, et al., (2007)).

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF URBANIZATION

 STRUCTURED FACILITIES: In any urban centre, structures are designed majorly for

the following purposes with their respective proportions: Residential- 60.0%; Industrial-

4.0%; Commercial- 2.0%, Roads - 18.0%;Administration- 4.0%; Recreational -10.0%;

Others -2.0%;Total-100.0%.

 RESIDENTIAL: Residential sector occupies the highest percentage of land use in any

urban settlement. Since residential land use sectors are centres of population
 concentration, they witness mass criss-cross movements of human and vehicular traffic

during working days of the week.

 EMPLOYMENT CENTRE - Industry, Commercial and Administration: The energy of

any community is found in the industrial, commercial and administrative sectors. These

are centre for great employment.

 COMMUNICATION NETWORK: Network of communication linkages ties the structure

of urban areas together as a system.

 ROADS: Efficient network of roads and transportation system enhance free flow and

efficiency of human and vehicular movements. Narrow/irregular street pattern brings

chaos and congestion. Wide road reservation with enough setbacks provides space for

adequate lanes and installation of infrastructures.

 INFRASTRUCTURAL FACILITIES: Infrastructure facilities like water supply,

electricity, telephone and solid waste disposal etc. are common in urban centre.

 SIZE: As a rule, in the same country and at the same period, the size of an urban

community is much large than that of a rural community. Hence, urbanization and its size

are positively correlated.

 DENSITY OF POPULATION: Density of population in urban areas is greater than in

rural communities. Urbanization and its density are positively correlated.

 FAMILY: So far as urban community is concerned, greater importance is attached to the

individual than to the family. Nuclear families are more popular in urban areas.
 MARRIAGE: In case of urban community there is a preponderance of love marriages

and inter-caste marriages. One also comes across a greater number of divorces.

 OCCUPATION: In the urban areas, the major occupations are industrial, administrative

and professional in nature. Divisions of labour and occupational specialization are very

much common in town’s cities metropolises.

 , CLASS EXTREMES: An urban town and city house the richest as well As the poorest

of people. In a city, the slums of the poor exist alongside the palatial bungalows of the

rich, amidst the apartments of the middle class members.

 SOCIAL HETEROGENEITY: Villages are considered homogeneity; also, urban will be

heterogeneity. The cities are characterized by diverse peoples, race and cultures. There is

great variety in regard to the food habits, dress habits, living conditions, religious beliefs,

cultural, customs and traditions of the urbanites.

 SOCIAL DISTANCE: Social distance is the result of anonymity and heterogeneity. Most

social contacts in a town or city are impersonal and segmentary in character.

 SYSTEM OF INTERACTION: The social structure of urban communities is based

interest groups. The circles of social contact are wider in the city than in the country. City

life is very complex and varied. Due to wider area of interaction system per man and per

aggregate.

 MOBILITY: Urbanization is full of great social mobility. The social status of man in

urban city depends largely on his merit, intelligence and perseverance. Consequently,

urbanization and mobility are positive correlated (Abasilim, 2018).

CAUSES OF URBANIZATION

There are three contending causes of urbanisation. Scholars have found that there are three major

ways that lead to Urbanisation, namely; (a) Western Liberal (b) Marxist Capitalist (c) Ecological

Western Liberal: This view sees urbanisation as the consequence of development. It holds that

rural dwellers are attracted to urban centres by availability of job. It is backed up by both theories

of the rural push and urban pull factors.

The modernization theory states that industrial employment attracts people from rural to urban

areas. This created social class due to economic expansion, non-agricultural occupation focus,

inequality welfare, rapid migration from rural to urban cities, hence Africa and Asia countries

experienced great set back and inefficient economic growth (Gingler 1997)

Marxist Capitalist

This view sees urbanisation as the result of capitalism. The capitalist in their bid to maximized

their wealth made decisions that favoured them mostly. They control the economic and ensure

drift of people to urban cities in order to equipped their multinational corporations, local,

national and regional firms. The worse aspect of it is the focus of these capitalists on Africa and

Asia countries of the world.

Ecological or Self-Generated

In 1920s, Ernest Burgess and Robert Park proposed the urban ecological theory. These

sociologists view the urban city as a complex response to competing extended forces. The urban

ecology is based on two assumptions; the first assumption is based on the fact that the city

consists of a number of sections, in each of which only a single activity such as heavy
manufacturing or upper class residence are concentrated. Secondly as urban space became

limited and competition became keen, a section ultimately would be part with greatest economic

value, though the longest established sector would according to the concentric zone radiating

outward in succession from a central business district.

Major Factors that favoured Urbanization before the Industrial Revolution

Agricultural as dominant activities, produced surplus food for human consumption. Trade and

permanent settlements at route junctions. Defence wall around settlements and administrative

control

 First Stage: Development of unique economic advantage through agricultural

development. City life attracted others, this led to friction and disparities or class

struggle, and then through control we have unification.

 Second Stage: Military conquest and domination of economically rich areas.

 Third Stage: Trade within and between empires; accumulation of wealth; officially

written language; acceptance of monetary system to facilitate trading. The development

of capitalism began.

 Fourth Stage: Disintegration of the Roman Empire into city-states based on economic

blueprint of capital investment – roads, shipping and architectural development.

Major Factors of that favoured Urbanization after the Industrial Revolution

 High pronouncement of factors of production – land, labour, capital and technology.

 Farming technology led to reduction in human labour for agriculture.

  More scientific discovery led to invention of bigger machines, better means of

transportation, movement of finished products to the hinterland.

RURAL-URBAN MIGRATION

Migration is a form of geographical or spatial motion between one geographical unit and

another. Internal migration consists of rural-rural, rural-urban, urban-urban and urban-rural

migration. The time of migration also varies; it can be periodic, seasonal, or long-term migration

(Bilsborrow 1998b).

Migration is the main reason for urbanization. Urbanization mobility trend can be in any of the

following form, rural-urban and urban-rural and rural-rural. This is quite common, for example,

in Nigeria (Bilsborrow 1998b, Sajor 2001). There were structural changes and the adoption of

capitalistic line and the resultant growth of merchant class. New institutions created and old

ones were altered.

Suburbanisation – New freedom of movement that led to urban sprawl and encroachment of

cities on nearby villages and towns.

PUSH AND PULL FACTORS

People may move to the city because they are pushed by poverty from rural communities or they

may be pulled by the attractions of city lives. Combination of these push and pull factors can also

be one reason for moving to cities. These circumstances make migration the only opportunity to

farming people. Things are made worse by environmental deterioration (Gugler 1997, Girardet

1996).

Push factors
The normal push factors to rural people are the circumstances that make their earning of living

impossible, land deterioration, lack of adequate land, unequal land distribution, droughts, storms,

floods, and clean water shortages. These serious disadvantages make farming, the livelihood of

rural people, hard and sometimes hopeless. Lack of modern resources, firewood shortages,

religious conflicts, local economic declines, are also major reasons for moving to the urban areas

Pull factors

High industrial wages in urban areas are one of the biggest attractions for rural people. People

will continue to migrate to cities as long as they expect urban wages to exceed their current rural

wages. Employment opportunities, higher incomes, joining other rural refugees, freedom from

oppressive lifestyle, access to better health care and education, are the “bright lights” for rural

people (Gugler 1997, Girardet 1996, Sajor 2001).

EFFECTS OF URBANIZATION

There are great effects of urbanization on both the people and the society. These effects are

categorized as economic, environmental, health and social effects:

ECONOMIC EFFECT

As cities develop, effects can include a dramatic increase and change in costs, often pricing the

local working class out of the market, including such functionaries as employees of the local

municipalities. For example, Eric Hobsbawm's book The age of revolution: 1789–1848

(published 1962 and 2005), stated "Urban development in our period [1789–1848] was a gigantic

process of class segregation, which pushed the new labouring poor into great morasses of misery
outside the centres of government and business and the newly specialized residential areas of the

bourgeoisie (Todaro, 1969).

Think tanks such as the Overseas Development Institute have proposed policies that encourage

labor-intensive growth as a means of absorbing the influx of low-skilled and unskilled labor

(Grant, 2008). In many cases, the rural-urban low skilled or unskilled migrant workers, attracted

by economic opportunities in urban areas, cannot find a job and afford housing in cities and have

to dwell in slums (Benedictus, 2017). Urban problems, along with infrastructure developments,

are also fueling suburbanization trends in developing nations, though the trend for core cities in

said nations tends to continue to become ever denser. Living in cities permits individuals and

families to take advantage of the opportunities of proximity and diversity (Brand, 2009).

ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS

The existence of Urban heat islands has become a growing concern over the years. Vehicles,

factories and industrial and domestic heating and cooling units release even more heat (Glaeser,

1998). As a result, cities are often 1 to 3 °C (1.8 to 5.4 °F) warmer than surrounding landscapes

(Park, 1987). In July 2013 a report issued by the United Nations Department of Economic and

Social Affairs (Jiang et al., 2008) warned that with 2.4 billion more people by 2050, especially

in countries already facing food insecurity due to changing environmental conditions. The mix of

changing environmental conditions and the growing population of urban regions, according to

UN experts, will strain basic sanitation systems and health care, and potentially cause a

humanitarian and environmental disaster (WESS, 2013).

HEALTH AND SOCIAL EFFECTS

You get a very unequal society and that inequality is manifested where people live, in our

neighborhoods, and it means there can be less capacity for empathy and less development for all

society.’’- Jack Emegan, Urban Programme Specialist at UN-Habitat (Auber, 2013).

In Africa and Asia countries of the world, urbanization does not translate into a significant

increase in life expectancy. Differences in mortality from contagious diseases vary depending on

the particular disease and location (Eckert and Kohler, 2014).

Urban health levels are on average better in comparison to rural areas. However, residents in

poor urban areas such as slums and informal settlements suffer "disproportionately from disease,

injury, premature death, and the combination of ill-health and poverty entrenches disadvantage

over time (Allender et al., 2008)."Agriculturists have studied the effects on health of

urbanization and globalization. Fast food is often food of choice, which is causing a decline in

health (Food and Agriculture Organization 2004). Easier access to non-traditional foods may

lead to less healthy dietary patterns (Sridhar, 2007). In India the prevalence of diabetes in urban

areas appears to be more than twice as high as in rural areas (Bora, 2012). In general, major risk

factors for chronic diseases are more prevalent in urban environments (Davis et al., 1954).

FORMS OF URBANIZATION

Different forms of urbanization can be classified depending on the style of architecture and

planning methods as well as historic growth of areas.

In cities of the developed world urbanization traditionally exhibited a concentration of human

activities and settlements around the downtown area, the so-called in-migration.
This has been possible because of improved communications, and has been caused by factors

such as the fear of crime and poor urban environments. When the residential area shifts outward,

this is called suburbanization.

A number of researchers and writers suggest that suburbanization has gone so far to form new

points of concentration outside the downtown both in developed and developing countries such

as India (Varshney, 1993). This networked, poly-centric form of concentration is considered by

some emerging pattern of urbanization. Los Angeles is the best-known example of this type of

urbanization. Interestingly, in the United States, this process has reversed as of 2011, with "re-

urbanization" occurring as suburban flight due to chronically high transport costs (Overseas

Development Institute. 2008).

Rural migrants are attracted by the possibilities that cities can offer, but often settle in shanty

towns and experience extreme poverty. The inability of countries to provide adequate housing

for these rural migrants is related to overurbanization, a phenomenon in which the rate of

urbanization grows more rapidly than the rate of economic development, leading to high

unemployment and high demand for resources.

THE URBAN BIAS THEORY

Urban Bias Theory states that the most global conflict is that between rural classes and urban

classes, with the rural dominated by poverty and low-cost potential advance; but the urban sector

contains most of the articulateness, organization and power; hence, the urban having upper hands

of the struggle with the countryside (Lovelace, 1965).

CONCLUSION
The level of urbanization growth is at geometrical level. The characteristics of urbanization

include, structured facilities, residential, employment centre, communication network,

infrastructural facilities, size, density of population, family, marriage, occupation, class

extremes, social heterogeneity, social distance, system of interaction and mobility. The causes of

urbanization include; western liberal, Marxist capitalist and ecological or self-generated. The

major factors of that favoured Urbanization after the industrial revolution, include, rural-urban

migration, push and pull factors, push factors and pull factors, The effects of urbanization

embraced, economic effect, environmental effects, health and social effects, forms of

urbanization and the conceptual theoretical framework is based on urban bias theory. It is

recommended that government should design policy that will prevent this migration of the grass

root masses. This will reduce if not elimination the state unemployment problem.

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