Urbanization – Demographic Shifts and Social Change (SOC)

00:01 So now I’m going to talk about is partially related topic and that is something called Urbanization.

00:07 And this refers to the growth of an urban areas as people move from rural areas.

00:11 So when we’re talking about globalization, we’re talking movement of people on typically they go from a lot of times in developing worlds to industrial places or improve their business by going to countries where they are quite industrial.

00:24 We’re going to bring this down the scale and we’re saying in our communities, in our cities, in our countries we have this movement of individuals moving away from more developing or rural areas toward the actions at and that’s in urban areas.

00:37 So urbanization refers to that process.

00:40 Now, it was tight to the industrialization like I said.

00:42 An industrialized countries have more people living in urban areas.

00:46 So North America and Europe would fall in that category.

00:49 And the global rate of urbanization is approximately 50 %.

00:52 And it’s roughly 80 % in the States. So what we’re saying is more and more people are coming to live in the city center or coming to live in urban areas versus living in rural more green space, more farm like areas.

01:07 Now, let’s take a look at the impact of industrialization on urban growth.

01:13 The first is obviously considered the good thing and that’s Economic Advancement or greater employment for people versus those in rural areas.

01:20 It’s one of the reasons why they come.

01:21 They can't find work in the farmlands where areas we don’t have a lot of businesses and they come to the city center.

01:27 So economically speaking it’s good for those trying to find work.

01:31 There's also better infrastructures, improve access to road ways, to transit, to utilities.

01:37 Socially speaking you have better education, health services, quality of care, more doctors, more amenities.

01:43 And culturally speaking, it can become a cultural melting pot.

01:48 So a lot of multiculturalism about the art, food, entertainment you get things like ethnic villages, you got your Chinatowns, you got a little Italy.

01:55 You have all these areas to become this great spot where you can really be culturally immersed.

02:01 You can go eat different types of food every night of the week if you wish.

02:03 So these are all sort of potential positives of this urbanization.

02:08 Now, some of the other things to consider are the fact that urbanization can lead to overcrowding.

02:15 So the city centers really not going to change unless you repurpose it.

02:19 But typically the area that you have is set.

02:22 And so you going to have to if you have more more people wanting to come there you can get pretty crowded.

02:26 It leads to this long large condo building where units are small.

02:30 And it jam in as much people as you can into a building.

02:32 The roads are quite congested, parking is always an issue. There's a lot of factors that are lining towards the overcrowding.

02:39 So a phenomenon that happens or something called Suburbanization.

02:43 And this is when you see a population shift from the immediate central urban centers or your urban cores.

02:50 and you’re going to satellite areas which are just on the fringe of the city center.

02:55 So we call those suburban areas or they’re known as the “suburbs”.

02:58 And they’re still sort of close to the city center but and they’re not as far as rural areas And they’re somewhere in between.

03:07 Now, things to consider for suburbanization are lower cost.

03:11 So by moving away from the immediate city center they bring down the cost of the property.

03:16 And so the cost of the houses is lower, okay.

03:19 Now, we also have the issue of your having to commute now.

03:23 So if we increase the distance to get back to those who need to go the city center for work.

03:28 So it’s great because you’ve come to the city to find work but you can't afford to live in the city 'cause everything is so expensive.

03:33 and it’s very crowded.

03:34 So you say, “will just live just outside the city. So I can afford that house, So have a little bit more room but I still have to travel.” You also might have less access to some of the services that they have right in immediate city center, right. So you have less access to education, health services care.

03:49 You would also not have the same level of access to the cultural positives like I said, the little hubs, restaurants, art shows all that kind of stuffs.

04:03 Now, that being said it’s not as bad as be in the rural area because being in the suburbs it is a longer commute than living the city center but it’s not an impossible commute it still a lot less than you would have for in the rural areas.

04:16 Now, there's been an increase popularity of suburbs due to the cost in the relative improvement and quality of life versus living right in the city center that’s created a natural urban decline.

04:26 So, people originally came from rural areas to the urban city centers.

04:30 but they realized that it’s really crowded, it’s extremely expensive.

04:33 So why I’ll just go and just go outside it’s more manageable I can do that.

04:37 Good but then it’s drawing out people who were in the city center.

04:42 Now that has an effect.

04:43 So urban decline is the fall of urbanization in the area and this can lead to now unemployment because people are leaving.

04:50 And so now you’ve less people and it doesn’t always have to be jobs that are professional jobs. It could be support jobs or it’s you think of restaurants.

04:58 you think of those clean the streets. All the different things that we need if you have more and more people. And people are moving, All of the sudden, are moving some of those jobs and needs outside of the city center.

05:09 You might have increase in crime you can have abandoned building, you have areas that are not more quiet.

05:13 You got people, who don’t have the employment or now need money, crime and violence will increase.

05:18 It will also have decline in somebody infrastructure in buildings because their falling into this repair, because people aren’t needing them anymore.

05:26 They are renovating them to live there, roads don’t need the same level of access.

05:31 And so people start to move out and some of the infrastructure and the buildings decline.

05:35 So one of the ways to combat areas that are starting to fall down a little bit is this process of Gentrification.

05:42 So that is the process by reclaiming down-trodden urban areas and renewing them. So we call that urban renewal.

05:48 And this allows for sort of defunct to run down areas of the neighborhood to be updated, reorganized, bring it some more updated services, maybe some new restaurants, maybe what’s trendy, what’s hot. And we’re trying to sort of give that area a facelift.

06:03 So it’s good but it also have some other issue we have to consider.

06:08 So by fixing up an area that once was considered low income or low in the SES scale, it’s now a fresh hotspot. And so we've increase of property value in result with increase the taxes required to live there.

06:21 That will actually kick some of people out who were there before, who weren’t and still are low income families and smaller businesses that can't afford these new updated higher taxes.

06:34 So it causes some of them to be in disrepair. Sorry, in a situation they can't handle anymore, they’re going to have to move.

06:42 So shifted value goes from the people who were low on the scale, the SES scale and shifts it back to the affluent people.

06:50 'Cause the only ones who can really afford to live there in these new trendier areas are those who are living more money pushes out those who don’t have the money is not the power has been shifted to those who were affluent.