From the Rural World to Urban Environment
By Alfonso Hernández Marín
The powerful influence of the city

What moves people to the big cities? According to experts like Jose Maria Llop, Director of the program on "Intermediate Cities and World Urbanization" in the International Union of Architects, one could talk of the "fascination" that the city provokes as an image or interpretation of reality in its greatest socio-economic and historic scale. Some sociologists and anthropologists agree that the modern city represents the ultimate capitalist structure, the height of civilization, and its influence on the collective subconscious could be powerful enough to attract more and more people, even when the opportunities for progress and wellbeing are often false expectations.

The great megalopolis or world metropolis of our era, which many call an "urban revolution", is characterized by their duality in presenting a series of opportunities and problems. The first refers to greater autonomy, diversity of offers (employment, training, leisure, culture), the opportunity to participate in public politics, the socialization of new technologies and more options in terms of residence, activities or types of mobility. However, social segregation in a space has never been so pronounced, with growing inequalities in income and in real access to urban opportunities, vulnerable groups that often live in ghettos or peripheral neighbourhoods, and the increase in both transport time and time at work. All this provides a breeding ground for solitude and lack of solidarity and common environmental, urban and
social problems such as criminality, poor outskirts and breakdown of common living structures.

www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2007/webArticles/040507_culturalchange.htm. Adaptado.

No trecho do segundo parágrafo do texto – The first refers to greater autonomy, – a expressão the first refere-se a