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City and Space Lectures
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Even though it comes from 2018, many relevant theories for social geography students
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HC1 Dinsdag 3 April 2018- What is a city?
- What are the spatial dynamics that shape the city?
- What is urban space?
Socio-spatial perspective
There are different dynamics that shape cities and spaces.
- Approach: Meaning, importance and evolution of cities in relation to social, spatial and
economic dynamics that influence shaping of urban space;
- Format: Each week a new theme
- Aim: To develop skills to observe and understand everyday urban space through a socio-
spatial theoretical lens.
Why study cities?
Problem: if we all are going to live in cities, who is going to make the food?
3 Billion people live in cities, we live in the Urban Century!
- UN (2014): 54% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, a proportion that is
expected to increase to 66% by 2050
- Only a few centuries ago 20% of the world population lived in cities
- Every day, 180.000 people migrate from rural to urban areas.
The cities also grow physically, they get bigger.
Why studying cities?
- City as a living organism:
Constant transformation and change in time occurs in cities
- We can understand larger economic, social and political processes by doing research
in cities
- Capital accumulates in cities. The rural areas are slowly disappearing. We all humans
are all part of this change
- Cities are the places where not only the global capital but also the global information,
culture and population flows.
Can cities make us happier, richer, smarter, greener & healthier?
Yes, because there all are these things that are more convenient than in rural area’s
,But actually, they also can make us unhappier, poorer & unhealthier
There are very problematic situations in the city’s, also where we live.
Example: te veel fijn stof in de lucht, in Antwerpen. Baby’s worden geboren met kleinere
longen. Dit probleem is eigenlijk ‘om de hoek’ terwijl het erg problematisch is.
Different approaches to define a city
- Technical definitions based on demographic or physical indicators such as
population, size and density or catchment area and boundaries
Cities are always the places that have accumulated.
- City: in general, a large town.
But it changes in each context! It is different in different countries
- In UK
City is a town of any size which is or has been the seat of bishop and has a
cathedral
- In USA
City implies corporation of a settlement and establishment of some form of local
government, but a city may be only a few hundred people
- In Turkey
Settlements with a population over 1.000.000 people are defined as cities
> Is it enough to define a city with statistical indicators and size?
> What else makes a city?
Five smallest cities in the world
- St Asaph, in the UK. 3500 residents.
- Vatican City. Smallest city-state by geographical area and population, of 800.
- Maza, in the USA, population of 5
- City of London. The “city” or “square mile”. During the medieval period the City of London
was all of London. The boundaries remained the same and to this day it still has city status in
its own right.
- Adamstown. Least populated capital city of the Pitcairn Islands, population of 48.
Mumford’s definition (1937): “The city is a geographic plexus, an economic organization, an
institutional process, a theater of social action, and an aesthetic symbol of collective unity”
Theater of social action
- Actors and stakeholders in the city and their roles, conflicts, negotiations and
relations:
, - In contemporary terms he is using the political economy approach
‘The city as theater’
- He criticizes the planners for having no notion of the social characteristics of the city.
In that time also planning was something to just make beautiful places where those that
have money can live
- Underlines the importance of the sociology of urban groups, importance of social and
economic institutions for the city
- He sees the physical dimension only as one part of the characteristics of the city
Mumford’s contribution
- Putting environment and society on the scene
The city is a related collection of primary groups and purposive associations
- “the city as theater” inspired many urban cultural analysts
- Jane Jacobs > street ballet
- William Whyte > urban plaza as a stage
- Allan Jacobs > planners should fulfil human needs for fantasy and exoticism
Size of the city according to Mumford
He said is it an important criterion but
“What is more important is to express the size always as a function of the social relationships
to be served”
Polycentric versus monocentric city of Mumford
Mumford
- A large-mononucleated metropolis is a badly organized mass city;
- Collection of smaller cities that are planned as good living environments are better;
, - Society in a large metropolis is a social drama: importance of the face to face
communications
He preferred the more dispersed cities, where you don’t concentrate much. Because he
finds that there is more social contact, more communication
Other approaches to define cities
- Louis Wirth’s definition (1930s):
‘A relatively large, dense and permanent settlement of socially heterogeneous
individuals’
Recognizing ‘urbanism as a way of life’!
The city in history (1961)
- Urban experience as an integral component of the development of the human
culture and personality
- He was critical on urban sprawl, urban sprawl means continuous development of
cities, it’s not a very good thing (Like LA, everywhere houses sprawled all the same)
- Blames the structure of modern societies for many social problems ->
- He sees planning urban planning as a solution to build an organic relationship
between people and their living spaces
- He saw cities as ultimately de-humanizing but he had faith in the redemptive powers
of technology
HC2 April 5, 2018
The city in history: urban form and the origin of cities
Today
- Understanding the city through the geographers’ and planners’ lens
- Understanding the city and urban change with Kostof
Human geography not just about describing the spatial, social manifestations of economy
and society, but also about explaining how space is transformed and shaped by economies,
societies, and social and cultural processes. Geography is interested in analyzing cities in
these ways.
How do human geographers see the city?
Ze laat foto’s zien van ui en krop sla, ze bedoelt hiermee dat de stad in verschillende lagen is
gemaakt. Ook laat ze bloemkool en brocolli zien, hiermee bedoelt ze patterns, structures,
forms, connections
Human geographers comprehend the city with layers
- Explaining the layers of forces, relations, history, spatial developments, social
processes, economic dynamics that shape human society and shape the city
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