This book represents an important contribution to the history of urbanization. The introduction offers a clear and instructive discussion of fundamental concepts, processes and measurement problems, summarizes latest research findings and goes on to detect new topics of particular current interest. Four principal areas of contemporary research on urbanization are covered: urban hierarchies and networks, urban-rural economic links, and migration and demographic patterns. The issues are discussed both in general terms and in the context of specific countries, cities and historical periods. New areas of analysis, such as the study of migration flows by age, sex or social group, and the comparative east-west apprach of several of the chapters will serve to broaden the traditional scope of research and stimulate further work in the field.