| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization |
| Editors | George Ritzer |
| Place of Publication | Oxford |
| Publisher | John Wiley & Sons Ltd |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781405188241 |
| Publication status | Published - 2012 |
Abstract
The concept of “the urban” predominantly refers to city‐dwelling. Urbanization is thus taken to refer to migration into, or the expansion of, cities. In 2005 the United Nations declared that a historic milestone had been passed: namely that the majority of the planet's population lived in cities (UN‐HABITAT 2006). UN‐HABITAT went on to declare that humanity was entering into an “urban millennium” (2006: viii). Such a contention of epochal significance resonates with a wider perception that both the nature of what is considered to be an urban mode of life as well as the dynamics of urbanization are distinctive in the contemporary period