Chapters 12 and 13 Vocab Flashcards
Early urbanization: emerging from the First Agricultural Revolution
Egalitarian society: civilization in which all people are equal; typical of most hunter-gatherer societies.
Stratified society: civilization in which people exist in different classes; the development of farming and early cities began this process.
Formative era: time where the major urban hearths came into exist stance (e.g., for the Fertile Crescent this occurred between 7,000 – 5,000 BCE (Before Common Era – same as BC (Before Christ)).
Urban elite: group of socially, politically, or economically dominant figures in a society.
Theocratic center: focus of religious activity or importance.
My Definition:
emerged from first agriculutral revolution
all people are equal in this society
time where major urban hearths came into existence
group of dominant figures in a society
focus of religious importance
Medieval Optimum (Medieval Warm Period): a time of warm weather around CE 800-1300 (Common Era – same as AD (Anno Domini) during the European Medieval period. The effect may largely have been focused in the Northern Atlantic.
Little Ice Age (16th - 19th century): period of global cooling after the Medieval Warm Period (~9th c. to 14th century); greatly affected the northern empires of Rome and China (e.g., encouraged the migration of people to the cities in England due to shrinking farmlands providing factories with an abundant supply of cheap labor.
My Definition:
time of warm weather around 800-1500 A.D. in Europe
time of global cooling from 1500s-1800s
Societal Classification: Gideon Sjoberg; cities changed over time:
Folk-preliterate: earliest cities, predating written languages.
Feudal: arose during the Middle Ages which actually stagnated urban growth in Europe; fostered a dependent relationship between wealthy landowners and peasants – provided few alternative economic alternatives.
Preindustrial: found in societies without sophisticated machine technology, where human and animal labor form the basis for economic production (no city moved past this stage until the Industrial Revolution).
Urban-industrial: predominate in the modernized nations of Western Europe, America, Japan (and to a lesser extent where their cultures have globalized) where productivity through machines, and energy sources from fossil fuels and atomic power phenomenally expand economic productivity.
My Definition:
- earliest cities, predating written languages
- fostered relationship between wealthy landowners who provided a place of living and protection, and peasants who tilled the land and such
- human and animal labor form basis for economic production
- productivity through machines and energy sources from fossil fuels and atomic power
- *Urban banana (crescent-shaped zone):** urbanized zone that spread from India and the Far East (China & Japan) across the Islamic Empires, and into Europe; followed mostly along the silk and spice trade routes.
- *Medieval city:** European-style city with high density of development, narrow buildings, and an ornate church at the city center, with high walls for defense (walls proved futile when gunpowder made its way into Europe by the 1300s).
My Definition:
urbanized zone that followed mostly along the silk and spice trade routes
high density of development, narrow buildings, church in center, and high walls for defense
Mercantile city: Atlantic maritime trade disrupted old trade routes & centers of power starting in the 1500s (from interior to coastal ports); central square became focus (“downtown”), these cities became nodes of a network of trade; brought huge riches to Europe (e.g. Lisbon, Amsterdam, London, …).
Manufacturing city: grew out of the Industrial Revolution and the “Little Ice Age”; associated w/ mushrooming population, factories, tenement buildings, railroads, …; poor living & health conditions; cities improved w/ government intervention, city planning, and zoning, …
Modern city: (modern architecture) little attention is spent on building aesthetics or ornate designs; improved transportation & road systems has allowed greater complexity, multiple CBDs, and dispersal into the suburbs; the hallmark of American life.
My Definition:
cities become nodes of a network of maritime trade
associate with mushrooming population, factories, tenement buildings, railroads, poor living and health conditions
greater complexity of transportation systems, multiple CBDs, and dispersal into the suburbs
- *Postmodernism:** (postmodern architecture) architecture & design developed for look & commerce (may connect to historical roots); a reaction to feeling of sterile alienation some had to modern architecture; city spaces become more people-friendly.
- *Agglomeration:** (nucleation) clustering of people or businesses for mutual benefits of close proximity; can share labor pools, technological and financial amenities, and ancillary industries (support large-scale industries).
Deglomeration: process of industrial deconcentration in response to technological advances and/or increasing costs due to congestion and competition.
My Definition:
- architecture and design developed for look and commerce
- clustering of people or businesses for mutual benefits of close proximity
- process of industrial deconcentration
Urban hierarchy: ranking of settlements according to their size and economic functions.
Hamlet: lowest level of settlements (often not urban); offers few if any services.
Village: clustered human settlement larger than a hamlet and generally offering several services.
Town: clustered human settlement larger than a village; may range from a few to thousands of inhabitants (even hundreds of thousands); generally many goods and services are available.
City: clustered conglomeration of people and buildings together serving as a center of politics, culture, and economics; a town may have outskirts, but virtually all cities have suburbs (hinterlands).
Metropolis: usually contains several urbanized areas and suburbs that act together as a coherent economic whole.
- ranking of settlements according to size and economic functions
- lowest level of settlement
- offering several services
- range from a few to thousands of inhabitants
- serving as a center of politics
- contains several urbanized areas and suburbs
Hinterland: literally “country behind”; refers to the surrounding area served by an urban center (the heartland).
- *Megalopolis:** (e.g. conurbation such as Bosnywash, SanSan, ChiPitts,…) occur predominantly in MDCs; large coalescing supercities that were originally separate but have expanded and joined together.
- *Megacity:** occur predominantly in LDCs; high population growth and migration cause these cities to attract massive amounts of population since WWII; tend to be plagued by chaotic and unplanned sprawling growth, pollution, and widespread poverty.
- refers to the surrounding area servd by an urban center
- large cities that were originally separate but have expanded and joined together
- tend to be plagued by chaotic and unplanned sprawling growth
Urban components:
CBD (central business district): location of skyscrapers and companies (would always be the center of the 3 urban models, many people commute, few actually live there)
Central city: urban area that is not suburban; generally the older or original city surrounded by the newer suburbs.
Inner city: urban area around the CBD; typically poorer and more run down in the US and other long-developed states; typically more rich upscale in less-developed states.
Ghetto: inner cities that become dilapidated centers of poverty, as affluent whites move out of the suburbs (white flight) and immigrants and poorer people vie for scarce jobs and resources.
Node: geographical centers of activity; large cities have numerous nodes.
Suburb: residential communities, located outside of city centers; usually homogeneous in terms of population and ethnicity.
Exurb: ring of prosperous communities beyond the suburbs that are commuter towns for an urban area; began to emerge in the 1970s when rampant crime and urban decay (when part of a city falls into disrepair - due to deindustrialization, depopulation, high unemployment, …) in U.S. cities were the primary push factors; more recently since house prices have skyrocketed, middle-class people who want a large yard or farm are pushed beyond suburban counties and into “exurbs”.
My Definition:
- location of skyscrapers and companies
- urban area that is not suburban
- urban area around the CBD
- geographical centers of activity
- residential communities located outside of city centers
Urban sprawl: process of expansive suburban development over large areas; the automobile provides the primary source of transportation.
New Urbanism: urban design originating in the US during the 1980s to work against sprawl; characterized by organized urban planning, suburban infill (filling in unused space), and are designed to be walkable (Celebration, Florida)
My Definition:
- expansive suburban development over large areas
- urban design to work against urban sprawl
Central place theory (Walter Christaller): seeks to explain the number, size and location of human settlements in an urban system; settlements simply function as ‘central places’ providing services to surrounding areas; organized by hexagons to eliminate unserved or overlapping market areas.
Central goods and services: provided only at a central place, or city (available to consumers in a surrounding region).
Range of sale (breaking point): maximum distance people will travel for a good or service (economic reach).
Threshold: the minimum number of customers needed to keep the business running
Complementary region: the market area; an exclusive hinterland w/ a monopoly on a certain good or service.
My Definition:
- seeks to explain the number, size and location of human settlements in an urban system
- central place of goods and services, range is max distance, threshold is minimum people
Urban models: Make a card and diagram for each
-John Borchert’s model: (1967); recognized four epochs in the evolution of the American metropolis based on the impact of transportation & communication:
- 1) Sail-Wagon Epoch (1790-1830) – associated with low technology
- 2) Iron Horse Epoch (1830-70); steam-powered locomotive & spreading rails
- 3) Steel-Rail Epoch (1870-1920); full impact of Ind. Rev. (steel), hinterlands expand
- 4) Auto-Air-Amenity Epoch (1920-70); gas-powered internal combustion engine
- High Technology Epoch (1970-today ); expansion of service & information industries (not part of Borchert’s model)
- Concentric zone (1920s; Ernest Burgess): based on his studies of Chicago: 1) CBD, 2) Zone of transition (residential deterioration & light industry), 3) Blue-collar workers,
4) Middle-class, 5) outer suburban ring; the model is dynamic (as the city grows, the inner rings encroach on the outer ones). - Sector: (1939; Homer Hoyt) urban growth creates a pie-shaped urban structure due, in part, to the advancement of transportation like the electric trolley (e.g. low-income areas could extend from the CBD to the outer edge (3)); the same is true w/ high-rent, transportation, and industry.
- Multiple nuclei: (1945; Chauncy Harris & Edward Ullman) claimed the CBD was losing its dominant position as the nucleus of the urban area; separate nuclei become specialized and differentiated, not located in relation to any distance attribute (urban regions have their subsidiary, yet competing, “nuclei”).
- Urban realms: parts of giant conurbations; self-sufficient suburban sectors (focused on their own independent CBD).
My Definition:
- four epochs of sail-wagon, iron horse, steel-rail, and auto-air
- Burgess concentric rings
- Hoyt sector
- Ullman multiple nuclei
Squatter settlement: (shantytown) residential development characterized by extreme poverty; usually exists on land just outside of cities that is neither owned nor rented.
Edge city: characterized by extensive office and retail space, few residential areas, and modern buildings (built since the 1960s); signifies a newer worldwide trend of the movement of the loci of economic activity to the urban fringe (unlike the loci of activity around the CBD – which had dominated the industrial world).
- After WWII in the US: 1950s & 60s = suburbanization; 1970s & 80s = “malling” (shopping malls);
1990s & 2000s = edge cities & “big box” superstores (e.g., Wal-mart, Costco, Super Target,…)
Primate city: a country’s largest city; most expressive of the national culture and usually the capital city as well (e.g., Paris, France; Lagos, Nigeria; Mexico City, Mexico; Dhaka, Bangladesh, Karachi, Pakistan …).
Rank-size rule: states without a true primate city may follow this rule (many MDCs lack primate cities b/c technology and wealth has diffused throughout their countries); the population of any given city should be inversely proportional to its rank in the urban hierarchy (e.g., if #1 = 12 million, then #2 = 6 million, #3 = 4 million, #4 = 3 million, …).
My Definition:
- residential development characterized by extreme poverty
- characterized by extensive office and retail space
- country’s largest city
- population of any city should be inversely proportional to its rank in the urban hierarchy
Basic sector: activities and services that generate income for a city (e.g., manufacturing, retail, …).
Nonbasic sector: work responsible for the functioning of the city itself (e.g., government, street cleaning, …).
Economic base (basic vs. nonbasic sectors, a.k.a. employment structure) ratio of basic to nonbasic workers (nonbasic is always larger).
Multiplier effect (1:2 (or 1:3) for most large cities) for every worker in the basic sector, there are typically 2-3 workers in the nonbasic sector for most modern cities.
Functional specialization: some cities are characterized by one specific activity (e.g., Orlando – tourism, Las Vegas – gambling, …); cities tend to lose their functional specialization as they grow. Typically specialize in management, research and development of a specific industry (motor vehicles in Detroit), or are centers of government and education, notably state capitals that also have a major university (Albany, Lansing, Madison, or Raleigh-Durham).
My Definition:
- services that generate income for a city
- work responsible for the functioning of the city itself
- economic base is ratio of basic to nonbasic workers
- for
American city: suburbanization began largely in the US after WWII (US is the only country in the world in which the majority of the population resides in the suburbs), however, more people have started the process of centralization since the 1990s (moving back into the central cities).
- Revitalization: city planners have redesigned their central cities to make them more amenable to people moving in, especially higher income residents.
- Commercialization: transforming of an area of a city into spaces of consumption - areas attractive to residents and tourists alike in terms of economic activity.
- Gentrification: trend of mid to high-income Americans moving into city centers and rehabilitating much of the architecture, but also replacing low-income population – changing the social character of certain neighborhoods.
Tear-downs: houses that new owners bought with the intention of tearing them down and building a larger home (sometimes called McMansions due to their super size and similar look); like gentrification in the city, it increases housing values and tax revenues, and average income; however, unlike gentrification, the houses are destroyed (not preserved), and this occurs in the wealthy suburbs (like Greenwich Connecticut, or the intercoastal in South Florida) not the central city.
My Definition:
- transforming of an area of a city into spaces of consumption
- houses bought, torn down, and build McMansions
