Counterurbanization

Process whereby people move from urban areas to rural areas

Counterurbanization, or deurbanization, is a demographic and social process in which people move from urban areas to rural areas. It, as suburbanization, is inversely related to urbanization, and first occurs as a reaction to inner city deprivation. Recent research has documented the social and political drivers of counterurbanization and its impacts in China and other developing countries which are undergoing a process of mass urbanization. Counterurbanization is one of the causes that can lead to shrinking cities. While counterurbanization manifests differently across the world, all forms revolve around the central idea of migration movement from a populated location to a less populated location. Clare J. A. Mitchell, an associate professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Waterloo, argues that in Europe, counterurbanization involves a type of migration leading to deconcentration of one area to another that is beyond suburbanization or metro decentralization. Mitchell categorizes counterurbanization into three sub types: ex urbanization, displaced urbanization, and anti urbanization.

Counterurbanization is the process by which people migrate from urban to rural communities, the opposite of urbanization. People have moved from urban to rural communities for various reasons, including job opportunities and simpler lifestyles. In recent years, due to technology, the urbanization process has been occurring in reverse. With new communications technology, people from rural communities can remote work because they can connect with each other via rural Internet, which means some employment opportunities no longer require moving to an urban community. Counterurbanization is about people being able to explore alternatives to living in the city, creating changes in living location preferences. In past years, a multi corporation business would use outsourcing by hiring workers in poorer countries for cheap labor. In more recent years, corporations have been using "rural sourcing" which involves using small to medium sized town as a source of labor. This creates jobs in the country and also for rural communities so they do not need to move their entire family to a whole new setting and also reduces unnecessary expense for the companies. Most of the workers in these rural settings get paid less but have an option of either working from home or an office. If they were in an urban setting, the company would spend more money on an entirely new office for the urban based employees to work at. According to Hall, people have been influenced to move because of factors like climate, jobs, and tax rates. Hall also found that people who are not a part of a more stable family will tend to move more. A 2004 study of 4.4 million Swedish residents found that people who live in cities have a 20% increased chance of developing depression. Political factors may also lead to anti urbanization. In China, during the "Cultural Revolution" in 1966–1976, urbanization stagnated, and a nationwide anti urbanization started, which was manifested by a massive "Down to the Countryside Movement". Intellectuals and officials were persecuted and removed to rural areas. It is estimated that during the peak period of "Down to the Countryside Movement" at the end of the 1960s, more than 10 million people moved from urban China to rural areas, while the total urban population in China was 168 million in 1968. This anti urbanization process was fundamentally different from counterurbanization as seen in developed countries, as it resulted from a far left communist ideology.