Coping With "Urban Disease"

The Industrial Revolution is an epoch-making historical event.With it came not only the progress in technological innovation,but also the rapid development of urbanization.Britain,the pioneer of the Industrial Revolution,is also the first country to achieve urbanization.However,urbanization does not always translate directly into a rosy picture of improved urban environment or promoted life quality.More often than not,it entails a series of problems,also known as “urban disease”.Urban disease,first surfacing in the primate cities in Britain,has nowadays emerged in basically every major city around the world.Almost every metropolis has showed signs of urban disease,including overpopulation,traffic jams,high housing prices and environmental degradation.China is of no exception.Recently,a series of urban problems began to haunt the major cities in China,threatening the full-scale development of the society.What’s more,the research on the topic is rather scattered and unsystematic.Hence,a research on British urbanization,especially British government’s countermeasures against urban disease,is of great significance.This thesis will focus on British early urbanization.Firstly,the thesis will pay special attention to the theoretical background of it,especially to the concept and patterns of the phenomenon.Then,the thesis will expound on the features of British early urbanization and summarize the main manifestations of “urban disease”.Next,the author will elaborate on British government’s countermeasures against the problems,and analyze the major features of it.Last but bot least,reevaluation and reflection will be presented in the last chapter,in which the writer will evaluate the effectiveness and deficiencies of the treatment process.Some applications for Chinese urbanization will be also listed in the end,in the hope to make a contribution to the development of Chinese modernization.