Urbanisation in a country means that there is growing economic activity in the country, where people are moving from a rural, self-sufficient society to an economically active one. As Marc Weiss claims, “Cities are the fundamental building blocks of prosperity”.
A country’s modernity will be judged by the rate of its globalisation and urbanisation. I feel that both will occur simultaneously. For it is when globalisation occurs, urbanisation becomes part of the process as well. And the state or place that has the most rapid globalisation and urbanisation will be deemed as the capital of the country.
Urbanisation has changed many lives, for the good and the bad. It also has different impact on different kinds of people. But ultimately, some things remain certain. Urbanisation has changed the way we interact with people. Like what German social analyst Ferdinand Toennies (1988 [1887]) wrote, there is a shift in social relations from Gemeinschaft, the face-to-face world of community, to Gesellschaft, the more impersonal and institution-mediated world of society (Global Problems, Scott Sernau, 240).
Not only that, but due to the rapid globalisation, many of us have become materialistic since we are more well-to-do than before, being able to afford more luxuries. To support this materialism, work has been one of the important components of our lives. When the men goes to work, whether from rural to city or commuting by train everyday, the time spent with his family is much less than before. Women now are an important figure in the workplace as well. As a result, there is rarely anyone in the house. Children are welcomed back to an empty house and minimum time is spent with parents.
Of course, I am generalising the situation. Some parents do make an effort to spend time with their children. But this has created a sort of individualism amongst individuals. Parents know that spending time with their children is important, but work is also equally as important for it means financial survival. Children realise that their parents have to work, and they have to learn to be more independent. This independence is the limitation in social upbringing, where the family institution plays a less role in moulding the child’s behaviour, but rather his friends or people he spends more time with.
Also, there is the advancement in technology, which further deepens the theory of Gesellschaft. People are more involved in computers and technologies like the handphone, which makes things convenient and efficient. However, it breaks down the social contact between individuals, and people now are more active online then in reality. Emails and instant messages are now the way of communication.
We can take example of the urbanisation that took place in Singapore in the 1960s. Because of new policies that were aimed to increase economic growth, the government tried to break up the communistic families into nuclear families by moving them into HBD flats. While we have been living in our urbanised country and have gotten used to it, we must also realise the individuality that has taken place. While we might know our neighbours, we are not as concerned as for their welfare compared to when the older generation was staying in the kampong. Back then, the kampong community were a close-nit community were they looked after their own welfare. Now, with our over dependence on the government, we are only concerned for our welfare. It is especially ironic since more people are squeezed into a small piece of land, but we have grown to be more individualistic than more communistic.
With urbanisation taking place so rapidly, one might lament on going back to the days where there was less pollution, more greenery and less stress in work. However, we would also have to give up the luxuries of the modern world. Are we really willing to give up the convenience that we have gotten used to?
Tags: Urbanisation
