ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY – URBAN
* THE FINAL KEY ELEMENT OF ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
* IN MANY WAYS, THE LINKING FACTOR BETWEEN AGRICULTURE AND INDUSTRY
* A POWERFUL DRIVER / INDICATOR BEHIND ALL OF HUMAN, CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
* CENTERS OF POWER AND CULTURE
* CITIES ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF CULTURAL / HISTORICAL IMPULSES… Back to the landscape idea…
DEFINITIONS
- WHAT IS A CITY?
- Defined by a census bureau
- Has a boundary
- Has density, a non-rural occupational structure, control.
- Centers of culture
- Urbanization vs. Urbanism
- URBANIZATION – the process of becoming urban
- URBANISM – a way of life. How would your life be different when you get to the city?
- Other
- MSA – Metropolitan Statistical Area – delineated on the basis of a central urban area of influence
- Spread out to counties / rural if they have strong social and economic ties to the central area as measured by commuting and employment.
- outlying areas may actually be rural in nature.
- Functional City – Serves a function other than governmental administration (trade, religious, military)
- Administrative City – Main purpose is as administrative center
- MSA – Metropolitan Statistical Area – delineated on the basis of a central urban area of influence
WHY DO CITIES GROW?
- HYDRAULIC CIVILIZATION model
- Urbanization related to large scale irrigated agricultural projects
- Large scale irrigation often increases FOOD production
- Creates food surpluses, thus enabling more urban based specialized employment – industry.
- Large scale public works project requires CENTRALIZED AUTHORITY / CONTROL
- An element in some, but not all early city systems
- Urbanization related to large scale irrigated agricultural projects
- MILITARY, COERCION and WARFARE Model
- Cities as center of centralized military power.
- In areas where population is growing and resources limited
- A struggle to control resources
- Town as a DEFENDED settlement
- A focusing of power and resources in centralized OR strategic administrative / military locations
- Evident in some early cities, but not all.
- INNOVATION / INTERACTION Model
- Emphasizes human inventiveness and creativity
- Cities as centers of technological / economic / political change
- Cities were the outgrowth of rising political power and became focal points of MORE innovation.
- Growth creates growth.
- Explanation of the urban origin
- No single factor … a manifestation of many things
- Response to need for RESOURCE MANIPULATION
- Response to ACCUMULATIONS OF POWER
- Response to SPECIALIZED LABOR NEEDS
- Response to AGRICULTURAL SURPLUS
- Response to TRADE / INTERRACTION (markets), DEFENSE
- Response to INNOVATION
- No single factor … a manifestation of many things
BEGINNINGS OF URBANIZATION
* Several important early centers of urbanization developed in the ancient world … some clearly connected with one another … some adapting idea of the ‘city’ quite independently…
- Cities of Mesopotamia
- Ancient HEARTH for Western cities … though not Western itself.
- S. area of Sumer … Tirgris and Euphrates … CORE AREA for world’s OLDEST cities.
- Shares some parallels with more modern def. of cities (density, border, non-rural occu., center of power/culture)
- While several “villages” pop up earlier, true urbanization occurs around 3500 B.C.
- Ag. spread with help of Public Works Irrigation.
- Irrigation led to growth of tools (plow)
- Size of communities rose as SURPLUSES were produced
- Political power center made of bureaucrats and priests
- Temples (ziggurat) as city center, center of religious, center of economic (grain) storage and dispersal.
- City States political structure
- Invention of writing for record keeping, communication, trade
- Ur – 35,000 to 200,000 pop. Perhaps 500,000 in “MSA”
- Diffusion – use and idea of city spread E to Indus Valley, S to Nile, W to Mediterranean
- Indus Valley – modern Pakistan
- Highly urbanized by 2200 BC
- VERY similar in function to early Sumerian cities
- Irrigated agriculture
- Joint political / religious centers
- Trade lines extended W to Sumer
- Harappa and Mohenjodaro
- strong boundaries, fortifications
- built with amazingly regular street plan
- Nile Valley – Original large settlement, but not “urban”
- Did have various capitals – Memphis, Thebes
- Cities played no central role – authority lay in the power of the individual, not the place
- Cities used for burials, ceremony, not political power.
- Eastern Mediterranean
- Outgrowth of Sumerian development, but VERY different in function.
- Centers of trade and commerce, not religion
- Military and political power largely to support trade
- The Chinese City
- Apparently independent.
- Huang He Region E Central China 1500 BC
- Agriculture, focus of power, boundaries, centers of dynasties.
- A Hierarchy of cites developed in Imperial Political Structure – control, expansion etc.
- IMPERIAL CAPITAL
- PROVINCIAL CAPITAL
- HSIEN CAPITAL – county seat. To collect taxes and act as a nodal center for rural countryside
- Meso-American City
- Much later urbanization process – 200 B.C.
- City’s growth accompanied POLITICAL unification of whole region. Also RELIGIOUS centers
- But… no unifying rivers as elsewhere in Old World. Distinctive
- Also, no walls…
- Tenochtitlan (Mexico City)
EUROPEAN URBAN MODEL – The Western City Evolution
- Eastern Mediterranean Roots
- Phoenician city – building for trade (1200 B.C.)
- The Classical Era – Greeks and Romans (500 BC – 300 AD)
- Greek City-State:
- evolution of a geometrical urban landscape
- trade orientated function
- Agora – central open place, evolved into permanent comm. District
- Intimate relationship between Greek city and surrounding countryside – city as marketplace for rural products. City’s pop. fed by countryside.
- Roman City – many parallels, but some differences.
- Romans adopted idea of regular layout … even more formalized. Trade orientated city (central forum, emporium)
- Differed – didn’t evolve organically. Imposed from without.
- Center of political / military control, order
- Medieval Era of Urbanization (500 AD – 1500 AD)
- Order / structure collapsed after fall of Roman Empire.
- Cities didn’t necessarily collapse, but most contracted, function reduced.
- Less need for trade, specialization
- Power shifted to Christian Church and RURAL Feudal Landed Aristocracy
- Later Medieval Period (after 11th c.) – Several important urban developments
- Dominance of Trading Towns in N. Italy – Genoa, Milan, Florence, Venice –
- Retained long distance trade with East.
- Brought technical, economic inf.
- NW European Urban Hearth
- Legacy of Romans
- Less internal strife (more homogenous). More civic cooperation (church / wall / market building)
- City once again becomes economic trade center.
- Occupation quarter – city divided often by trade. Guild hall. City takes economic urban form.
- Vertical Segregation of town -
- 1st Floor – Selling, display 2nd F. – Master
- 3rd and 4th F. – Journeymen and Apprent.
- Dominance of Trading Towns in N. Italy – Genoa, Milan, Florence, Venice –
- Order / structure collapsed after fall of Roman Empire.
- Rise of Modern European City – Several types … A characteristic form and function
- Merchants Town
- NW Europe and Britain
- Urban landscape focused on trade
- Post 1500 – increased role for trade landscape in most cities
- Altered urban landscape in ways to promote trade, circulation, interaction
- MUCH more dynamic and capitalistic than earlier Euro City.
- No accident its focus was in same area as Protestantism
- More banks, warehouse districts, docks, wharfs, wider roads
- FUNCTIONAL CITY – ex. Amsterdam, London
- Renaissance City
- Formed as princes and kings grew more powerful at the close of M.Ages.
- Larger and more elaborate cityscapes.
- Visual symbols of AUTHORITY and POWER
- Focus on beauty, classical aesthetics, open space, monumental arch.
- France, Italy, German kingdoms (Rome, Florence, Paris)
- Rise of Modern European City
- Industrial Revolution – power of industry to shape landscape
- See industry notes
- Steam tech freed industrial activity from a dependence upon waterpower sites.
- Whole cities, esp. in England, organized around industrial activity – (Manchester, Liverpool)
- Elements of Manufacturing City disperse to most cities in Europe, beyond.
- Techno City
- With 20th / 21st Century
- Better transportation and urban growth has encouraged suburbanization
- Electronic Age made CENTRALITY less important
- New functional styles. Adapted to modern needs.
- Merchants Town
- Key Points …
- Euro city is ACCUMULATION of all these influences.
- Selective elements of all of these traditions have been transferred globally to places of European colonization. Pattern of diffusion
- Greek City-State:
NORTH AMERICAN URBAN MODEL
* Role of Trade in the creation of the form and function of the city
* Planned Design of the Western City
* Growth of Industry in the Euro City
* Urban Growth of the Techno City
* There is a TYPICAL, REGULAR pattern to the geography of the N.A. city, to the ways activities are organized
* Most have a well-defined CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT (CBD)
* Towards the edge of the city a RESIDENTAL land use – usually in zones by economic status
* COMMERCIAL SECTOR – intervening shopping plazas and malls.
* ZONES OF TRANSITION – old houses, edge cities. A complex region.
* GROWING evidence of service sector
* Geogs and other social scientists have examined these patterns and have interpreted REGULARITIES. Models.
* 20th century brought decentralization to US cities … increased suburbanization
- MODELS
- Burgess Concentric Zone Model
o Found a concentric zonal pattern of land use. Described them.
o Dynamic model – city as a GROWING ORGANISM
o Older model. Chicago. Needed update
- Hoyt Sector Model
o Many cities do not have circular zones. Sectors.
o Transport rouges, special industrial zones, high rent districts of DISTORT concentric ring model
o Low rent dist. nearest to INDUSTRY. High rent furthest away. Mid-income in-between.
- Harris / Ullman MULTIPLE NUCLEI MODEL
o Post WWII – to account for city spread
o CBD is losing dominant position
§ Increasing competition from outer commercial zones
§ Increase in auto traffic
o Less regularity
- Outer City Model
o Suggests the creation of true OUTER CITIES on the edge of the older central city
o No longer just “suburban” in traditional sense
§ Real work / shopping places in outer cities
§ Less suburb to CBD commuting
§ Refocusing of economic activities
- Consequences of Decentralization
- As decentralization occurs … many urban problems become SPATIALLY FOCUSED in old central city.
o Population Declines – leaves behind those least able to move … poor, young, old, disabled, minorities
o Economic Declines – fewer job opportunities for CBD residents
o Disamenities focused precisely in the area least able fiscally to absorb costs
- Countercurrents
o Inner city revitalization has improved selected neighborhoods … though not all CBDs
o Some financing comes from PUBLIC SECTOR
o Much comes from PRIVATE SECTOR – Both GENTRIFICATION
- Future of NA City
- Continued Suburbanization, decentralization
- Old central cities will have mixed experience … largest will do best, compete globally
- Trade, business, communication will continue to be prime shapers of the urban landscape
GLOBAL TRENDS …
- Global level of urbanization has risen rapidly in the 20th century. One of the truly great fundamental changes in human geography
- In 1900 – 14% Urban
- By 2000 – 50 % Urban … with a MUCH larger base population
- Of 100 largest cities of 2 M. plus 36 are in MDC … 64 in LDC
- Of worlds 10 largest cities in 1992 … in millions
- Tokyo … 27.5
- Mexico City … 22
- Sao Paolo … 20
- Seoul … 17
- New York … 14
- Osaka – Kobe … 14
- Bombay (Mumbai) … 13
- Calcutta … 12
- Rio … 12
- Buenos Ares … 12
- 7 in LDC
- 3 in MDC
- Of worlds 10 largest cities in 2034
- Mexico City (2) … 40
- Shanghai (n) … 38.8
- Beijing (n) … 34.5
- Sao Paolo (3) … 32.4
- Bombay (7) … 30.6
- Dacca (Dahka) (n) … 29.2
- Calcutta (8) … 28.9
- Jakarta (n) …27
- Madras (n) …24
- Tokyo (1) … 20
- 9 of 10 LDC
FINAL THOUGHTS … BOTH URBAN and HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
* Geographic education makes ordinary … extraordinary
* To make us look critically at everyday things we take for granted
* The city / the world … to see it as a cultural invention … a product of human needs and human creativity … that is quite extraordinary.
* Continue to see ordinary as extraordinary
