urbanization

Narrowly defined, urbanization refers to city formation. The earliest cities date from about the fourth millennium BCE. In the Middle Ages the expansion of long-distance trade and mercantile capitalism stimulated the growth of major European cities. There is significant controversy about the relationship between urbanization, feudal decline, and the growth of capitalism .

Most sociological attention has focused on the large-scale urbanization accompanying industrialization and the emergence of modern societies. Although there is no invariant relationship between levels of economic development and urbanization, the term ‘under-urbanization’ is often used to describe the situation in (former) state socialist countries, where the growth of industrial agglomerations is not matched by a sufficient expansion of housing and urban infrastructure for the workforce. Similarly, the term ‘over-urbanization’ is applied to Third World cities which have large populations that cannot be absorbed into the formal economy. As the social changes accompanying industrialization diffuse throughout national territories the sociological significance of urbanization diminishes. In such urbanized societies the term may carry a wider meaning, signifying possession of an advanced industrial economy, and modernized social structure. See also urbanism.