https://arab.news/5yfsj
Some changes in human history are sudden and we are often mesmerized by them. Others are more incremental and evolutionary, yet no less revolutionary or impactful. Urbanization belongs to the latter.
Cities originated in the Middle East and, much like Middle Eastern cuisine, there is some uncertainty about who should claim the distinction of having created the first collective form of human living, where people gathered and collaborated for mutual benefit. Was it Uruk in southern Mesopotamia? Was it Jericho in Palestine? Or perhaps Byblos in today’s Lebanon? Regardless of the answer, the movement from the countryside and rural life toward towns and cities has dramatically changed the way humans live — and the last chapter of this story is far from being written.
From humble beginnings in small settlements, the urban population has grown steadily. With technological advances, especially in the post-Second World War era, the demand for manual labor has declined while new opportunities continue to emerge in towns and cities. In 1950, urban living was still relatively uncommon: only about 20 percent of the world’s 2.5 billion people lived in cities, defined as population centers with at least 50,000 inhabitants. Decades of urbanization have since transformed the global landscape. Today, cities are home to about 45 percent of the world’s 8.2 billion people.
