lecture 1 Flashcards
What is the definition of a city?
Places where large numbers of people live and work and where hubs of government, commerce and transportation are.
what does civitas mean?
citizenship, community member
What does urbs mean?
City in the physical sense
What does polis mean?
City-states
Why do cities make us richer?
wider rage of jobs, highest wages, social mobility, access to facilities
Why do cities not make us richer?
Higher unemployment rates, huge income differences, cities are expensive
Do cities make us healthier? and why?
Yes, higher life expectancy, better access to health services, lower suicide rates, improvement water quality
No, plague in the past (high death rates), poor water quality, air pollution
Do cities make us safer? Why?
No, higher crime rates, more disorder, higher risk of drug abuse
Yes, Decline homicide rates, police forces, support infrastructures, improvement security technologies
Do cities make us greener? Why?
Yes, innovation to reduce carbon emission, urban farming
No, largest energy consumers, creating green house gas emissions, facing huge problems of heat, storms and flooding
What is the definition of urbanization?
Population shift from rural to urban areas
Why did cities attract people before 1800?
- economic reason (water supply, transport routes, trade and work)
- Protection (military protection, abuse of lords and kings, property rights and criminal law)
- Facilities (markets, poor relief, law and administration)
What are three important differences between cities in Europe and cities in other parts of the world?
- High level of urbanization
- Relatively small cities in Europe, mega cities outside Europe
- Urban Autonomy
What is the key-factor of the huge growth from the end of the 18th century in cities? and why?
rural-urban migration, because of industralization
Where do cities depend on?
Countryside, governments, urban network
Where did the autonomy of western cities before 1800 led to?
- Free citizen: middle classes
- Open institutions: guild and courts
- Dynamic populations
what did lewis mumford say?
“The city is a theatre of social action” > a form of social drama
• Urban building (houses, markets, churches, city halls, etc.) are expressions of power and relations
• Not only during rituals, but in every day life
what did edward glaeser say?
Cities are great places:
• Engines of innovation
• Bring people and ideas together
And the best places to stay:
• People earn more
•More facilities
• Less crime
• Less disease and pollution
what was the name of edward glaesers book?
triumph of the city
what were the first cities in the world and when?
Mesopotamia, Mediterranean Europe, North India and China
4200-3000 BCE
China before 1800
Administration and services (imperial: in service of the state)
Hanghzou c. 1200: 1 million inhabitants
Ottoman empire before 1800
International trade and commercialization
Istanbul c. 1550: 600,000 inhabitants
Western Europe before 1800
International trade and commercialization
London 1500: 50,000
Amsterdam 1570: 30,000
what did max weber say about european city?
European city is crucial for explaining difference between Western Europe and the rest of the world.
