causal

Choice and Ability to Act on It Drive Urbanization

When governments give people both the choice to move and the ability to take advantage of that choice, people consistently urbanize; this was demonstrated when Deng Xiaoping's post-Tiananmen reforms freed Chinese mobility and people flocked to coastal cities, and when forcibly displaced populations elsewhere move once restrictions are relaxed.

causalpending

Speaker

Joe Walston

Evidence Quote

post-Tiananmen Square... one of the things they did then... They just made it easy for people to move, and Deng Xiaoping's efforts to be able to free up the control they had about that. And what did people do?... they moved to the cities.

Source

22 | Joe Walston on Conservation, Urbanization, and the Way We Live on EarthSean Carroll's Mindscape
Created: 6/13/2026, 3:37:33 AM

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