ABSTRACT

The preceding analysis of the demographic, social, and economic aspects of the urban transition has emphasized three important features. First, we have demonstrated the inevitable tendency for the global population to become urbanized. Second, we have illustrated the growth of a system of urban places—at both an international and national level—dominated by very large urban regions that are responsible for generating a significant proportion of national wealth. And third, we have argued that these large urban regions are functional because they have been integrated through improvements in the transactional environment of the flows of people, commodities, capital, and information. One of the least well-understood elements on this list is information.