Title: Causes and Effects of Urbanization | The Classroom
Headings: Causes and Effects of Urbanization
Causes and Effects of Urbanization
Economic Causes
Negative Social Effects
Negative Psychological Effects
Positive Effects
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Content: cities offer employment, food, shelter and education. Negative Social Effects
Urbanization has many adverse effects on the structure of society as gigantic concentrations of people compete for limited resources. Rapid housing construction leads to overcrowding and slums, which experience major problems such as poverty, poor sanitation, unemployment and high crime rates. Additionally, strains on important natural resources, such as water supply, leads to higher prices and general environmental sustainability problems. Negative Psychological Effects
Urbanization makes people dependent on others for basic necessities; urban-dwellers must rely on the rural hinterland for agricultural production, for instance, because city residents do not have enough land to grow their own food. Urban-dwellers suffer the psychological degradation that comes from depending on other people to accomplish the activities of daily life, from transportation to education to entertainment. Writing in the "Anatolian Journal of Psychiatry" in 2008, M. Tayfun Turan and Asli Besirli found that the social problems associated with urban societies, the traffic problems and the general anxiety about the future contributed to an increase in mental health disorders. Positive Effects
Urbanization offers real economic opportunities to people who would otherwise be destined to subsistence living without hope for economic improvement. There is an overall growth in commercial opportunities with urbanization, resulting in more profits and more jobs.