Dimensions of Urbanization and World City-System

Abstract

The world history has never seen a community with more than 10 percentof its whole population being urbanized. Even the most developed communitiesin the past such as the Romans, the Chinese, the Abbasids, the Seljukiansand the Ottomans were able to urbanize only up to 10 percent of their populations.But from the 19th century onwards most industrialized communities havehad half their populations urbanized. This social transformation was only limitedto the western communities at first; later in the second half of the 20th century,it began to be seen in the Developing Countries which make up a substantialportion of the whole world population. Rapid urbanization since 2000 hasmade half the world population urbanized. A global transformation of this kindrequired a new definition for all the political, social, economic and cultural interrelations.Up to now, Civilization, Nation-State, Modern World System andGlobalization have been among the most popular expressions used to discusshow world communities interrelate. And now this discussion can be built uponthe system of world-city. This new approach is required due to the presence ofas many as 5,000 urban areas available on the earth, which makes up the wholeof the world urban population. Political, social, economic and cultural interrelationsbetween those areas make it necessary to adopt the new approach.