ABSTRACT
Urbanization plays a central role in almost all theories of social change. In most concepts of modernization the urbanization-ratio is defined as the proportion of the population living in towns (Städte) of a certain size (2,000; 5,000; 20,000 inhabitants) to the total population. This represents, along with industrialization, education, franchise, mass-media, and formation of the nation state, a key variable with which to register secular changes in the development of various nations. The connection between industrialization and urbanization is, moreover, a subject of relevant interest to the disciplines of Economic and Social History. Is urbanization simply an epiphenomenon of industrialization, or is it, though still closely linked with industrial development, an independent process? Is urbanization a universal structure in the development of modern society? Early industrialization and agricultural reform thus stand side by side as the conditions for differing forms of urbanization.
