Urban Revolution

The urban revolution refers to the emergence of urban life and the concomitant transformation of human settlements from simple agrarian‐based systems to complex and hierarchical systems of manufacturing and trade. The term also refers to the present era of metropolitan or megalopolis growth, the development of exurbs, and the explosion of primate or mega‐cities. Archeologist V. Gordan Childe coined the term urban revolution to explain the series of stages in the development of cities that preceded the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century. For Childe, the first revolution – the “Agricultural Revolution” – occurred when hunting and gathering societies mastered the skill of food production and began to live in stable and sedentary groups. The second revolution – the “Urban Revolution” – began during the fourth and third millennia bce in the civilizations of Mesopotamia and the Near East. The urban revolution ushered in a new era of population growth, complex urban development, and the development of such institutions as the bureaucratic state, warfare, architecture, and writing. For Henri Lefebvre (2003), the urban revolution not only signifies a long historical shift from an agricultural to an industrial to an urban world, but also refers to a shift in the internal organization of the city, from the political city of pre‐medieval times to the mercantile, then industrial, city to the present phase, where the “urban” becomes a global trend. Today, many scholars use the term urban revolution to connote profound changes in the social organization of societies, but they disagree over the conceptualization, causes, and trajectory of the change

Agrarian society · Agricultural revolution · Agriculture · Archaeology · Civil engineering · Economic growth · Economy · Geography · Human settlement · Industrial Revolution · Information revolution · Mesopotamia · Metropolitan area · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Sociology · Urban planning · Urbanism · Urbanization · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Engineering · Law · Architecture

• The Urban Revolution

  V Gordon Childe•Town Planning Review•1950

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