Urbanization: Poverty, conflict, and climate change as causes and consequences

From the gleaming skyscrapers of growing metropoles such as Abu Dhabi and Shanghai to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and slums of Mumbai, today’s growing cities encapsulate the promise and peril of globalization. Urbanization facilitates both economic development and the emergence of a middle class; it also accelerates inequalities that trigger social disturbance and armed conflict and exacerbates the effects of climate change. In this chapter, we first contend with the thorny issue of defining urbanization. We then explore the predominant causes of urbanization, especially in developing countries, including changes in urban and rural growth rates, as well as various triggers for internal migration. Lastly, we turn our focus towards examining the conditions under which urbanization may generate both positive and negative externalities.