In the city, as a consequence of economic competition for prime space, there emerged distinct spatial and social zones.

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1 Chapter FOUR Eclgy and Plitical Ecnmy Perspectives Intrductin Much has been written f the American city: its special physical structure, its frms f scial rganizatin, its peples and lifestyles, and its prblems. The scilgist Luis Wirth suggested that these varius tpics culd be viewed empirically frm three interrelated perspectives: The city as a physical structure cmprising a ppulatin base, a technlgy, and an eclgical rder; The city as a system f scial rganizatin invlving a characteristic scial structure, a series f scial institutins, and a typical pattern f scial relatinships; The city as a set f attitudes and ideas, and a cnstellatin f persnalities engaging in typical frms f cllective behaviur and subject t characteristic mechanisms f scial cntrl. Develpment f Urban Eclgy The classical urbanizatin mdel, urban eclgy (smetimes called human eclgy ), develped ut f a cncern with the frm and develpment f the mdern American city, and particularly with the relatinship between the cmmunity s scial and physical structure. Early urban eclgy is assciated with the s called Chicag Schl f schlars wrking at the University f Chicag in the first half f the 20 th century. Members f the Chicag schl were cncerned with systematically dcumenting bth the patterns f urban change and the cnsequences f these changes fr scial institutins such as the family. The interest f the Chicag scilgists was NOT simply in mapping where grups and institutins were lcated, but als in discvering hw the scilgical, psychlgical, and mral experiences f city life were reflected in spatial relatinships. As expressed by McKenzie, human eclgy deals with the spatial aspects f symbitic relaitnships f human beings and human institutins Park was interested in hw changes in the physical and spatial structure shaped scial behaviur. He felt that mst if nt all cultural changes in sciety will be crrelated with changes in its territrial rganizatin, and every change in the territrial and ccupatinal distributin f the ppulatin will effect changes in the existing culture. Eclgy in its bradest sense is the study f the relatinships amng rganisms within an envirnment. It is the study NOT f the creatures and bjects themselves but rather f the relatinships amng them. The cmmunity tgether with its physical habitat frm the ecsystem Park and Burgess gave particular imprtance t the rle played by cmpetitin, especially ecnmic cmpetitin, in shaping the city s physical and scial rganizatin. The Chicag Schl s emphasis n cmpetitin came NOT frm Marx s analysis f capitalism s much as frm the eclgical mdels being used t study the then new subjects f plant and animal eclgy. Eclgical reasning thus traces its theretical underpinnings t Charles Darwin s research n evlutin. Urban eclgy is cncerned with examining the independence and interdependence f specialized rles and functins (recurrent patterns f behaviur) within the sciety. In examining the relatinship between peple and their envirnment and peple within their envirnment, the level f analysis fcuses n the aggregate level. The issue is the prperties f ppulatins rather than the prperties f the individuals wh cnstitute them. Thus, it is based n the study f grups rather than individuals and this fcus n the grup r aggregate is basic t scilgy, as ppsed t disciplines such as psychlgy in which the fcus is n the individual. Urban eclgy des NOT and CANNOT explain the beliefs, values, and attitudes f individuals while they are perfrming certain activities. Classical eclgical theries f the human cmmunity were cnsciusly based n evlutinary theries explaining plant and animal develpment. Just as a persn driving frm the desert int the muntains finds that different sil, water, and temperature affect the bands f grwth f the plants, by analgy, in a drive frm a city s business district t its utlying suburbs, a persn finds differing znes f develpment In all these theries, COMPETITION played a cre rle. In the city, as a cnsequence f ecnmic cmpetitin fr prime space, there emerged distinct spatial and scial znes.

2 The internal structure f the city thus evlved nt as a cnsequence f direct planning but thrugh cmpetitin, which changed areas thugh the eclgical prcesses f invasin, successin, and segregatin f new grups (e.g., immigrants) and land uses (e.g., cmmercial use displacing residential use). Ecnmic cmpetitin was thus seen as the engine driving the spatial and scial rganizatin f the city. Eclgically riented scilgists f the Chicag Schl stressed the scial as well as the ecnmic aspects f cmpetitin fr urban space. They als stated that within the city individuals and grups als cmpete fr POWER and fr cntrl f particular neighburhds r space. In their study f ethnic and racial neighburhds, they examined the relatinship between residential prximity and scial equality. They fund that in the large city, where ne s scial psitin is NOT widely knwn t everyne, spatial distance is ften substituted fr scial distance thus the imprtance f a fashinable address in the right neighbrhd. Eclgical mdels place emphasis n cmpetitin and changing technlgy. Ne Marxist and plitical ecnmy mdels emphasize the deliberate planned actins f gvernment fficials and ecnmic elites in shaping urban patterns. Bth eclgical and plitical ecnmy mdels have in cmmn the belief that change ccurs thrugh cnflict. They differ in whether the surce f that cnflict cmes mre frm ecnmic cmpetitin r frm deliberate planned plitical and ecnmic decisins. Invasin and Successin The histry f the American city is the stry f the INVASION f ne land use r ppulatin by anther. The end result when ne grup r functin finally takes the place f anther is called SUCCESSION. Chicag Schl eclgists were cncerned with hw change in cmmunity areas cmes abut. Nne f the patterns f land use within a city are permanently fixed, althugh smetimes zning laws attempt t fix them. Viable cmmunities always are in the prcess f changing. Tday ne f the mst spectacular instances f invasin and eventual successin is fund in urban ethnic changes. Tday, the new ethnic grup invading an area is ften Latin r Asian. Early scilgists f the Chicag Schl were particularly interested in segregated urban areas They called these areas NATURAL AREAS, since they were suppsedly the results f eclgical prcesses rather than f planning r cnscius creatin by any gvernment unit. When zning laws were established, the regulatins generally recgnized such natural areas f apartment areas, warehuse districts, and the like s as t maintain existing land use patterns. Criticisms f Eclgy The heavy emphasis n cmpetitin in traditinal human eclgy, plus the nnscial nature f sme f the variables, disturbs cntemprary plitical ecnmy critics. Plitical ecnmy schlars argue that spatial patterns are the result f deliberate actins taken by capitalists, r that they are the utcme f the cntradictins in capitalist develpment. Wrld systems thery, applies a plitical ecnmy apprach t glbalizatin. A less valid criticism made f eclgy is that it brrws cncepts frm ther disciplines. As ne critic put it, As the eclgists have admitted, practically all their basic hyptheses have been derived frm natural science surces and the influence f certain gegraphers and ecnmists is apparent T such critics the multidisciplinary base f human eclgy is a weakness rather than a surce f strength. Rle f Culture The scicultural schl f eclgy places renewed emphasis n cultural and mtivatinal factrs in explaining urban landuse patterns. Urban cultural schlars believe that bth human eclgy and plitical ecnmy appraches veremphasized ecnmic factrs while ignring cultural and scial psychlgical variables.

3 Cities are places that have meaning and symblic values t thse wh use them. Symblic places help define a city s culture and identity, and symblically structure peple s lives. Burgess s Grwth Hypthesis The mst famus prduct f the spatial rganizatinal cncerns f the Chicag Schl is Burgess s cncentric zne hypthesis, first presented in Burgess said that city grwth was NOT randm r haphazard but the cnsequence f eclgical factrs. They hypthesis suggested that industrial cities grew radically thrugh a series f cncentric znes: frm the mst valuable land f the central business district (CBD) utward thrugh the zne f transitin, the zne f wrking men s hmes, and the zne f better residences t the cmmuter zne. Cmpetitin fr prime space, plus demgraphic cnsideratins such as ppulatin grwth and scial factrs such as scial pwer and prestige (used t explain elites mves t the suburbs), were the factrs that drve the mdel. Burgess s hypthesis is a mdel, and nly a mdel r ideal type, f hw industrial cities evlves spatially as a result f cmpetitin fr prime space. Burgess suggested that the mst valuable prperty ges t thse functins that can use space intensively and are willing t pay the csts. Thus the eclgist wuld expect the land lcated at the center f the transprtatin netwrk t be ccupied by intensive space users such as department stres, majr business headquarters, and financial institutins. Csts include nt nly land purchase price but als taxes and nuisances (cngestin, nise, pllutin, etc.) frm ther nearby land users. As yu mve ut frm the center f the city tward the periphery, land values and rental per acre tend t grade dwnward, while the rental per husing unit grades upward. Cnsequently, there is ften an inverse relatinship between the value f land and the ecnmic status f thse wh ccupy it. Where peple live spatially reflects their psitin scially. Cncentric Znes S that they can serve as a baseline frm which t examine mre recent patterns f change, znes are presented here essentially as they existed during the first tw thirds f the 20 th century. ZONE 1 was the central business district: the ecnmic and transprtatin center f the city. The heart f the zne was the retail shpping district, with its majr department stres, theaters, htels, banks, and central ffices f ecnmic, plitical, legal, and civic leaders. The urban functin f prviding dwntwn ffice space and cnventin centers is increasing. Until the inner city deindustrializatin f the 1970s, ZONE 2 the zne in transitin cntained bth lder factry cmplexes, many frm the 19 th century, and an uter ring f deterirating tenement neighburhds. The zne in transitin was the pint f entry fr immigrants. Immigrants settled in the cheap husing near the factries because they culd nt cmpete ecnmically fr mre desirable residential lcatins. The zne in transitin was knwn as an area f high crime rates and scial disrganizatin. As the 20 th century immigrants mved up in SES, they mved ut spatially and were in turn replaced by newer immigrants. Thus, a nnrandm spatial structure r pattern emerged, with grups f lwer SES being mst centrally lcated. ZONE 3 was the zne f wrking peple s hmes This was the area settled by secnd generatin families, the children f the immigrants; it was the place where ne mved t frm the inner cre. ZONE 4, named the zne f the better residences, was the uter city zne f the great middle class small business wners, prfessinal peple, sales wrkers, and thse hlding white cllar jbs. Burgess s final zne was the cmmuter zne r suburbs Befre WWII the cmmuter zne was cmprised mstly f upper middle class and upper class drmitry suburbs. Burgess s mdel has had cnsiderable practical cnsequences. Tday gentrificatin turns Burgess s pattern inside ut Nt nly lder residences, but als central city cmmercial prperty and warehuses are being cnverted int affluent husing.

4 Limitatins It has been charged that Burgess s znal bundaries d nt serve as demarcatins in respect t the eclgical r scial phenmena they circumscribe, but are arbitrary divisin. This is an verstatement, but it is clear that Burgess s znes are NOT hmgenus units. We have t keep in mind that he was prpsing a mdel r ideal type f what American cities wuld lk like if ther factrs did NOT intervene but f curse ther factrs d intervene. The questin is nt whether znal pattern is an exact descriptin, fr it bviusly is NOT The questin is whether the grwth patterns f American cities were described by Burgess s mdel. Sectr and Multiple Nuclei Mdels Hyt prpsed a sectr thery He said that rather than urban grwth prgressing thrugh rings, grwth takes place in fairly hmgenus pie shaped wedges r sectrs that extend frm the center tward the periphery f the city. A pattern f land use was said t develp in which each use industrial, cmmercial, high incme residential, r lw incme residential tended t push ut frm the city cre in specific sectrs that reflected the early land use in that sectr. The sectrs cut acrss cncentric znes. The sectr thery fcuses attentin n the rle f transprtatin arteries. Althugh riginally develped t explain city patterns, the sectr thery perhaps better explains uter develpment ut alng interstate and ther majr highways. The multiple nuclei thery f spatial grwth, rejects the idea f a single centered city altgether. Instead it hlds that as a city grws it develps distinct centers f activity, and that in cntemprary cities these different land uses have different centers. Fur factrs were said t accunt fr the rise f the different nuclei: Certain activities require specialized facilities. Retailing, fr example, requires a high degree f accessibility. Like activities grup tgether fr mutual advantages, as in the case f the central business district. Sme unlike activities are mutually detrimental r incmpatible with ne anther. Fr example, it is unlikely that high incme r high status residential areas will lcate clse t heavy industry Sme users, such as strage and warehusing facilities, which have a relatively lwer cmpetitive capacity t purchase gd lcatins, are able t affrd nly lw rental areas. Tday, the multiple nuclei hypthesis prvides a better descriptin f the entire metrplitan area than it des f the central city. Hawley stressed the imprtance f transprtatin netwrks in his multinucleated thery f grwth. He nted that within metrplitan areas there is nt ne retail business district, but rather a hierarchical, multinucleated system f districts. Urban Grwth Outside Nrth America The Burgess cncentric zne pattern f urban grwth, which suggests an increasing status gradient as ne ges frm city cre t periphery, has never been a very satisfactry mdel fr explaining urban grwth utside Nrth America. Rather, in cities with a nnindustrial heritage, there appears t be an inverse znal hypthesis. That is, in such cities, it is cmmn t find a pattern in which upper class and upper middle class grups ccupy the city prper and pr in migrants settle n the suburban periphery. In develping cuntries the pr ften live in squatter shantytwns These FAVELAS, BARRIADAS, GECEKONDUS, r BUSTEES can be fund n the periphery f almst every majr city in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Burgess s thery des NOT appear t be applicable t lder Eurpean cities. As Eurpean cities industrialized during the 19 th century, central land was already filled, s heavy industry was cnfined t suburban areas where there was sufficient land. Giden Sjberg sees the Eurpean pattern f identificatin f high status grups with central city lcatin as a persistence f a feudal traditin that is NOT present in American cities.

5 It can be argued that, in Eurpe r elsewhere, upper status urban ppulatins live in the city because they feel it is an exciting and attractive place t live. The Pstmdern City: The Ls Angeles Schl The mst discussed new way f lking at cities is prvided by the s called Ls Angeles Schl f urban schlars. They set themselves up in direct ppsitin t the Chicag Schl. What they suggest is that Ls Angeles, with its fragmented spatial and scial pattern, is the mdel fr the future. The L.A. Schl turns the lder Chicag Schl n its head by arguing that the multicultural way f life is the new pstmdern nrm in which the periphery is nw the cre. Beauregard suggests, that the veruse f superlatives and the suggestins that LA is the first n ne r anther measure slips frm science int an academic bsterism that is at dds with empirical research and critical thery. This prblem emerges when writers lse the critical mindset in which a city illuminates sme imprtant urban trend in the making, replacing it with superlatives t suggest the city in questin is the prttype f a new pattern. Plitical Ecnmy Mdels With its premise that ecnmic cmpetitin fr space prduces the spatial rder f cities, urban eclgy remained he dminant mdel f urban change until the 1970s, when it was challenged by the emergence f plitical ecnmy paradigms. Plitical ecnmy advcates argue that yu have t lk beynd the city t natinal (and pssibly wrld) patterns t understand massive changes such as city declines, suburbanizatin r deindustrializatin. Sme argue that such ne Marxist cnflict based mdels nw have becme the dminant paradigm. What is cmmn t the plitical ecnmy perspective is that it fcuses n the rle played by uman agency, and especially the actins f the crprate ecnmic elites and plitical institutins that d their bidding. Plitical ecnmy emphasizes, nt impersnal ecnmic frces prducing unifrm eclgical patterns, but hw urban systems are structured t give advantage t sme grups and disadvantage t thers. Like urban eclgy, plitical ecnmy is cncerned with systems f dminance and subrdinatin perating acrss spatial bundaries. Unlike urban eclgy, these systems are seen as driven by the actins (r inactins) f particular grups pursuing their particular interests, smetimes with a vengeance. The fcus is n hw varius plitical ecnmic systems usually perate, which grups tend t hld mre pwer, and wh tends t benefit and wh is likely t lse frm the way things are in cities Urban plitical ecnmy thus lks at scial pwer and hw urban decisins favur the pwerful at the expense f thers. Plitical Ecnmy Assumptins The fllwing five underlying assumptins are taken frm the wrk f Feagin and have been mdified and simplified smewhat by Smith and Timberlake CITIES ARE SITUATED IN A HIERARCHICAL GLOBAL SYSTEM, AND GLOBAL LINKAGES AMONG CITIES HELP DEFINE THE STRUCTURE OF THE WORLD SYSTEM Cities and urban life in bth develped and develping cuntries are largely shaped by their specific lcatin and invlvement in the wrld system. Grups in sme areas, explit grups and resurces in ther regins. As a result, majr scial differences (e.g., patterns f urbanizatin) acrss the glbe have much t d with hw the regin fits int this internatinal divisin f labur and with hw lcal systems f class, race/ethnicity, and gender relatins have develped in cnnectin with the peratin f the wrld system. THE WORLD SYSTEM IS ONE OF COMPETITIVE CAPTIALISM This wrld system is driven, t a significant degree, by the lgic f capitalism and is, therefre, cmpetitive. Lcally based actrs attempt t utbid ne anther fr access t capital, cheap labur, and resurces. Cmpetitive capitalism when transmitted t gegraphical space invlves the creatin and destructin f the land and built envirnment we term cities It als leads t the cncentratin and shifts f ppulatins WITHIN urban space int neighburhds, slums and suburbs CAPITAL IS EASILY MOVED; LOCATIONS OF CITIES ARE FIXED

6 Gains and lsses are usually calculated within crpratins. Owners and managers f cmpanies act t maximize the prfitability and ensure the survival f their firms. Actins t d this ften include mving capital (in the frm f factries and prductin facilities, crprate ffices, etc.) frm ne lcatin t anther t attempt t imprve the bttm line Investments and disinvestments ften have prfund effects n the lcals and lcalities, many f which are cities. This can lead t capital drain and deindustrializatin in these places POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT MATTER The state in mdern capitalist states is linked t the ecnmic prcess that frm cities. Bth lcal and natinal plitics play a majr rle in setting the rules and greasing the skids fr business prfitability. Cntrary t the assumptin that capitalist ecnmies are driven by a free market, states fundamentally help determine the flw f capital ver the glbe, including frm ne city r regin t anther. PEOPLE AND CIRCUMSTANCES DIFFER ACCORDING TO TIME AND PLACE, AND THESE DIFFERENCES MATTER. Specific ecnmic and state frms d NOT develp autmatically r inevitably. They develp as the results f cnscius actins taken by scial classes, acting tgether r singly, in particular histrical r structural circumstances In ther wrds, cities are shaped by real flesh and bld peple making decisins in particular situatins. Decisins are made by peple, nt variables r scial frces Peple may supprt r ppse the existing system, r they may supprt alternatives.