Economic Social Implications And Policy Response Of Urbanization In Western Europe

Study on the history of the urbanization in Western Europe has far reaching theoretical and practical significance.At home or abroad,researches have achieved fruitful results.However,there are still some deficiencies and needs to be deepened.This thesis for the Doctorate uses the Velocity Curve of urbanization(Western Europe is a concrete manifestation of Northam Curve)as the research start point.Using the relevant concept and methods of Economic Sociology to focus on the various stages of the process of the urbanization cure which contains the profound economic and social meaning and the response of policies,in order to overcome the shortcomings of the traditional urbanization research on simple“Population agglomeration”,“city expansion”,“city development history”and so force.Fully absorbing the results of previous studies,the thesis tries to make a breakthrough and innovation in the historical context,research perspective,theoretical analysis methods,and the lessons we have learned from the history.The urbanization of Western Europe originated in the eleven to thirteenth Century.When the condition of combine the“city and market”emerged,the urbanization process began.Urban appeared because of the existence of transaction cost.To be able to reduce the transaction cost,urban as a kind of social market organization system appeared.As a result,urbanization seemed to be as a scale and function change of a city became truly relative to the transaction cost change and adjustment.In the early stage,the rise of the Atlantic’s trade forced Atlantic coast to replace the Mediterranean coast became the world’s market center.To deal with the emerging markets,Britain experienced social system changes,reduced market transaction costs,and formed modern civil society.This characteristics promoted economic growth that made Britain a far more advanced country over the rest western Europe continentals.Measured in transportation costs,the change of transaction cost made the UK gradually to become the world’s market center.Measured in social transaction cost,British formed a modern civil society which is conducive to promote economic growth faster than other countries.All these factors made it ready to the growth of industrialization and urbanization to be accelerated.The first inflection point of the urbanization curve started in the recent period of industrialization.Industrialization began in the United Kingdom and spread to Germany,France,and Nordic countries.Western Europe became the world’s first start industrialized and urbanized areas.In industrialization stage,characteristics of the urbanization is the rise of the industrial city which has the function of“production”.Industry development and industry blended into the city and became the essential elements of urbanization.The macro performance was the industrialization that propelled the urbanization to move forward.But the micro foundation was the change of enterprise organization that caused economic efficiency and more job openings.The different urbanized speed as well as the forms of the different areas can be explained by different social and cultural attitudes to the business elite and different industrial policies which led to different enterprise developments.In the study of industrial urbanization’s history,the conclusion was that enterprises is the micro foundational strength of urbanization.We must attach great importance to industrial development and the growth of enterprises.The second inflection point of the urbanization curve began after the second World War.Besides the United States,western Europe is the earliest“counter-urbanization”area.In 1970’s,the urban population went through the early“concentration”.It started to“DE-concentrate”to the suburbs,the small and medium-sized towns and rural areas.“Counter-urbanization”was a reflection that the urbanization entered a mature stage.Since then,the urbanization in western Europe began to show a different characteristics to the rest of the world as regional diversity and integration of both urban and rural areas,economic globalization and localization of city level,focused on sustainable development and ecological space,community integration enhancement made the urban and rural social equivalent.Urban and country boundaries became increasingly blurred.The economic and social meaning of“counter-urbanization”caused urban and rural production and its life conditions gradually became“equivalent”,which was the basic condition of which could promote the population to be“DE-concentrated”.The core connotation of the urbanization is based on people’s demand.Thus,the government should use the policies to adjust or to safeguard people’s legitimate rights and property rights in the urbanization process.Related to the urbanization curve,economic and social policy analysis might be more important than the data expression.The thesis used the“policy(institutional)variables”to focused on different policies in different stage of urbanization in western Europe.Overall,economic growth and social integration policies were priorities to others.In the period of early industrial urbanization,policies where mainly embodied in the“property rights revolution”of factual production such as land,labor and technology.In the later industrial urbanization,social welfare and public service policies were a priority.In the period of counter-urbanization,the focus of policies was mainly embodied in industrial transformation and social integration.In the period of integration of urban and rural,policies were focused on sustainable development.Historically,“urban”embodied people pursuing a better life.Urbanization was not only represented the result of the evolution of people’s various needs,it was also the means to satisfy and realize people’s various needs.Consequently,the change of policies could be seen as the historical track of the gradual evolution of“urban society”——the process of urbanization of meeting people’s demand.Through this thesis analysis in economic and social meaning of different stages of urbanization in western Europe and its corresponding policies used,the author make an analysis on Chinese city history and its problems and the differences of urbanization between China and west.By digging out some experiences of the urbanization history in western Europe to serve the purpose of boosting the process of development of new urbanization in China.