An International Comparative Study On The Paths Of Urbanization

The urbanization that the world is unprecedentedly going through today is a major drive for the economic, social and cultural transition to modernization in modern times. By the end of 2008, global urbanization ratio has already surpassed 50% and this ratio, according to the prediction of the United Nations, is expected to reach 60% by the year of 2030. However, the process and result of urbanization in different nations and regions under different backgrounds and constraints are distinguishable varied one from another. This is especially the case between the developing and developed countries. Just as U.N. Assistant Secretary General W. Engdahl put it:"urbanization is most probably a vista of the incomparable bright future, or it can be an omen of unprecedented disaster. Therefore, what will happen tomorrow is determined by what we do today." Hence, to make the right choice in terms of the paths of urbanization is essential to the healthy development of a nation’s urbanization process. To explore the fundamental factors concerning the reasonable paths of urbanization, the present thesis made a systematic comparison on the differences about this matter among different nations and regions. The main contents and ideas are as follows:Chapter One is an introduction which gives the information about the background and significance of the present research, including the discrimination of the relative concepts and the information about the outlines, layouts and contents of the thesis.Chapter Two is a literature review of the relative researches on urbanization and different paths of urbanization both home and abroad. In the part concerning the studies abroad, attention has been paid to summarization of the theories on urbanization, such as the Dualistic Structure Theory, the Population Migration Theory, the City Size Distribution Theory, the Location Theory, the urbanization theory from the perspective of sustainable development and so on; The three basic stages of the studies on urbanization in the developing countries by the researchers are introduced. In the part concerning the studies at home, attention has been paid to the summarization and analysis of the studies on urbanization and ways of urbanization by analyzing the hot topics in the academia. It is found that researchers abroad lay stress on the thorough analysis on the operational mechanisms of the development of urbanization, and emphasize on the importance of role played by the market in the process. However, researchers at home pay more attention to the discussions on the basic patterns and types of urbanization. Moreover, they generally attach more importance to the positive role played by the government.Chapter Three is a basic theoretical analysis of the ways of urbanization. The thesis discussed the connotations of urbanization and proposed the idea that the main contents of the ways urbanization include eight aspects, namely, urban-rural relation, industrial relation, urban space layout, city size structure, coordination of development, dynamic mechanism, resource and environment relation, and finally social integration relation. On such basis, the present thesis further analyzed the influence of various factors on urbanization. Such factors include natural geography, economic development, institution, socio-cultural factors and international environment, etc.. Basing on the previous classifications of different ways of urbanization, the present study has put forward a multi-strata classification that identifies the differences between the developed countries and developing countries in terms of urbanization paths on the primary stratum and then investigate the differences within the developed countries and developing countries respectively.Chapter Four studies the urbanization paths of and the differences among the developed countries. The urbanizing process in such nations enjoys an early-start, relatively smooth development, and more favorable internal and external environment. When looking at the process, the urbanization of the developed countries has undergone a dynamic balance which is characterized by mutual acceleration of industrialization and urbanization, coordinated development of big, medium and small sized cities and the transformation from chaotic to regulated in urban environment, and from concentrated at first to dispersed at last. When looking at the mechanism, the developed countries mainly rely on the role of market and the free flow of resources to realize urbanization. Besides, the planning and regulatory function of the government is also valued. So, they adopted a market-dominated, government-assisted approach. When looking at the results, the developed countries have transformed smoothly from agricultural and rural population dominance to that of non-agricultural and urban population in terms of the social and economic structure, and realized the integration of urban and rural areas under the precondition of developed economy. Therefore, their urbanization process is a healthy and successful one. However, there are obvious internal differences too:the governmental macro-control and medium-sized west European way, the laissez-faire and dispersed suburbs American way, and the governmental macro-control and highly densed big cities way of Japan.Chapter Five is about the urbanization paths of and the differences among the developing countries. Their urbanizing process began later but with higher speed and brought along the over-expansion of cities and others urban problems. The general features of urbanization paths of the developing countries are the unbalance of industrialization and urbanization, the concentration of urban population distribution and spatial layout, serious unbalance of urban-rural relations and income distribution, the co-existence of "market failure" and "policy improperness". There are also three different urbanization paths among developing countries, i.e., the government macro-controlled pattern represented by east European nations, the over urbanization pattern represented by Latin American nations and low level pattern of the south Asian nations.Chapter Six probes into the implications of comparison of different urbanization paths. By conducting international comparison between different urbanization patterns, the present study comes to the conclusion that urbanization is the inevitable trend and natural requirement of industrialization and modernization, is the great impetus to the social and economic development of a nation. The size and layout of the cities shall be in comply with the economic development, national conditions, and historical foundations, etc.. There are no fixed patterns. Urbanization is a dynamic progressing process which usually includes several different stages with different features and problems in each and every one of them. Hence, the recognization and comprehension these features and problems is the groundwork of making the right urbanization strategies. Laissez-faire policy will bring along serious urban problems, so the government should participate in the planning, infrastructure construction and public management and service of the cities. Agriculture and the development of the rural areas are the foundations of healthy development of urbanization. Industrialization and economic development are the essential impetuses. Well-developed market and effective government administering are the basic guarantees. The promotions of coordinated and balanced social and economic development are the basic requirements.As to China, she has experienced tremendous changes after the reform and opening-up and is now at the critical stage of fast urbanization. Along with her notably increased urbanization level, she is facing many complicated social and economic problems. The healthy development of urbanization in China depends on the further adjustment of the paths of urbanization with the aims of changing from quantitative expansion pattern to quality upgrade pattern, from self-developing to regional coordinative developing, from dualistic structure to unitary structure, from resource waste pattern to sustainable development pattern, from traditional management to modern administering.