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The process of urbanization of the world's population is underway.

Urbanization is a socio-economic process expressed in the growth of urban settlements, the concentration of the population in them, especially in large cities, and the spread of the urban lifestyle throughout the entire network of settlements.

Hyperurbanization- these are zones of uncontrolled development of urban settlements and overload of the natural landscape (ecological balance is disturbed).

False urbanization- quite often used to characterize a situation in developing countries. In this case, urbanization is associated not so much with the development of urban functions, but with the “pushing out” of the population from rural areas as a result of relative agrarian overpopulation.

Hyper-urbanization is characteristic of developed countries, false urbanization is characteristic of developing countries.

Both of these problems are characteristic of Russia (false urbanization - to a lesser extent and in a slightly different form; in Russia it is caused by the inability of cities to provide the arriving population with the necessary social infrastructure).

Benefits of Urbanization

The process of urbanization helps to increase labor productivity, allows solving many social problems society.

Disadvantages of urbanization

In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in urbanization of the population. Urbanization is accompanied by the growth of large million-plus cities, environmental pollution near industrial centers, and deterioration of living conditions in the regions.

The technosphere was created for:

• Increased comfort
• Providing protection from natural negative influences

The urbanization process and its features

The city did not immediately become the dominant form of settlement. For many centuries, urban forms of life were the exception rather than the rule due to the dominance of forms of production based on subsistence farming and individual labor. Thus, in the era of classical slavery, the city was closely connected with land ownership and agricultural labor. During the feudal era city ​​life still bore within itself the features of its antipode - agriculture, therefore urban settlements were scattered over a vast area and weakly connected with each other. The predominance of the village as a form of settlement in this era was ultimately determined weak level development of productive forces, which did not allow a person to get any farther away from the land economically.

Relations between city and countryside begin to change under the influence of the development of productive forces. The objective basis of these processes was the transformation of urban production on the basis of manufacture, and then factories. Thanks to expanding urban production, the relative size of the urban population increased quite quickly. Industrial revolution in Europe at the end of the 15th century - the first half of the 19th century. radically transformed the appearance of cities. Factory towns become the most typical form of urban settlement. It was then that the road was opened to the rapid expansion of the “settlement” environment, artificially created by man in the process of his working life. These shifts in production gave rise to a new historical phase in the development of settlement, characterized by the triumph of urbanization, which means an increase in the proportion of the country's population living in cities and associated mainly with industrialization. Particularly high rates of urbanization were observed in the 19th century. due to population migration from rural areas.

IN modern world The intensive process of formation of agglomerations, conurbations, megacities, and urbanized regions continues.

Agglomeration- a cluster of settlements united into one whole by intensive economic, labor and socio-cultural ties. Formed around large cities, as well as in densely populated industrial areas. In Russia at the beginning of the 21st century. About 140 large urban agglomerations have emerged. They are home to 2/3 of the country's population, 2/3 of Russia's industrial and 90% of its scientific potential are concentrated.

Conurbation includes several merging or closely developing agglomerations (usually 3-5) with highly developed major cities. In Japan, 13 conurbations have been identified, including Tokyo, consisting of 7 agglomerations (27.6 million people), Nagoya - of 5 agglomerations (7.3 million people), Osaka, etc. The term “standard consolidated range”, introduced in the USA in 1963, is similar.

Megalopolis- a hierarchical settlement system in complexity and scale, consisting of large number conurbations and agglomerations. Megalopolises appeared in the middle of the 20th century. In UN terminology, a megalopolis is an entity with a population of at least 5 million inhabitants. At the same time, 2/3 of the territory of the megalopolis may not be built up. Thus, the Tokaido megalopolis consists of the Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka conurbations with a length of about 800 km along the coast. The number of megalopolises includes interstate formations, for example, the megalopolis of the Great Lakes (USA-Canada) or the Donetsk-Rostov agglomeration system (Russia-Ukraine). In Russia, the Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod settlement area can be called a megalopolis; The Ural megalopolis is born.

Urbanized region, which is formed by a network of megalopolises, is considered a more complex, large-scale and territorially extensive settlement system. Emerging urbanized regions include London-Paris-Ruhr, the Atlantic coast North America and etc.

The basis for identifying such systems are cities with a population of over 100 thousand people or more. Special place Among them are “millionaire” cities. In 1900 there were only 10 of them, but now there are more than 400. It is cities with a population of one million that develop into agglomerations and contribute to the creation of more complex settlement and urban planning systems - conurbations, megalopolises and super-large formations - urbanized regions.

Currently, urbanization is due to the scientific and technological revolution, changes in the structure of productive forces and the nature of labor, deepening connections between types of activities, as well as information connections.

Common features of urbanization in the world are:

• preservation of interclass social structures and population groups, the division of labor that assigns the population to their place of residence;
• intensification of socio-spatial connections that determine the formation of complex settlement systems and their structures;
• integration of the rural area (as the settlement sphere of the village) with the urban area and narrowing of the functions of the village as a socio-economic subsystem;
• high concentration of activities such as science, culture, information, management, and an increase in their role in the country’s economy;
• increased regional polarization of economic urban planning and, as a consequence, social development within countries.

Features of urbanization in developed countries are manifested in the following:

• slowdown in growth rates and stabilization of the share of the urban population in the total population of the country. A slowdown is observed when the share of the urban population exceeds 75%, and stabilization occurs when the share of the urban population exceeds 80%. This level of urbanization is observed in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and;
• stabilization and influx of population into certain regions of the countryside;
• cessation of demographic growth of metropolitan agglomerations, concentrating population, capital, socio-cultural and management functions. Moreover, in recent years, in the metropolitan agglomerations of the USA, Great Britain, Australia, Germany and Japan, a process of deconcentration of production and population has emerged, manifested in the outflow of population from the cores of the agglomerations to their external zones and even outside the agglomerations;
• change ethnic composition cities due to the ongoing migration of facies from developing countries. The high birth rate in migrant families significantly influences the decrease in the share of the “titular” population of cities;
• placement of new jobs in the external zones of the agglomeration and even beyond them.

Modern urbanization has led to deepening socio-territorial differences. A kind of payment for the concentration and economic efficiency of production in the conditions of urbanization was the territorial and social polarization constantly reproduced in the most developed countries between backward and advanced areas, between central areas of cities and suburbs; the emergence of unfavorable environmental conditions and, as a result, a deterioration in the health of the urban population, especially the poor.

Suburbanization(the rapid growth of the suburban area around large cities), the first signs of which appeared before the Second World War, affected primarily the wealthy strata and was a form of their escape from the social ills of the big city.

Urbanization in Russia

IN Russian Empire by the beginning of the 20th century. 20% of the country’s urban population was concentrated in the central area, while in Siberia and in Far East the urban population did not exceed 3% with cities of 100,000 people Novosibirsk, Irkutsk and Vladivostok; the scientific base of the huge region was Tomsk University. Settlement in rural areas, where 82% of the country's population lived, was characterized by extreme fragmentation, overpopulation of some areas and forced military-agricultural colonization of others (mainly national outskirts). In the North, Kazakhstan and Central Asia, the population led a nomadic lifestyle. In rural settlements there was a complete lack of socio-cultural services and well-maintained roads. As a result, there was a huge social and spatial distance between the big cities, which concentrated almost the entire potential of culture, and the countryside. In 1920, the number of literate people accounted for 44% of the country's population, including 32% of women, and among the rural population - 37 and 25%, respectively.

By the beginning of 1926, the country's settlement base consisted of 1,925 urban settlements, which were home to 26 million people, or 18% of the country's population, and about 860 thousand. rural settlements. The framework of centers of settlement and cultural development was represented by only 30 cities, of which Moscow and Leningrad were million-plus cities.

The process of urbanization in the USSR was associated with the rapid concentration of production in large cities, the creation of numerous new cities in areas of new development and, accordingly, with the movement of huge masses of the population from villages to cities and its high concentration in large and largest urban settlements.

This stage of urbanization was characterized by the following negative features, due to the fact that the settlement and organization of society occurred primarily on the basis of sectoral economic criteria: extensive growth of large cities, insufficient development of small and medium-sized cities; inattention and underestimation of the role of rural settlements as a social environment; slow overcoming of socio-territorial differences.

In modern Russia, the process of urbanization is also associated with serious contradictions. The tendency towards property polarization of the population within urban communities leads to the segregation of the poor population, pushing them to the “sidelines” of city life. The economic crisis and political instability stimulate unemployment and internal migration, as a result of which, due to the excessive influx of population, many cities live in large numbers. more population, than they are able to “digest”. Population growth in cities, significantly outpacing the demand for labor, is accompanied not only by an absolute, but sometimes by a relative expansion of those strata that do not participate in modern production. These processes lead to an increase in urban unemployment and the development in cities of an unorganized sector of the economy engaged in small-scale production and services. In addition, there is a noticeable growth in the criminal sector, including both the “shadow” economy and organized crime.

Be that as it may, city life and city culture have become an organic social environment. At the beginning of the 21st century. The majority of Russians are native city dwellers. They will set the tone for the development of society, and how systems are formed now social management How the social environment changes will affect the lives of new generations.

SECTION 4. THE CURRENT STAGE OF URBAN SETTLEMENT DEVELOPMENT

XX century called the age of urbanization. Urban settlement developed especially rapidly during this period. Intensive urbanization processes have attracted increased attention from specialists in many fields of knowledge, as a result of which general patterns development of urban settlement in different countries world, theories of urbanization were created in various sciences - geography, economics, sociology, etc. The stage of accelerated development of urbanization processes took place in the 20th century. and our country. But before we consider the global patterns of urbanization development and their manifestation in Russia, let us dwell on the general picture of urban settlement in the modern world.

World processes of urbanization in the 20th century.

As noted above, urbanization is the increasing importance of urban settlements in different areas life of society. To one degree or another, urbanization processes are covering almost all areas of life in modern society. In its most general form, this is manifested in the formation and increasingly widespread dissemination of a modern urban lifestyle, which in the future, apparently, will cover all of humanity. But lifestyle is a qualitative characteristic that is difficult to formalize when comparing different territories, and strongly depends on many characteristics of the population and economy of specific societies (population composition, natural resource potential and etc.). Therefore, the development of urbanization processes is usually judged by several characteristics of the population, which narrow the meaning of this concept, but are relatively easily reflected by quantitative statistical indicators. The most widely used of these indicators are:

Number of urban settlements, including large and largest ones;

Urban population;

The share of the urban population, including the population living in large and major cities.

For the planet as a whole, the change in some of these indicators throughout the 20th century. presented & table 4.1. It is clearly seen that over the course of this century, the number of city dwellers on Earth has increased by more than 13 times, and their share has come close to half of the planet’s inhabitants. At the same time, ever larger cities were formed. Including currently there are more than 20 cities and urban agglomerations with a population of more than 10 million people. Whereas at the beginning of the century the largest cities were a few millionaire cities. It is in these largest urban settlements that a gradual concentration of urban residents occurs. And today, every fifth person on Earth lives not just in a city, but in a very large urban settlement with a population of more than 1 million people. In the near future, no slowdown in urbanization rates is expected.

Table 4.1 Changes in the main indicators of urbanization in the 20th century

All the indicators listed in the table characterize the degree of urbanization of a society, reflecting certain important processes of urbanization - the growth in the number of urban settlements, including large-sized settlements, the concentration of the population in ever larger urban formations, the increase in the number and share of the urban population. The most generalized indicator is the last indicator, which characterizes the urban population not only in itself, but also in comparison with the rural one, i.e., it reflects the importance of urban settlements in the entire settlement structure of a given territory. Therefore, the indicator of the share of the urban population is also called an indicator of the level of urbanization (urbanization) and it is by it, first of all, that the development of urbanization processes in any particular territory or on the Earth as a whole is judged.

Several threshold values ​​for the level of urbanization can be identified.

1. If it is less than 10%, then the territory is practically unurbanized. And in urban settlements, as a rule, the rural way of life predominates, i.e., the differences between rural and urban settlements are relatively small. All of them are predominantly rural in nature. The number and proportion of urban residents are growing very slowly.

2. If the level of urbanization is less than 25%, then rural settlement still clearly predominates (i.e., the territory is poorly urbanized), but the urban lifestyle is already prominent, which becomes attractive to a significant proportion of rural residents. Therefore, the urban population begins to grow rapidly, new urban settlements are formed en masse, and the differences between them and rural settlements increase.

3. When the level of urbanization reaches 50%, urban settlement begins to predominate over rural settlement (medium urbanized area). The growth rate of the number and share of the urban population during this period is the highest. Urban settlements differ sharply from rural ones in most characteristics.

4. Upon reaching the level of urbanization of 75%, urban settlement begins to clearly prevail over rural settlement (highly urbanized territory). The urban lifestyle is beginning to spread into rural areas - starting with suburban areas largest cities, where new urban settlements are predominantly formed. At the same time, the growth rate of the number and share of the urban population is slowing down sharply.

5. Upon reaching the level of urbanization W)%, the territory becomes almost completely urbanized. The urban lifestyle, as a rule, extends to the entire network of rural settlements, that is, the differences between urban and rural settlements again practically disappear, since all settlements acquire an urban character. The number and proportion of urban residents are growing very slowly, and in some cases even declining.

As socio-economic development progresses, individual states pass these threshold levels of urbanization, becoming increasingly urbanized. But since at any given moment in time different territories differ significantly in the level of socio-economic development, strong differentiation arises in the level and pace of urbanization. Thus, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium already at the beginning of the 20th century. were predominantly urbanized countries (more than 75% urban), and the proportion of their urban population continued to grow. The share of city dwellers increased at the fastest pace in medium-urbanized countries (USA, Germany, France - the share of city dwellers was about 50%). Whereas in most areas of the world at that time the urban population did not reach 10%, and this share increased very slowly. The average level of urbanization on Earth was about 14%. And it could be noted that countries with a higher level of urbanization also had faster growth rates of this level, i.e. differentiation increased.

At the beginning of the 21st century. differentiation in terms of the level and pace of urbanization is also great, but has a different character. The most developed countries have 90% or more urban residents, and in them the level of urbanization is almost not growing or even decreasing. Whereas most developing countries have from 10 to 75% city dwellers, and their level of urbanization is rapidly increasing. Therefore, it can be noted that in countries with lower levels of urbanization it is growing faster than in countries with high levels. As a result, the differentiation in this indicator between individual countries of the world is decreasing.

Nevertheless, even now, differences in the share of the urban population are clearly visible even at the level of regions of the world (Table 4.2). The indicators of the level of urbanization in Northern and Latin America, Foreign Europe, Australia and Oceania. Although at the beginning of the 20th century. the differences in the indicator between these regions exceeded "3 times, and in the middle of the century -1.5 times. Particularly noteworthy is the increase in the level of urbanization in Latin America, which at the beginning of the century was below the world average, and at the end of the century significantly exceeds the world average. The share is below the world level urban population is currently only in Africa and Overseas Asia. But it is growing here at the fastest pace, and most states can already be considered medium-urbanized (the share of the urban population is about 50%). Although there are still several virtually unurbanized states, the largest in terms of population is Uganda.

The main differentiating influence on the level of urbanization is, of course, socio-economic factors. In general, we can say that the higher the level of socio-economic development of a particular territory (country), the higher the proportion of the urban population. But in some cases, natural factors are also significant, namely, the unfavorability of natural conditions for farming and human life. If the socio-economic development of such territories did take place (due to the presence of mineral resources, profitable geographical location and for other reasons), then the population can be concentrated in urban settlements to a very high degree (over 90%), which does not reflect the real level of development of the territory. Thus, in the deserted but developed oil-producing state of Kuwait, the share of the urban population exceeds 90%. And the most urbanized African state is Djibouti, where there is a relatively large port-capital. A similar situation has developed in some northern and eastern regions of Russia (Murmansk, Magadan regions, etc.).

Table 4.2

Level of urbanization of world regions

Throughout the 20th century. The number of urban settlements has increased many times over. The intensive process of formation of new cities covered all regions of the world, except for foreign Europe (where city ​​network by the beginning of the 20th century. mostly already formed). At the same time, urban settlements were formed en masse in poorly urbanized areas - both by founding new cities "on empty space", and by transforming the largest rural settlements into cities, in which urban functions were developed, i.e., urbanization spread in breadth. But gradually, an increasingly significant proportion of urban settlements appeared in already highly urbanized territories, forming complex systems with existing cities. This form of settlement is called urban agglomerations.

The first urban agglomerations were formed in the second half of the 19th century. either around the largest cities (London, Paris, New York, etc.), or in areas close to a large number of individual relatively small cities (the sea coast of the Netherlands, the Ruhr coal basin in Germany, etc.). Agglomerations of the first type are called monocentric (since they have one main center), and the second type are called polycentric (they have several centers of approximately equal importance). Monocentric agglomerations have become more widespread, although there are quite a lot of polycentric agglomerations in the modern world - mainly in basin-type mining areas.

By the end of the 20th century. urban agglomerations have become the main form of settlement in the most urbanized regions of the world, almost completely replacing isolated cities (which survive in relatively sparsely urbanized areas, but concentrate only a small share of the urban population). Urban agglomerations are developing rapidly in moderately and even poorly urbanized countries, but they are not numerous in them. Very often this is only one agglomeration, formed around the largest city in the country (capital or economic capital).

Thus, urban agglomerations are interconnected groups of settlements, primarily urban, united by labor, cultural, recreational, infrastructure, production and other connections. The most important are considered labor relations, which, within the framework of the daily cycle, through pendulum migrations of residents, connect individual settlements into a single whole?. At the same time, such commuter migrants work or study mainly in the main city (core) of the agglomeration, and live in other settlements. Cultural, everyday and recreational connections between settlements are carried out mainly within the framework of a weekly cycle, although in terms of mass they can exceed daily work trips. Infrastructure connections are manifested in the joint use of large transport facilities (railroads, airports, etc.) and municipal facilities (water intakes, wastewater treatment plants) by populated areas of the agglomeration. Production connections are carried out between enterprises within the framework of cooperation, when branches, component suppliers, product warehouses, experimental testing grounds of an enterprise from one city of the agglomeration (usually its main center) are located in other localities of the agglomeration.

Scientists various countries have different approaches to defining the boundaries of urban agglomerations. In foreign Europe, the external border of an agglomeration is in many cases determined at the end of continuous urban development. In this understanding, the agglomeration coincides with the actual city and is often called conurbation. Thus, the population of the Moscow agglomeration (conurbation) is estimated by European scientists at 10-11 million people. Domestic studies within the agglomeration include all settlements, a significant proportion of whose residents are connected by work trips with the main city of the agglomeration. Typically, such points are located no further than a 1.5-hour drive from the core of the agglomeration. With this approach, the population of the Moscow agglomeration is estimated at 12.5-14 million people. In the United States, standard metropolitan statistical areas (SMSA) are distinguished as agglomerations, which entirely include primary territorial units (counties) that meet certain criteria of connection with the main city, which must have at least 50 thousand inhabitants (continuity of development is also taken into account , and labor connections, and population density).

Ultimately, regardless of the methods for determining the boundaries of urban agglomerations, in developed countries population estimates are currently given specifically for agglomerations, and not for cities within their legal boundaries. The same applies to the largest cities in developing countries. Indeed, identifying individual settlements within an agglomeration “when viewed from the outside” (from outside the agglomeration) does not make sense, since this is a single socio-economic system, artificially divided by historically established legal boundaries (the boundaries of individual settlements). Thus, the population of Paris within the legal boundaries of the city is currently about 2 million people. But no one doubts that many formally independent settlements outside the city limits (for example, the Défense skyscraper district) are also Paris. And the total population of the Paris agglomeration (“Greater Paris”) is estimated at 11-12 million people. List of the largest urban agglomerations in the world as of the beginning of the 21st century. presented in table. 4.3.

It is noteworthy that at the beginning of the 20th century. the largest agglomeration on Earth was London (with 4.5 million inhabitants), which today ranks 20th. Accordingly, over a hundred years the population of London has grown by approximately 2.5 times. And the first agglomeration with a population of over 10 million people. in the 1940s became New York, which is currently in 7th place. For the 20th century The population of this city increased approximately 10 times. The population of today's leader, Tokyo, has grown about 30 times in 100 years. But the population of most of today's largest urban agglomerations has grown 100 times or more over the past 100 years (Mexico City, Seoul, Sao Paulo, etc.). It is precisely these ultra-high rates of urban growth in large developing countries (about 5% of annual population growth on average over 100 years) that have formed the modern list of the largest agglomerations in the world, almost 2/3 of which are located in developing countries.

Table 4.3 Largest urban agglomerations in the world

№	Agglomeration	Population, million people	A country
	Tokyo	31,0	Japan
	Mexico City	21,0	Mexico
	Seoul	19,9	Korea
	Sao Paulo	18,5	Brazil
	Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe	17,6	Japan
	Jakarta	17,4	Indonesia
	NY	17,0	USA
	Delhi	16,7	India
	Bombay	16,7	India
	Los Angeles	16,6	USA
	Cairo	15,6	Egypt
	Calcutta	13,8	India
	Manila	13,5	Philippines
	Buenos Aires	12,9	Argentina
	Moscow	12,1	Russia
	Shanghai	11,9	China
	Rhine-Ruhr	11,3	Germany
	Paris	11,3	France
	Rio de Janeiro	11,3	Brazil
	London	11,2	Great Britain
	Tehran	11,0	Iran
	Chicago	10,9	USA
	Karachi	10,3	Pakistan
	Dhaka	10,2	Bangladesh

Over time, suburban settlements within agglomerations begin to develop faster than the central city, including due to the movement of some residents from the central city to the suburbs. This process is called suburbanization (from Latin word suburb - suburb). At the same time, residents are being “pushed” out of central cities by the difficult environmental situation, rising crime, high real estate costs, high taxes and other conditions, which are much better in suburban settlements.

A necessary condition suburbanization is the development of transport to ensure transportation between the place of residence and the place of work, since the majority of those moving continue to work in the main city. That is why the first signs of suburbanization appeared in developed countries after the development of suburban railway services. But intensive suburbanization began only with the mass motorization of the population, since only a personal car provides a fairly high degree of freedom in the relative location of place of residence and place of work.

Initially, the wealthiest segments of the population, the elite of society, move to the suburbs. By doing this, they create a model of behavior for the rest of the population that cannot be implemented for material reasons. But as the welfare of society grows, increasingly wider masses of the population are involved in resettlement. Intensive suburbanization is associated with the relocation of the large “middle” class in developed countries. Following the relocation of residents, industry and other areas of employment begin to move to the suburbs. The movement of trade and services is directly related to the resettlement of residents and occurs almost simultaneously with it. Management functions are also moving to the suburbs to some extent. However, the movement of jobs to the suburbs is still happening to a lesser extent than the relocation of residents.

Currently, most developed countries have already passed the stage of suburbanization. As a result, the bulk of the urban population in these countries lives in the suburbs. And the crisis of the main cities, which was one of the reasons for suburbanization, intensified even more as a result. Major cities lost much of their tax base and lost jobs. Accordingly, unemployment increased, the concentration of marginal layers of the population with low incomes increased, etc. Therefore, in the first decades after the Second World War, most developed countries implemented government programs aimed at deconcentrating the population and economy, spurring suburbanization, then last decades State and local programs are aimed at revitalizing urban centers. Although mainly not as places of residence, but as places of concentration of various progressive types of activities.

But urban agglomerations are not the final form of development of Yurod settlement. In some areas that are especially attractive for urban development, neighboring agglomerations are growing and merging with their peripheral parts. Sometimes smaller agglomerations fall into the zone of influence of a larger agglomeration and become second-order agglomerations. The resulting systems of 3-5 agglomerations are called urbanized areas. In Russia, similar areas have formed around the Moscow agglomeration, along the Volga, along the eastern slopes Ural mountains, in the Kuznetsk coal basin.

In some cases, as a rule, along the most important transport routes, the number of merged agglomerations can be dozens. These currently largest forms of urban settlement are called urbanized zones or megalopolises. Megalopolis was originally the proper name of the first such urban structure, which was described in the 1950s. French urbanist J. Gottman in the northeastern United States, as a result, similar formations were formed in

other regions of the Earth. The characteristics of the largest megalopolises on Earth are presented in Table. 4.4.

Man is, of course, a social being, striving for the company of other people. That is why it continues to rapidly “flow” into big cities. On the other hand, man is a natural being. It is an integral part, a link of the natural landscape. Thus, cities and - without industry - remain today the two main axes around which the life of modern society revolves.

In this article we will look at concepts related to the section of urban studies. What is suburbanization, deurbanization and urbanization? What is the meaning of these three concepts?

The meaning of the concept "urbanization"

The term "urbanization" comes from the Latin word "urbanus", which translates as "urban". Urbanization (in a broad sense) refers to the growing role of the city in the life of individuals and society. In a narrower sense, this is the process of urban population growth and the “flow” of residents from cities and megacities.

Urbanization, as a socio-economic phenomenon and process, began to be actively discussed in the mid-twentieth century, when the percentage of the urban population began to increase rapidly. The reason for this was the development of industry in cities, the emergence of new ones in them, as well as the development of cultural and educational functions in urban settlements.

Scientists highlight several aspects of urbanization processes, namely:

• outflow of population from rural areas to cities;
• transformation of villages and villages into urban-type settlements;
• formation of large and integral suburban settlement areas.

To the questions “what is suburbanization, urbanization, deurbanization, ruralization?” answers the science of geourbanism - one of the important sections of modern social geography.

Closely related to the concept of “urbanization” is the so-called phenomenon of false urbanization, which is typical for such regions of the world as Latin America and Southeast Asia. What is false urbanization? In essence, this is unjustified urban growth, which is not accompanied by the necessary growth in jobs and the development of appropriate infrastructure. As a result, the rural population is simply “pushed out” to large cities. False urbanization, as a rule, is accompanied by a surge in unemployment and the appearance within the city of so-called “slums” - city blocks not intended for normal human life.

Level of urbanization in different countries of the world

The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs annually prepares the next ranking of urbanization of the countries of the world. These studies have been conducted since 1980.

The level of urbanization is the percentage of urban population to the total population of a country. And it is not the same in different countries of the world. Thus, the highest rates of urbanization (if you do not take into account dwarf states consisting of one city) were recorded in Qatar, Kuwait, Belgium and Malta. In all these countries, urbanization rates exceed 95%. Also, the level of urbanization is quite high in Iceland, Argentina, Japan, Israel, Venezuela and Uruguay (above 90%).

Russia's indicator in this ranking, according to UN estimates, is 74%. At the bottom of the urbanization ranking are Papua New Guinea and Burundi (with urbanization rates of 12.6 and 11.5%, respectively). In Europe, Moldova has the lowest urbanization rate (49 percent).

Concept of urban agglomeration

Urban agglomerations are a phenomenon that is inextricably linked with the process of urbanization. This is the process of uniting neighboring urban settlements into one complex and whole system. Within this system, stable and intensive connections are formed: production, transport, scientific and cultural. Urban agglomerations are one of the natural stages of urbanization processes.

There are two main types of agglomerations:

• monocentric (formed on the basis of one central core city);
• polycentric (a cluster of several equivalent urban settlements).

The urban agglomeration is characterized by the following distinctive features:

1. Connection of the central city with other cities and settlements adjacent to it (without significant territorial gaps).
2. The share of built-up areas in the agglomeration must necessarily exceed the percentage of agricultural land.
3. Any agglomeration is characterized by daily pendulum migrations - labor, educational, cultural and tourist.

According to the UN, there are at least 450 urban agglomerations on our planet, each of which is home to at least one million people. The largest agglomeration in the world is the Tokyo metropolitan area, which is home to about 35 million people. The leading countries in terms of the total number of urban agglomerations are: China, USA, India, Brazil and Russia.

Urban agglomerations in Russia

It is interesting that in Russia at the state level there is no accounting of urban agglomerations within the country. Therefore, actual data on this matter may differ slightly from each other.

However, it is customary to distinguish 22 agglomerations on the territory of Russia. The largest of them are the following (the approximate population is indicated in brackets):

1. Moscow (about 16 million).
2. St. Petersburg (5.6 million).
3. Samara-Togliatti (2.3 million).
4. Ekaterinburgskaya (2.2 million).
5. Rostov (1.7 million).

High industrialization of the territory is typical for Russian urban agglomerations, high level infrastructure development, a large number of research and higher education educational institutions. The bulk of agglomerations in Russia are monocentric, that is, they have one, clearly defined center, under which all other settlements and suburbs are subordinate.

Suburbanization: definition of the concept

Now it is worth considering other concepts that are actively used in urbanism. Suburbanization - what is this concept and what is its essence?

This term came into active use in the second half of the twentieth century. Suburbanization is a phenomenon accompanied by the active development of suburbs - areas located around large cities.

Towards the end of the last century, an increasing number of people began to move to the outskirts of cities, away from the noise of factories and dirty air and closer to natural landscapes. At the same time, such “migrants” do not start plowing the land and raising chickens. They continue to work in the city, spending several hours every day to get to their place of work. Of course, suburbanization became possible only thanks to the development of mass motorization.

From urbanization to suburbanization!

Recently, The Economist magazine published an interesting article entitled "Planet of the Suburbs." According to the text of this article, suburbanization is nothing more than “disguised” urbanization! Indeed, all over the world today, cities and megalopolises are growing exclusively at the expense of suburbs. The Economist names only two modern megacities as exceptions: London and Tokyo.

And now we can observe an interesting picture: if 30-40 years ago the outskirts became a “home” for the poorer segments of the population, today everything has changed diametrically. And now luxury housing blocks can increasingly be seen in suburban areas.

What is deurbanization?

Finally, we need to understand one more concept. Disurbanization is a process opposite to urbanization (from the French “dez” means negation).

Disurbanization is characterized by the processes of population settlement outside cities. In a more global sense, this term also means a denial of the positive role of the city in the life of society. The main goal of the theory of disurbanization is to eliminate all

Finally...

Urbanization, deurbanization, suburbanization... All these concepts are very closely related to each other. If urbanization is the process of increasing the role of the city in the life of society, then suburbanization is, on the contrary, the outflow of the population to suburban areas.

And countries. Urbanization is the growth of cities, the increase specific gravity urban population in the country, region, world. Urbanization is accompanied by the concentration of socio-economic functions in cities, an increase in their role in the entire life of society, the spread of an urban lifestyle and the formation of networks and settlement systems.

Modern urbanization - as a worldwide process - has three general features, typical for most countries.

The first feature is the rapid growth rate of the urban population (Table 22).

Table 22

Dynamics urban population world in the XX - early XXI centuries.

From the table it follows that during the 20th century. The number of city dwellers in the world has increased 13 times! Only in 1950-1970. it increased by more than 80%, and in 1970-1990. - almost 70%. Nowadays, the urban population is growing approximately 3 times faster than the rural population due to massive Migrations into cities and the administrative transformation of rural settlements into urban ones. This trend should continue in the first quarter of the 21st century. According to forecasts, in 2025 the number of urban residents will exceed 5 billion people, and their share of the world population will rise to 61%. This means that the load on the environment natural environment will increase even more.

The second feature is the continuing concentration of the urban population, primarily in large cities. This is explained by the nature of production, the complexity of its connections with science, education, and the development of the non-production sphere. Big cities usually satisfy people’s spiritual needs more fully, provide better abundance and variety of goods and services, and access to information.

At the beginning of the 20th century. there were 360 ​​large cities in the world (with a population of over 100 thousand inhabitants), in which only 5% of the total urban population lived. At the end of the 1980s. there are already 2.5 thousand such cities, and their share in the world population has exceeded V3; To beginning of XXI V. the number of large cities reached 4 thousand. Among large cities, it is customary to especially highlight the largest millionaire cities with a population of over 1 million inhabitants. At the beginning of the 20th century. there were only 10 of them in the early 1980s. - more than 200, and by the beginning of the 21st century. became approximately 400. In Russia in 2009 there were 11 millionaire cities.

The third feature is the “sprawling” of cities, the expansion of their territory. For modern stage urbanization is especially characterized by the transition from a “spot” city to urban agglomerations - compact spatial groupings of urban settlements, united by diverse and intensive production, labor and cultural connections. The cores of such agglomerations are usually capitals, large industrial, port, administrative and other centers. Recently, to characterize the largest cities in the world, as a rule, data on the agglomerations formed by them are used, since this approach is more correct (Table 23).

Many of these agglomerations have transformed into even more large entities- megalopolises (clusters of agglomerations), urbanized areas.

Levels and rates of urbanization. With the global average level of urbanization currently at 50%, individual regions vary greatly in this indicator (Table 24).

The differences between individual countries are even greater.

Table 23

Agglomeration	Million inhabitants	Agglomeration	Million inhabitants
1. Tokyo	33,8	11. Osaka	16,7
2. Seoul	23,9	12. Kol kata	16,0
3. Mexico City	22,9	13. Karachi	15,7
4. Delhi	22,4	14. Guangzhou	15,3
5. Mumbai	22,3	15. Jakarta	15,1
6. New York	21,9	16. Cairo	14,8
7. Sao Paulo	21,0	17. Buenos Aires	13,8
8. Manila	19,2	18. Moscow	13,5
9. Los Angeles	18,0	19. Beijing	13,2
10. Shanghai	17,9	20. Dhaka	13,1

Table 24

Urbanization rate by region of the world in 2008

Highly urbanized those countries where the share of the urban population exceeds 50% can be considered. This group includes virtually all economically developed countries, as well as many developing countries. Among them, the “champion” countries, where the level of urbanization exceeds 80%, stand out, for example, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Australia, Argentina, and the United Arab Emirates.

Mid-urbanized countries have an urban population share of 20 to 50%. This group includes most developing countries in Asia (China, India, Indonesia, etc.), Africa (Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, etc.) and some Latin American countries (Bolivia, Guatemala, etc.).

Slightly urbanized countries are those where the proportion of urban population is below 20%. It includes the most backward countries in the world, mainly in Africa. In some of them (Burundi), less than 10% of all residents live in cities.

The differences in urbanization levels between developed and developing countries are quite large: 75% and 42%, respectively. The situation is completely different with the pace of urbanization. In the economically developed countries of the world and in some developing countries in Latin America, where the level of urbanization is very high, the share of the urban population is either not growing at all or is growing slowly. In developing countries, on the contrary, in recent decades there has been a real “urban explosion”: both the number of cities and their population are growing rapidly. For example, in 1990, there were already 115 “millionaire” agglomerations in Asia, 40 in Latin America, and 24 in Africa. It also follows from Table 23 that developing countries have already become leaders in the number of super-large agglomerations. If in 1950, out of the 20 largest agglomerations in the world, only 7 were located in developing countries, then in 2005 - already 15 (including 6 of them were in the top ten).

As a result, the total number of urban residents in this group of countries increased from 304 million people in 1950 to 1.9 billion people in 2005, or 6.7 times, and in 2010 it will most likely exceed 2.5 billion people. Already in 1975, the number of urban residents in developing countries exceeded their number in developed countries, and by 2005 this preponderance increased to 1 billion people.

However, it must be taken into account that the growth in the share of the urban population in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America is much faster than the actual development of these countries. It occurs largely due to the constant “pushing” of the surplus rural population into cities, especially large ones, where such migrants join the ranks of disadvantaged people living in poverty. Therefore, this type of urbanization is sometimes called “false urbanization.”

Questions and tasks to prepare for the exam

1. Explain the concept of “population explosion”. Where and why did it spread?
2. What is called reproduction (natural movement) of the population? Describe the first and second types of population reproduction and the features of their distribution.
3. What is included in the concept of “population quality”?
4. Name the largest nations of the world.
5. Give brief description world religions and name the number of their adherents.
6. Show on the map the most and least populated areas of the world and explain the reasons for their occurrence. Explain the contrasts in population density across major regions and countries.
7. Describe the geography of modern international population migrations.
8. What forms of urban and rural settlement exist?
9. Give examples of highly, medium and poorly urbanized countries and explain the patterns of their location.
10. Name the largest cities in the world.

Maksakovsky V.P., Petrova N.N., Physical and economical geography peace. - M.: Iris-press, 2010. - 368 pp.: ill.

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