Rurality in Post Industrial Society
Paper prepared for the conference ‘New Forms of Urbanization: Conceptualizing and Measuring Human Settlement in the Twenty-first Century’, organized by the IUSSP Working Group on Urbanization and held at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Study and Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy, 11-15 March 2002.
Paper 14
THE NATURE OF RURALITY IN POST INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
By
David L. Brown and John B. Cromartie∗ Draft 2/15/02
INTRODUCTION Urbanization is a dynamic social and economic process that transforms societies from primarily rural to primarily urban ways of life (Hauser, 1965). Few would dispute this definition, but how useful is it for examining the spatial reorganization of population and economic activities in postindustrial societies where a large majority of people, jobs, and organizations are concentrated in or dominated by urban agglomerations? The essence of this question hinges on our ability to differentiate between what is rural and urban in postindustrial societies. While this may have been a relatively straightforward task during the late 19th and early to mid 20th centuries, it has become an exceedingly complex question in the context of postindustrialization.
∗
We acknowledge the helpful comments of Calvin Beale, Kai Schafft, Laszlo Kulcsar, and the conference organizers Tony Champion and Graeme Hugo. Brenda Creeley prepared the manuscript.
Early social scientists saw urbanization and industrialization as being reciprocally related. One process could not proceed without the other. While most scholars understood that urban and rural were not entirely discrete categories, relatively clear lines could be drawn to distinguish urban from rural communities and distinct ways of life associated with each. In addition, early social scientists were convinced that the transformation from rural to urban-industrial society would be accompanied by a wide range of negative social outcomes. In fact, this concern is generally credited with motivating the
Paper 14
THE NATURE OF RURALITY IN POST INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
By
David L. Brown and John B. Cromartie∗ Draft 2/15/02
INTRODUCTION Urbanization is a dynamic social and economic process that transforms societies from primarily rural to primarily urban ways of life (Hauser, 1965). Few would dispute this definition, but how useful is it for examining the spatial reorganization of population and economic activities in postindustrial societies where a large majority of people, jobs, and organizations are concentrated in or dominated by urban agglomerations? The essence of this question hinges on our ability to differentiate between what is rural and urban in postindustrial societies. While this may have been a relatively straightforward task during the late 19th and early to mid 20th centuries, it has become an exceedingly complex question in the context of postindustrialization.
∗
We acknowledge the helpful comments of Calvin Beale, Kai Schafft, Laszlo Kulcsar, and the conference organizers Tony Champion and Graeme Hugo. Brenda Creeley prepared the manuscript.
Early social scientists saw urbanization and industrialization as being reciprocally related. One process could not proceed without the other. While most scholars understood that urban and rural were not entirely discrete categories, relatively clear lines could be drawn to distinguish urban from rural communities and distinct ways of life associated with each. In addition, early social scientists were convinced that the transformation from rural to urban-industrial society would be accompanied by a wide range of negative social outcomes. In fact, this concern is generally credited with motivating the
References: Table 1: Population, Land Area, Density and Percent Rural by CBSA Category, 19901 CBSA Category U.S. Metro Large Small Nonmetro Micro Non-CBSA 1 See OMB (2000) for discussion of procedures used to delineate CBSA county types. Source: 1990 U.S. Census of Population 21 Table 2: Comparative Profile of Metro, Micro and Noncore Based Counties, U.S., 19901 Metropolitan Large Small Nonmetropolitan Micro Noncore Characteristic Educational Attainment Pct