Introduction to the Study of Urban Geography

Transcription

1 38: 281 Urban Unit I Introduction to the Study of Urban Introduction to the Study of Urban 1.1 Urban as an Academic Discipline 1.2 The Object of Urban 1.2.i What is a City, What is Urban? 1.2.ii What is Urbanisation? 1.3 The Context of Globalisation 1

2 1.1 Urban as an Academic Discipline s roots in interest in sameness and difference In relation to the two basic orientations of geography: systematic vs. regional 2

3 1.1 Urban as an Academic Discipline Traditions in Urban Environmental Determinism, Regional Tradition: Site and Situation studies Spatial Analysis Behaviouralism, Structuralism, Post- Modernism There are many others 1.1 Urban as an Academic Discipline Post-Modernist critique: Whereas modernism is paradigmatic, universalistic, purposive, hierarchical, synthetic, selective, and concerned with master codes and meta-narratives, postmodernism is syntagmatic, playful, anarchical, antithetical, combinatorial, idealectical, localistic, and anti-narrative 3

4 Tangier, Morocco 4

5 1.1 Urban as an Academic Discipline Our Approach: Post-Marxist Political Economy: a structuralist approach that focuses on economic and political processes (and to a lesser degree, cultural ones) 5

6 1.1 Urban as an Academic Discipline Three major domains Macro geographies Connectivity Internal Geographies plus ways of thinking about the city 1.2 The Object of Urban 1.2i What is a City? What is Urban? Two dimensions of urban : Complex Social Organisation A Particular (Spatial) Way of Organising the Economy 6

7 Los Angeles Examples of Definitions of City Davis (1973): Cities are concentrations of many people located close together for residential and productive purposes Saunders (1986): Cities are places where large numbers of people live and work Elliot and McCrone (1982): Cities are a very special human institution (or if you prefer, a complex of institutions) 7

8 1.2 The Object of Urban Urban is an adjective meaning of, relating to, characteristic of, or constituting a city Four categories of definition of city : Archaeological Legal Functional Census 1.2 The Object of Urban Archaeological / Economic: an agglomeration of people and activities relatively large based upon non-primary activities Legal / Administrative: creatures of the state Functional: a daily urban system based on links to a central city Census (eg. Population Size): defined by (national) government 8

9 Examples of Census Definitions United States: population of 2,500 + Japan: population of 30,000 + Italy and Turkey: population of 10,000 + India: population of 5,000 + Australia: population of 1,000 + Sweden and Iceland: population of Examples of Census Definitions Botswana: population of 5,000 +, where at least 75% of economic activity is not agriculture Canada: population of 1,000 +, having a density of at least 400/km 2 9

10 Examples of Census Definitions Czechoslovakia: defines large town as usually 5,000 + population, more than 100 persons per hectare of built-up area, 3 or more living quarters in at least 15% of the houses, piped water and a sewage system for the major part of the town, at least 5 physicians and a pharmacy, a 9 year secondary school, a hotel with at least 20 beds, a network of trade and distributive services which serve more than one town, job opportunities for the population of the surrounding area, the terminal of a system of bus lines, and not more than 10% of the total population active in agriculture. 1.2 The Object of Urban Principal Criteria: administrative status minimum population minimum population density contiguity constraint (inclusive or exclusive) proportion non-agricultural functional character specification 10

11 1.2 The Object of Urban On Boundaries: underbounded overbounded truebound On Scale: neighbourhood city region national system of cities global system of cities 1.2 The Object of Urban Lewis Mumford: distinctive physical form based on social exchanges predicated on specific networks which are geographical in 2 senses And cities as living environments 11

12 1.2 The Object of Urban 1.2.ii What is Urbanisation? 2 related meanings: an increase in the proportion of a population living in urban places 12

13 1.2 The Object of Urban 1.2.ii What is Urbanisation? 2 related meanings: an increase in the proportion of a population living in urban places the process(es) of city creation and/or growth and counter-urbanisation 1.3 The Context of Globalisation Colonialism as Early Globalisation the Role of Cities Globalisation in the Modern Era (post- 1970s) Global Oligopolies Global Finance Knowledge Industries and Information Processing Global Mobility Multilateral Agreements 13

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