Talk:Overurbanization

Planned expansion
I found this article through WikiProject Urban studies and planning and saw that it needs a lot of work. I have done some initial research on the topic and found that there is substantial scholarly research available to make expanding the article feasible. Generally, I understand the definition of over-urbanization to be when a city has a population greater than it can provide for in both infrastructure and jobs. The definition that is currently listed on the article, in which there is a smaller employment base than other countries had at similar levels of development, is also present in research, though it has been criticized for promoting a linear/Western model of development. I hope to add an extensive section discussing variance in how scholars define overurbanization and provide an overview of the characteristics of a city that is overurbanized. I have found existing research on this phenomenon in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. I will create sections for each of these regions, and sub-sections for the historical background, causes, and impact of overurbanization in these reasons, as well as policy responses. Though this phenomenon may be occurring/have occurred in other places, these are the regions for which I found substantial research. I imagine that this structure may be changed as I do further research, but this is how I plan to begin working on the article. This is my second article for Wikipedia as a part of a university program/class in Poverty, Justice, and Human Capabilities. and I would really appreciate any feedback, especially regarding how the article ought to be structured. Thanks! Rgalts (talk) 21:35, 26 February 2015 (UTC)

Expansion
So far, I have added information to the article by creating an extensive definition section, which is crucial to this topic since there is a large degree of disagreement between scholars. I have tried to reflect accurately the historical discussion on the theory of overurbanization by providing information from the articles and how they comment on each other. The authors constantly cite each other, so I have tried to note this where possible to avoid crafting a narrative around the scholarly discussion. I also have added a section on causes and a section on effects. I plan to further expand the effects section and to reorganize it into smaller sub-sections. I also intend to add sections on policy solutions and case studies. As always, feedback would be greatly appreciated as I move forward. Rgalts (talk) 18:31, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

To Rgalts
You have added a substantial amount of content to the page, and I really appreciate all of the content. You used diverse types of sources, including scholarly articles and monographs. Your "Definition" section especially shows careful research and wordings. One thing I would suggest to focus on is bringing in more modern theorists to the discussion. So far, I see mainly four research teams, and thus bringing more scholars will enable the readers to get a more comprehensive and modern understanding of the topic. If you add more the theories and add the sections as you have planned, I think this will be a great article. Keep up the great work! Lindaticket (talk) 00:06, 31 March 2015 (UTC)

A review of your recent article expansion
Your section on the economic effects of overurbanization gives great insight into the theoretical beliefs of the two scholars that coined the term. I think more practical examples, perhaps from studies that have claimed to be case studies of overurbanization would really add to this section. It also seems that this section contains two sides of a debate, which is great for neutrality, but it may be helpful to outline the two sides of this argument in the beginning of the section to give readers a better idea of what will be covered in detail later. Your additions so far and your plans for expansion show a lot of promise for the article. Rloftis5672 (talk) 01:35, 31 March 2015 (UTC)

Further expansion
I contributed further to the article by responding to feedback and adding a lot more explanation to the Definition section. I also tried to make it more clear for the average reader, though I really struggled with this considering all the literature was dense theory. It was also difficult to find the right words to use for the definition section, as the first scholars in the 1950s used the terms “developed” and “underdeveloped” or “developing” countries, while many later scholars used the terms “First World” and “Third World,” before moving back to “more developed” and “less developed” countries. I tried to make this clear without simply making it one of my own observations from the texts. I also completely restructured the “Causes” section based on one of the later readings I did, which summarized the earlier research. I think this added a lot more clarity to the different theories playing into the theory of overurbanization. I split the economic effects section into economic and social effects based on suggestions. I also expanded the “Effects” section to include a section on employment. I originally had planned to include an “environmental” section, but I realized that the article I had found about overurbanization and the environment actually discussed more about the relationship between ecology, resource scarcity, and the causes of overurbanization rather than environmental degradation as an effect of overurbanization. Then, I added a sections on Proposed Solutions and Case Studies. These are by no means comprehensive, but I hope they will shed some light on the issue. With case studies, I hope this will give a more real and tangible example to the theory explained in the rest of the article. Unfortunately, I was not able to find many articles on the topic written after 2000, except for the Shandra article, which was written in 2003 and did a good job of summarizing a lot of the views up until that point. Any and all feedback would be appreciated! Given that the topic was a theory and that there was a lot of debate around the actual definition of the term, a lot of my writing was about what scholars were discussing, so I tried very hard to maintain a neutral point of view, but summarizing the different parts of the scholarly discussion was challenging.Rgalts (talk) 02:11, 1 May 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia Ambassador Program course assignment
This article is the subject of an educational assignment at Rice University supported by the Wikipedia Ambassador Program&#32;during the 2015 Spring term. Further details are available on the course page.

The above message was substituted from by PrimeBOT (talk) on 17:25, 2 January 2023 (UTC)