Urbanization is now a global phenomenon.

In the twentieth century observers began to distinguish between towns and cities, the latter being more cosmopolitan and international, often as a result of cross-national migration to new cities like Chicago.

From the start, attitudes to cities have been polarized, with assessments ranging from ‘civilized virtue’ to ‘smoking inferno’. Such views found expression in novels and poetry, much of which focused on the extreme inequalities of urban settings.

The Chicago School had two main themes: the ecological approach and ‘urbanism as a way of life’. The ecological approach uses a metaphor adapted from physical science. Cities were therefore organisms which responded to their environmental conditions, a view supported empirically by the tendency for cities to grow beside sources of water, fertile land or transport networks. Similarly, within cities themselves there is a natural balance between competing groups, who often become spatially segregated.

Urban ecology is associated with the image of a city of concentric rings with the inner city at its core. Beyond this decaying core the rings are cut into segments, which are competed for by different population subgroups. Hawley later revived this approach by stressing interdependence between areas rather than the continual competition for scarce resources. Businesses in the core service the populations of other areas; those populations in turn provide a labour force.

Wirth’s concept of the urban way of life stresses the ‘overall’ effect of the city on social life and in particular the paradox of proximity and anonymity. In other words, the existence of greater opportunity for social interaction leads to greater superficiality and instrumentality in those meetings.

Recent theories of urbanism, influenced by Marx, stress the need to analyse the wider economic and political changes which impact upon cities. Supply and demand operate to alter the commodity price of land. Similarly patterns of suburbanization have been facilitated by tax breaks and broader economic change. A city is not just a location but is the expression of a process of collective consumption.

This process, affected by both government and the market, helps produce a distinctive created environment. While such ideas move away from the biological analogies of Chicago, they also complement them. Broad economic forces are mediated by distinctive local social systems, often leading to conflicts between the interests of business and residents.

Since 1945 key themes in urban studies have been suburbanization, inner-city decay and ethnic conflict. Suburbs have attracted white middle-class families seeking more space, lower taxes, less pollution and (initially) racially segregated schools. As a direct result, inner-city areas have suffered as the tax base has declined, the physical environment has been run down, and the burdens on welfare spending have grown. This cycle of deterioration is in some areas as bad as anywhere in the developed world. Key factors are poverty, ethnic hostilities and crime – and insecurity caused by all three.

The redevelopment of London Docklands is a famous example of urban recycling. This is often a key aim of the planning process but is frequently the outcome of selective gentrification of inner city areas.

It is the developing world where the major urban growth will take place in the twenty-first century – the so-called megacities. This presents a number of important challenges: economic, environmental and social.

First, cities are responsible for managing the urban habitat; second, they deal with problems of cultural integration presented in their cosmopolitan populations; and third, they provide venues for political representation and management.

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