Urbanization: Issues and Impacts on the Village of South 24 Parganas, West Bengal

Abstract

Urban anthropology deals with the social and cultural processes in urban areas as well as cities. Contemporary issues of urban anthropology include rural-urban migration, demography, effects of urbanization among cultural pluralism and practical urban problems. The presents paper depicts the issues and impacts of urbanization on the concentration of rural areas, which has altered human life styles in dramatic and significant ways in a district of West Bengal the preliminary ethnographic account deals with the consequences as well as impact of global urbanization on the rural areas under study in general along with the changing aspects of the socio-cultural milieu. The present study finally depicts the gradual spread of global urbanism in the traditional life in the main stream and surrounding areas of the villages through a micro-ethnographic approach.Key Words: Urban Anthropology, Rural, Urbanization, Urbanism, Communication, Migration. Preamble:Urban Anthropology is an area of study in social cultural anthropology, in which anthropologists focus on social cultural processes in urban as well as cities (Kottak, 2000). Theoretical background of the Present Study: A Brief ProfileAs industrialization and urbanization spread globally, anthropologists increasingly study these processes, their impact as well as the social problem they create. Urban Aims and objectives of the present study:The basic aims and objectives of the present study are- Background of the Present study:The present study was based on the intensive fieldwork in four villages namely, kalagachia, Nabason, Highland and Nainan of the district of south 24 Parganas, West Bengal.The administrative settings of all these villages under study are given below in a tabular chart.