Why People Urbanize - Essay Example

CITIES INTRODUCTION: A is basically a place or region where people settle. Theorist believe that there is a specific reason behind formation of cities; a reason for people to live together. Flaherty believes that cities are formed to economize on protection ;for instance military is at an advantage to form a city (OFlaherty, 2005). John consider city as achievements and failing of humanity ; at first it is shaped by human and then it shapes human lives. In 2030 he expects the population to cover two thirds of the globe (Reader, 2004). People urbanize due to their needs; as the world is changing the needs and wants of population are increasing too. Therefore to fulfill these requirements people come together and build a city where they facilitate every possible requirement of human nature. What makes a place a city are the people who live there, their interactions and activities. It’s not only perceived as a gathering of millions of people but also by the constructions and infrastructure designed for man’s feasibility and convenience. Kevin Lynch describes an environmental image in three components: identity, structure and the meaning. The identity for which the city is known and distinguished, the structure- how it is build and designed and then the meaning is the relation people have with it (Lynch, 1960). WHY PEOPLE URBANIZE? In 18000 only 3% of the world population lived in the urban areas; However, by 1900, 14% were urbanites. With time the percentage increased and today we have urbanized the maximum possible earth and with the rate of population increasing the entire world would be urbanized soon. Cities are known as a place of opportunities where money, services employment are centralized. In rural areas it is difficult for people to achieve the requirements the way they can in cities. Living in cities facilitates people with numerous opportunities, luxuries and diversities like transportation, education and jobs. It is an established place where one can actually promote his way towards success. Business generates the demand of labor which eventually results in employment to bag money. People in rural areas have low income and huge families to make both ends meet they need money for which they belief city is a better place. For instance a farmer or a fisherman might not pull that money in a rural area as compared to that he can in city (Scott, 1981). City provides them with the opportunity of variety of jobs to all calipers of people. A reason to this is also the population density in urban areas, more people have numerous demands and to fulfill those we need people to work on the available resources. In city people have variety of jobs, for example a fisherman can be a part time sales man of some product or anything. People basically move to city for better living conditions and opportunities. Another major reason is health; there are more hospitals and clinics especially for the elderly people to get immediate treatment. Since there are different critical diseases diagnosed with the passage of time it is important that people keep a regular medical checkup to take care of their health. Also the government has medical facilities and special arrangements for the public which people find interesting to avail. With increase in technology people are getting used to of enjoying the advantages and the level of communication it grants them with. With the advancement of technology people demand less suffering in treatment methods and long term guarantee of health stability. Since city contains the professional and qualified doctors and physicians to provide them efficient and reliable health care delivery. The infrastructure facilities available in cities, the roads for transportation, buildings , bridges , parks, restaurants and other leisurely place for people to spend their free time is another major attraction for the rural people. Places like theatres, café, shopping mall provides people with better option and diversification for people to of their work. Due to higher population people have a well maintained social life in a city due to which they require such places to hang out and enjoy their time out of work. Also it’s a place which inspires people to work for it, create their impression of cities in practical by working here. People are offered a better mode of transportation in cities because of the roads and tracks developed. The mode of transportation through different mediums is by water or air or on land. Sea routes are mostly used for the usual trade for commercial purposes; ports are a part of cities, also the airports which are the terminals which connects one place to the other. Then again for normal basis people use the railways and cars to travel for their routine trips. Because the city offers a better infrastructure it’s convenient for the people to get transported from one place to another. When looking to make a city one needs number of factors to be taken in account. Cities are building at places with better economic conditions and geographical locations. Locations for cities are chosen for some good reasons like site that includes water, soil, communication etc. It is important the city should have a good strategic defense location. Geographically the place should be in a moderate place with a combination of mountains, hills, rivers and optimal temperature to live. Arable land is highly in demand by cities to ensure food supply for the people who live as most of the under developing country have agriculture based economy. The site should be available and well stable for constructions of building and other infrastructure services like bridges and railway tracks. The major reason to build cities is to provide people the services they demand to settle at a place. Therefore it is important that the placed is safe and secure to live with optimal conditions. The land should be content with natural resources to make the efficient use out of it. The entire land is enriched with several minerals and natural resources which are extracted through different means to make their best use possible for human nature. The key benefit of city is industrialization. It is basically the social and economic development related with technological innovation. It came on the map with the Britishers who came in the subcontinent and established the industrialization era. With the introduction of new machines, new factories and the craftsman who replaced the unskilled labor working in bulk caused a revolution in this part of the world. People found it more and more appealing to get employed in an industry as in worth enough to support an average family. For instance in British Central Africa the main economic venture was mining for which they required skillful labor and supervisors in surplus to carry out the process. The consequences were that the wage structure was designed with the assumption that the people working have left their families behind in rural areas and working hard to support their families waiting back (Little, 2004). Somehow the exposure to city makes it clear that city is a better choice to live with better earning and spending options. Due to industrialization the urbanites got better job opportunities. Industries became places that required labor and people to work for and with technology which also grants them the money to support their families. With better earnings people demand better living conditions like housing and transportation. PROBLEMS IN CITIES: However there are several reasons that industrialization which contributes to the pollution which eventually results in diseases and illnesses causing deaths. The byproduct were all discarded in the sea endangering the marine life and eventually human because of pollution produced due to the toxic gases released in air by the factories in their production process. Nevertheless with the developments of cities there are several services that are compulsory for any city to posses which includes the military services. The defense authorities need to be well prepared and available to safeguard the lives of their people. It is important to have a group of people to maintain the discipline and peace in the city so that people can live harmoniously. Governments spend large fortunes too modernize their armed forces with the updated and innovative weapons. It is important to have the military also to secure the natural resources available in a city for its people rather than giving it off. For instance often the government of different cities tries to invade the naturally enriched cities to extract the resources out for their own use. Military here helps to protect the possessions of the city. Edmund Burke quoted that education is the cheapest defense of a nation. Castells described cities as the nucleus and spoke of knowledge production and transmission of people around (Thrift, 2001). Education is basically the process of learning; people need to keep updated to live successfully in a city. People realize the importance of literacy in the current situation and thus prefer cities since they contain the best schools and colleges for children to learn and make something out of their skills to make their own distinguished identity. City is a place to make careers, because of the growth and advancement in technology it offers people with multiple opportunities to discover and polish their talents and work with it. It inspires people to create their own identity with their own distinguished properties just like the city has its own to be known (McGreevy, 1981). Education is the solid primary step to move towards employment and survival in the world. Most of the organizations running in the city require educated people to make them work in a systematic way to attain better benefits. SUSTAINABILITY OF CITIES: To satisfy the people around it is important to make a stable city. Peter Newman says that sustainability can only be achieved when the cities are composed as components of nested systems to maintain a balance. Melbourne principles are the set of objectives that explains how to pursue the path of urban stabilization. The first principle he introduces is of vision, this includes the differentiating properties of a city. It is used to improve the quality of interactions and relationships, the social lives of the city. It is the first step of monitoring indicating the advancement towards sustainability. The second principle, economy and society state the requirement of comprehending the social and environmental values in the economies. It is important for the people living in cities to realize the importance of the core values of their economy and society to live in peace and disciplined way. The third principle biodiversity which is one of the chief features of a city is described by the author saying that cities can actually protect the ecosystems remaining. Reducing the urban resources use is very important to in reducing bio diversity loss. The forth principles with the name of ecological footprint of a city explains the efficient measure of the land to fulfill the basic needs of the people living in a city. Modeling cities, the fifth principle which is the chief concept of the theory proposes three models to implement the work talked about. Models give the strategies that could be employed in to transform cities into networks. The priorities which have shaped cities according to requirements as the time have passed. Sixth principle, sense of place includes the distinctive characteristics of the city which unfolds the history, cultural and natural values of the people living in it. It gives the sense of recognition to the relationship people living in a city shares with the people living in it. Also in the seventh principle of empowerment he talks about how to get people involve an empower them. It is done by connecting the government business and the communities to develop a mutual relationship of sustainability. Lastly the importance of using the resources labor and technology in the most efficient way to promote sustainable production and consumption hoping a full support and acknowledgement from the government (Jennings, 2008). (9th and 10th principle) Apart from the business, religious or cultural reason city is said to be a place where people actually want to live in. therefore cities are designed such that it fulfils every possible needs and wants of the civilest. Apart from the basic organizations like hospitals, schools, jails, banks etc other places such as parks, museum, theatres, restaurants etc for people to enjoy their lives. However there are number of problems that people face when migrating to cities from rural areas. Global warming is a grave issue, with increase in population air, water and noise pollution is increasing badly. As the temperature of earth is increasing causing the glaciers melting which eventually results in floods or reciprocated effect of droughts in some areas. The increasing pollution causes major health problems like respiratory problems etc. people migrating in thousands have designed the concept of slums, people living in the suburbs together in unhygienic conditions causing health diseases which spreads like fire around. Due to increase in people showing up the competition has reached up the peak level which causes unemployment. People don’t have jobs which contribute to poverty. To make both ends meet some way people adopt criminal methods. With increase in number of urbanites the criminal rate has increased to a certain level, people have engaged in illegal activities to survive. Since people migrating needs some space to occupy the government needs to wipe off the forests to make room for the immigrants. This causes deforestation which results in cutting of trees and snatching the wild life environment from animals. Due to this we have faced a loss of certain species including plants and animals. Also deforestation causes the cutting of trees which takes back the work of cleaning the environment. The political instability and the economic issue also give a negative vibe to the concept of urbanization. With more number of people living in cities causes more problems and conflicts, which is sometimes difficult to handle. The law and order situation gets worse because of the criminal records. The huge population leads to different problems like traffic jams and accidents, also the urbanites become self centered and inhuman. When people gather around from different religions, cultures it causes conflicts between people ultimately increasing violence. (Morris, 1964) Cities are the legacy of people who lives in it. They pass the place to generations who mould it in their way and pass it further on to the next generation. That is the reason which keeps the tradition and cultural values alive. In most part of the world cities possess old unique houses and places that were constructed and some demolished when different people called a certain place their own city. In most parts of London and England there are old buildings and hoses that are present there since hundreds of years. The demolished cities give the idea of the people who used to live there, the land posses their remaining which are highly valued by the people today to know who our ancestors was. From the time of Adam people have stated to civilized and formed gathering but when these gathering created a place to live for their convenience and feasibility they formed cities. With further constructive innovation a normal piece of land is converted in to city. It’s not just a matter of making a large number of people gather around but what makes it a city is that those people wanting to live there for their benefits. Cities are not proclaimed they are existential. Bibliography Jennings, P. N. (2008). Cities as sustainable ecosystems: principles and practices . USA: Island Press. Little, K. (2004). Urbanization as a social process. London: Routlege Publications. Lynch, K. (1960). The image of the city . USA: Masachssetts Universtiy of Technology. McGreevy, J. (1981). Cities. C.N. Potter. Morris, J. (1964). Cities. Harcourt, Brace & World. OFlaherty, B. (2005). City Economics. Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Reader, J. (2004). Cities. USA: Grove Publishers. Scott, M. J. (1981). Urbanization and urban planning in capitalist society. USA: Metheun Co & Ltd. Thrift, A. A. (2001). Cities: reimagining the urban . USA: Blackwell Publishers. Read More