Professor Berry will contribute to the theory of urban growth by addressing three questions: a) whether urban growth rates worldwide have varied in 50-year "long waves;" what effects are evident in both sending and receiving nations affected by international flows of urbanward migrants; and whether urban growth rates have exceeded those reasonably attributable to economic growth thus resulting in "overurbanization." The study will include all nations for which reasonably accurate data are available for all time periods for which such data can be obtained. Professor Berry's work will increase our understanding of the discontinuous and uneven history of urban growth worldwide and our abilities to forecast future urban and metropolitan growth.
