Every morning, over 37 million people in Tokyo start their everyday lives – and this number includes only residents, not business or leisure travelers. Tokyo is the world’s largest city, a gigantic metropolis, and yet no exception. More and more people around the world are moving to big cities.
Cities are growing faster than their capacity to accommodate and care for new residents. Chaotic huge cities often emerge in which people compete for jobs and accommodation. But what are the causes and consequences of metropolitanization, and what problems does metropolitanization cause?
Metropolization – Definition
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Metropolises are populous large cities their economic, political, scientific and cultural significance far surpassing other cities in the same country. Whether a large city is categorized as a metropolis depends on the context: the more populous a country is, the more residents cities need to be considered a metropolis.
Even if it is not possible to set an exact number as to when a city is classified as a metropolis, exceeding five million inhabitants is considered a guideline.
The ratio of the population of metropolitan areas compared to other parts of a country is also demographic primacy and determined based on the degree of metropolisation. You calculate it Degree of metropolisationby dividing the total population of a country by the number of inhabitants of the largest city.
A large proportion of the total population, 49%, lived in South Korea’s capital Seoul and the associated Sudogwon metropolitan area in 2012, which is one Degree of metropolisation of 49% corresponds.
In addition, it carries functional primacy – i.e. the economic, political, scientific and cultural relevance compared to other cities in the same country – contributes to whether a city is considered a metropolis or not.
Metropolisation is one of them process which upsets the balance of rural, small town and metropolitan importance of a country.
The term Metropolization refers to the disproportionate population growth in metropolises compared to the rest of the urban and rural parts of a country.
The point at which the number of inhabitants in metropolises is considered disproportionate is determined based on the Index of Primacy measured. You determine the Index of Primacy using the quotient of the largest and second largest city in a country. If the result is greater than two, one speaks of strong metropolitanization.
Around 9.59 million people lived in Seoul in 2020. South Korea’s second largest city, Busan, on the other hand, had a significantly smaller population of around 3.35 million. The Index of Primacy You calculate as follows: 9.59 : 3.35 = 2.86. In South Korea we therefore speak of strong metropolitanization.
Metropolization – Causes
The origins of metropolitanization are diverse and controversial. The most significant causes include:
A general trigger for the growth of large cities is this growth of population. A country’s population increases when a population’s birth rates exceed its death rates, or when more people immigrate to a country than emigrate. The former is predominantly decisive for metropolitanization in developing countries, the latter applies more to metropolitanization in industrialized countries.
Gigantic metropolises are mainly emerging in developing and emerging countries. Here, the living standards of the rural population are particularly low, so people move from rural areas to the city. This process is also called Rural exodus designated. There are many metropolises, especially in emerging countries such as Brazil, China and India, for example Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Beijing, Mumbai and Delhi.
Although a general increase in the population explains why the absolute number of inhabitants of large cities is increasing, it does not explain why the population proportions in large cities are increasing more than in other places. There are various theories to explain this process.
Metropolitanization – Historical developments
In Europe and North America developed as a result industrialization and functional concentration megacities as early as the middle of the 20th century. In the course of industrialization it came to urbanization: Due to the increased employment opportunities in industry, the rural population increasingly moved to the cities, which rapidly developed into populous functional centers.
In Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia, the origins of megacities lie primarily in colonization.
The term colonization refers to the domination of a culturally alien group over locals, and involves the brutal subjugation and exploitation of local populations, nature and resources.
With the aim of control and efficiency, capitals or major port cities became the political and economic centers of the colonial rulers. This Over-centralization The result was that even after the colonial powers withdrew, the population increased rapidly, especially in these cities.
You can find out more about colonization in this explanation of imperialism.
Metropolitanization – Push and pull factors
After metropolises emerge, their further growth is encouraged by so-called push and pull factors.
As push and Pull factors refers to the motives for migration movements that arise from the different attractiveness of emigration and immigration areas.
On the one hand, people turn away from life in the country due to poor living conditions, and on the other hand, they are attracted by the expectations of life in the city. Especially in the metropolitan areas of developing countries The difference between living conditions in rural and urban areas becomes very clear.
In the following table you will find an overview of some of the relevant push and pull factors that are considered to be the causes of metropolitanization.
Push factors in the countryside
- Inadequate job opportunities
- Unsecured/low income
- Lack of educational opportunities
- Unsatisfactory future prospects
- Lack of care (medical, sanitary)
- Inadequate infrastructure
Pull factors in the metropolises
- Jobs
- Secured/higher income
- Educational opportunities
- Future prospects
- Security of supply
- Better infrastructure
- Individual and social factors such as cultural affiliation or family
Table 1 – Push and pull factors as causes of metropolitanization
Metropolization – Consequences
The consequences of metropolitanization are also considered Metropolisation effects designated. The process of metropolitanization has various positive and negative aspects, the most significant effects include:
- Centralization
- Increased efficiency
- Satisfaction of basic needs
- lack of capacity (accommodation, sanitation)
- Spread of diseases
- Crime and violence
- Environmental pollution (air and water pollution)
- Poverty
- Socio-spatial separation
- Gentrification
- Marginalization
Metropolization – Advantages
One of the comparatively few positive consequences of metropolitanization is: centralization. The short distances promote collaboration in a wide range of disciplines and thus promote progress in business, politics and science. In addition, it comes to Increased efficiency – this means an improved ratio between effort and result – since shorter routes are associated with lower costs.
Another advantage is that Satisfaction of basic needs. In developing countries, despite many problems, the provision of basic needs in cities is generally higher than in rural areas.
Metropolization – Problems
But metropolitanization also brings with it many problems: The capacities of vital facilities cannot keep up with the strong population growth. Therefore worry finding accommodation, lack of water and electricity supply as well as medical undersupply that the basic needs of large parts of the population are not met, even in the city.
Inadequate sewage and waste disposal together cause air and water pollution poor hygiene conditions. Access to clean water is often severely limited. The result is rapid and large-scale spread of disease, which prevents many people from working. A cycle emerges: poverty prevents health, while disease promotes poverty.
On the subject Water access We also have an exciting explanation for you!
Result from the undersupply, unbridled area growth and povertyaside from that Crime, violence and enormous Traffic and environmental pollution. Metropolisation is harming many people and the climate.
Another problematic consequence of metropolitanization is that social segregation, i.e. the growing gap between poor and rich population groups. This economic polarization of huge cities leads to infrastructural island patterns: on the one hand there are the underserved areas of the poor, and on the other hand there are the protected residential areas of the middle and upper classes.
The wealthy classes live in protected, separate urban districts, the so-called Gated communities. This form of housing, which originated in the USA, enables the privileged to be spatially and socially separated from the rest of the city’s population and their problems – including through high fences, private security services and access bans.
Another consequence of metropolitanization can be: Gentrification. In the housing market, due to the high level of competition, lower-income residents are being pushed out by others with higher incomes.
Metropolization – Marginalization
The strong socio-economic disparities, i.e. the social-economic differences in large cities, result in the spatial marginalization of the poor. This process leads to so-called Marginal settlements.
The term marginalization is a technical term for social repression and the exclusion of certain people or groups. Marginal settlements are large-scale informal accommodations in which the poor sections of the population secure their accommodation and survival in a variety of ways.
You will be in Slums and suburban ones hut settlements divided. Slums are located near the city center and are characterized by high housing density, dilapidated buildings and social problems. But only a fraction of the newcomers live in slums; significantly more people live in shantytowns on the outskirts of the city. These are mainly in peripheral urban areas and are also characterized by poverty.
Slums are usually portrayed as places of misery and hopelessness – this is what the residents work on imaginative systems to achieve economic and social advancement. The state is often overwhelmed by this.