Human geography10

Human Geography: Places and Regions in Global Context, 5e

Chapter 10: Urbanization

Paul L. Knox & Sallie A. Marston

PowerPoint Author: Keith M. Bell

OverviewThe world is becoming increasingly urbanized, and cities have come to dominate even more aspects of modern life than they did in previous times. Whether we live in one or not, cities have a strong influence on our lives—especially, perhaps, for Americans. Most of the products people buy, the services they use, and the fashions and cultural tastes they follow originate in cities.This chapter examines the impact and influence of cities and the factors leading to their growth. Urban systems are ancient in origin, but became especially important in Medieval Europe, where they were associated with the rise of capitalism. The rise of merchant capitalism helped prompt colonialism, further helping to spread the urban model to many other places around the world. After considering the growth of urbanization, this chapter turns to the contemporary urban process, looking at central place theory as well as the economic base of cities and the problems of increasing urbanization.

Chapter Objectives

• The objectives of this chapter are to:– Examine the roots of European urban

expansion– Explore today’s urbanization, looking at

regional trends and projections, and their urban systems

– Investigate urban growth processes

Chapter Outline• Urban Geography and Urbanization (p. 390)

– Functions of urban settlement• Urban Origins (p. 392)

– European urban expansion– Industrialization– Imperialism and colonial cities

• Urban Systems (p. 401)– City-size distributions– Primacy and centrality

• World cities– Rapid growth of the world’s cities– Overurbanization and megacities– Mature cities and deindustrialization

• Globalization and Splintering Urbanism (p. 417)– Differences between core and peripheral cities

• Conclusion (p. 419)

Geography Matters

• 10.1 Visualizing Geography—Shock City: Manchester (p. 402)– Manchester, England, was an early industrial city

• 10.2 Window on the World—Urban Terrorism (p. 408)– Cities have become the sites of terrorism

• 10.3 Window on the World—Pearl River Delta: An Extended Metropolis (p. 412)– How the greater Hong Kong area has become a

megacity

UrbanizationThe urban areas of the world are the

linchpins of human geographies at the local, regional, and global scales.

The earliest towns and cities developed independently in the various hearth areas

of the first agricultural revolution.

The expansion of trade around the world established numerous gateway cities.

The Industrial Revolution generated new kinds of cities.

Today, there is a striking difference in trends and projections between core and

peripheral regions in global urbanization.

A small number of “world cities” occupy key roles in the organization of global

economies and culture.

Many megacities of the periphery are primate and highly centralized.

Urban Geography and Urbanization• The study of urban geography is concerned with the

development of towns and cities around the world, with particular reference to the similarities and differences both among and within urban places.

• Experts on urbanization point to four fundamental aspects of the role of towns and cities in human economic and social organization:– The mobilizing function of urban settlement– The decision-making capacity of urban settlement– The generative functions of urban settlement– The transformative capacity of urban settlement

Urban Population/Urban Settlements

• Towns and cities must be viewed as part of the economies and societies that maintain them.

• Geographers analyze and conceptualize urban systems to understand the patterns and regularities they find. (e.g., French urban system, African urban system, Islamic urban system, etc.).

• Urban form refers to the physical structure and organization of cities in their land use, layout, and built environment.

Urbanization Growth Rates, 2000–2005

• Urban form refers to the physical structure and organization of cities.

• Urban ecology is the social and demographic composition of city districts and neighborhoods.

• Urbanism concerns people’s attitudes and behaviors about the city in which they live.

The Roots of European Urban Expansion

• Greek and Roman influenced

• Feudalism gave rise to a fragmented landscape of inflexible, introverted world-empires

• Economic and social organization based on the communal chiefdoms of Germanic tribes

• An elaborate urban system developed, the largest of which became nodal centers in a global world-system

• Self-sufficient regarding food and resources

• Existence of towns depended on their role:– Ecclesiastical or university centers

– Defensive strongholds

– Administrative centers (for the upper tiers of the feudal hierarchy)

Major Cities in A.D. 1000

Ecclesiastical or University Centers: Chartres, FranceChartres was an important ecclesiastical center. The cathedral, built in the thirteenth century, is widely considered to be the finest gothic cathedral in France.

Defensive Strongholds: Aigues-Mortes, FranceThis walled medieval town in southern France is one of the best-preserved examples of thirteenth-century military architecture. The town of rectilinear streets is surrounded by a wall with five towers and ten fortified gates.

Defensive Strongholds: Urbino, ItalyAn important strategic center in the thirteenth century with a classic hilltop defensive site, Urbino became a principal artistic center during the Renaissance.

Administrative Centers: Cologne, GermanyIn the late 1400s, Cologne had a population of less than 25,000 but was already a critical commercial and manufacturing center, with an important cathedral and a university that was more than 100 years of age.

The Towns and Cities of Europe, ca. 1350

• Cities with more than 10,000 residents were uncommon in medieval Europe except in northern Italy and Flanders, such as the cities of Florence and Delft (Netherlands), where the spread of cloth production and the growth of trade permitted relatively intense urbanization.

Towns and Cities of Europe, ca. 1350

Ghent, Belgium Venice, Italy

The regional specializations and trading patterns that emerged provided the foundations for a new phase of urbanization based on merchant capitalism.

Towns and Cities of Europe, ca. 1350

Florence, Italy Prague, Czech Republic

Merchant capitalism (e.g., the Hanseatic League in the North and Baltic Seas) increased in scale and sophistication; economic and social reorganization was stimulated by the Protestant Reformation and the scientific revolution.

Gateway Cities

Growth of Chicago

Chicago’s growth in the nineteenth century followed the arrival of railroads, which made the city a major transportation hub.

Urbanization Process: Core Regions

Imperialism and Peripheral UrbanizationColonial cities are those that were deliberately established or developed as administrative or commercial centers by colonial or imperial powers. This painting of the Indian Peninsular Terminus in Mumbai (Bombay) shows the influence of Victorian British architecture.

Shock City: Manchester

A shock city is one that embodies surprising and disturbing changes in economic, social, and cultural life.

The Spanish Urban System

Smaller cities tend to be linked to middle-order cities, which are in turn linked to regional metropolises, then national metropolises. These linkages represent major flows of capital, information, and goods.

Functional Specialization Within an Urban System

Slum Housing in Peripheral Cities

Throughout much of the world, the scale and speed of urbanization, combined with the scarcity of formal employment, have resulted in very high proportions of slum housing, much of it erected by the squatters themselves.

The Pearl River Delta: An Extended Metropolis

World Cities and the Global Urban System

• World cities provide an interface between the global and the local. They are also sites of:– Most of the leading global markets– Clusters of specialized, advanced business services– Concentrations of corporate headquarters– Concentrations of national and international headquarters

of trade and professional organizations– Most of the leading NGOs and IGOs that are international

in scope– The most powerful and internationally influential media

organizations

Urban TerrorismThe wreckage of a public train near Atocha train station in Madrid, Spain, March 11, 2004. Thirteen bombs on four packed commuter trains killed 191 people and wounded more than 1500. The attack was attributed to the Islamic militant group al-Qaeda.

World Cities in the Global Urban System

The sphere of influence of world cities, based on an analysis of the regional headquarter functions of the world’s largest advanced business services firms.

MegacitiesMexico City, Mexico Shanghai, China

Megacities’ most important common attribute is their sheer size—most of which have ten million or more in population. Other examples include Bangkok, Lagos, Manila, Dhaka, New Delhi, Jakarta, São Paulo, and Teheran.

Globalization and Splintering Urbanism• Enclaves of Internet and digital multimedia technology

development, mostly in core-country world cities.

• Technopoles and clusters of high-tech industrial innovation.

• Places configured for foreign direct investment in manufacturing, with customized infrastructure, expedited development approval processes, tax concessions, and in some cases exceptions to labor and environmental regulations.

• Enclaves of international banking, finance, and business services in world cities and major regional centers.

• Enclaves of modernization in the megacities and major regional centers of peripheral countries.

• Enclaves of back-office spaces, data-processing, e-commerce, and call centers.

• Spaces customized as “logistics zones.”

End Chapter 10

Discussion Topics and Lecture Themes

• What were some of the factors that led to the formation of the earliest urban-based world-empires? What factors might have contributed to the periodic collapse of these early empires?– Experts differ in their explanations of the first transitions from

subsistence minisystems to city-based world-empires. The classic archeological interpretation emphasizes the availability of an agricultural surplus large enough to allow the emergence of specialized, nonagricultural workers. Some urbanization, however, seems to have been the result of the pressure of population growth. This growth caused some people to move to marginal areas, where they set up an urban economy based on trade, religion, or defense. Wars and epidemics contributed to the periodic collapse of these empires.

• Compare and contrast lifestyles in rural and urban areas. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? Ask the students which environment they prefer, and why. Might their response explain the rapid growth of urban areas in the late twentieth century, as well as the corresponding back-to-the-land movement?

– Many students may not have experienced life in rural areas, and they may have romantic notions about rural life. Population trends in the United States indicate a greater move from rural to urban environments, rather than the other way around.


• Give some examples of Medieval European cities (especially those still flourishing today). What factors contributed to the growth of these cities?

– Examples of Medieval European cities include Cambridge (England), Bruges (Belgium), and Mainz (Germany) among many others. Medieval towns were established for a variety of reasons, including as ecclesiastical or university centers, as defensive strongholds, and as administrative centers.


• What is meant by a shock city? Can you think of some examples of cities that might be considered shock cities today? What makes them shocking?

– A shock city is a city that is seen as the embodiment of surprising and disturbing changes in economic, social, and cultural life. Examples might include Lagos (Nigeria) and Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea). These cities have had to face rapid growth and overurbanization, leading to squatter settlements and the inability of the city government to provide even basic services. Tensions also result from a constant stream of in-migrants from many different ethnic groups who seek better economic conditions in the city.


• Why were Manchester and Chicago considered shock cities at one time? Are they still shock cities today? Why not?

– Manchester and Chicago were both industrial cities—a new purpose for a city and one that led to rapid growth. They are no longer considered shock cities today because they no longer embody surprising and disturbing changes in economic, social, and cultural life. See also the Geography Matters 10.1 boxed text for information about Manchester.


• What are some of the distinctive features of colonial cities? If the local community is a former colonial city, what evidence of its colonial past is visible today?

– Colonial cities typically contain areas established by the colonial power to fulfill colonial functions, with ceremonial spaces, office, and depots for colonial traders, plantation representatives, and government officials; barracks for a garrison of soldiers; and housing for colonists. Structures included churches, city halls, railway stations, palaces of governors and archbishops, and houses of wealthy colonists. Colonial cities also contained areas for housing and commercial uses for the indigenous population. See pages 400–401 in the textbook for further information.


• How has the growth of cities in the periphery been different from the experience of core cities? What particular problems do peripheral cities face? Why are most of these cities growing so rapidly?

– Cities in the periphery have grown much more rapidly than cities in the core. Rural migrants to cities in the periphery have poured into these cities out of desperation and hope, rather than being drawn in by jobs and opportunities, leading to problems of overurbanization. See pages 409–417 in the textbook for further information.


• What is the nearest world city to where you live? What impacts does this city have on life in the local community?

– The nearest world city may be fairly distant. See pages 407–409 for a description of the characteristics of world cities.


• Can you think of some examples of large cities that are not world cities? What factors, other than or despite their size, deny them status as world cities?

– Some large cities, or megacities, that are not world cities include Cairo, Jakarta, Lagos, and Shanghai. These cities are not control centers of the world economy; they are not places where critical decision-making and interaction take place with regard to global economic, cultural, and political issues.


Human geography10

Documents

urban form

urban areas

urban ecology

urban model

colonial cities urban

influence of cities

african urban system

elaborate urban system