Urbanization And Third World Essay

Dating back to 6000 years ago, the world has already experienced the process of urbanization. Sana’a, the capital city of Yemen, the world’s oldest city have been established. Urbanization can be defined as the net movement of population from rural to urban areas (Citation Wikipedia), in order words, the gradual increase in urban population. All cities share this common characteristic, from New York to Mumbai, Tokyo to Bangladesh, both first and third world countries have witnessed the impacts of urbanization. Although the process of it may be similar amongst these countries, but there are still differences between urbanization in the first and third worlds. The term “First world” refers to countries with a capitalist industrial market economy,

(Citation of 1W/3W) “Third world” refers to countries that are once ruled by a colonizer, but failed to develop economically, socially and politically after independence. (Citation of 1W/3W) To have a consolidated knowledge behind the challenges faced by many, we need to understand the unique features of urbanization in the first and third worlds. Thus in this essay, I will discuss the similarities and differences between the process of rural- urban movement in the first and third worlds under the category of the process of urbanization, slum areas, and social segregation”. The process of urbanization in third world countries tends to cause them to sprawl. Due to the massive inflow of population from rural areas to urban, the urban areas will expand uncontrollably (i.e. expand horizontally over great distances). For example, each year Bangkok spreads out to cover an additional 32 square kilometers of former farmland. (Bangkok urban sprawl info) So what causes such large volume of individuals to move from rural to urban areas? Majority of the time the push factors associated with third world countries are driven by external force. Looking back, most third world

Whilst, the free market forces and the affordability of residential areas due to income level differences are the main factors for social segregation for the first world. In conclusion, the urbanization process is complex and diverse as we can see through the characteristics discussed in this essay for the third world versus the first world. There are similarities but more importantly third world urbanization occur at a faster rate than first world, but with more significant consequences. The key goal is to help sustain growth through controlling the urbanization process to achieving a more equal distribution of public resource, which maximizes individual’s economic and social welfare in the long