ABSTRACT

A dominant and influential formulation of urbanization regards it as a city-centric process, the definitional heart of which is the concentration of populations in cities (UN 1969, 1997, 2010, 2014). This is evident in many policy frameworks. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement (United Nations Convention on Climate Change) and the New Urban Agenda (HABITAT III), to take just three recent formulations from global intergovernmental organizations, all regard the city as the defining end point and causal engine of urbanization. The city’s concentration of population, goods, services, capital and ideas generates diversified employment, education and life opportunities, which in turn attract aspirant urbanites from rural areas.