lecture 1 introduction to usf

Question 1

What is the definition of a city?

Answer 1

Places where large numbers op people live and work and where hubs of government, commerce and transportation are.

Question 2

What does civitas mean?

Answer 2

Citizenship, community member

Question 3

What does urbs mean?

Answer 3

City in the physical sense

Question 4

What does polis mean?

Answer 4

City-states

Question 5

Why do cities make us richer?

Answer 5

Wider range of jobs, highest wages, social mobility, access to facilities

Question 6

Do cities make us healthier and why?

Answer 6

Yes, higher life expectancy, better access to health services, lower suicide rates, improvement of water quality
No, plague in the past (high death rates), poor water quality, air pollution

Question 7

Do cities make us greener? Why?

Answer 7

Yes, innovation to reduce carbon emission, urban farming
No, largest energy consumer, creating green hous gas emissions, facing huge problems of heat, storms and flooding

Question 8

What is the definition of urbanization?

Answer 8

Population shift from rural to urban areas

Question 9

Why did cities attract people before 1800?

Answer 9

Economic –> water quality, labour, trade, transport routes
Protection –> military protection, property rights, criminal law etc
Facilities –> markets, poor relief, law and administration

Question 10

What are three important difference between cities in Europe and cities in other parts of the world?

Answer 10

1. High level of urbanization
2. Relatively small cities in Europe, mega cities outside Europe
3. Urban autonomy

Question 11

What is the key-factor of the huge growth from the end of the 18th century in cities? And why?

Answer 11

Rural-urban migration, because of industrialization

Question 12

Where do cities depend on?

Answer 12

1. Countryside
2. Governments
3. Urban network

Question 13

Where did the autonomy of western cities before 1800 led to?

Answer 13

1. Free citizens: middle class
2. Open institutions: guilds and courts
3. Dynamic population

Question 14

What did Lewis Mumford say?

Answer 14

The citie is a theatre of social action. –> form of socal drama
Urban buildings express power and relations, not only during rituals but in every daylife

Question 15

What did Edward Gleaser say?

Answer 15

1. Cities are the best
   
   • Engines of innovation
   • Bring people and ideas together
2. And the best places to stay
   
   • Make us richer
   • More facilities
   • Less crime
   • Less disease and pollution

Question 16

What was the name of Edward Gleaser’s book?

Answer 16

Triumph of the city

Question 17

What were the first cities in the world and where?

Answer 17

Mesopotamia, mediterranean Europe, North India, China –> 4200-300 BC

Question 18

China before 1800

Answer 18

Administration and services (imperial –> in service of the state)
Hanghzou ca. 1 million inhabitants

Question 19

Ottoman empire before 1800

Answer 19

International trade and commercialization
Istanbul ca. 600.000 inhabitants

Question 20

Western Europe before 1800

Answer 20

International trade and commercialization
London ca. 60.000
Amsterdam ca. 30.000

Question 21

Why cities do not make us richer?

Answer 21

Higher unemployment rates, huge income differences, cities are expensive

Question 22

Do cities make us safer? Why?

Answer 22

No, higer crime rates, more disorder, higher risk of drug abuse
Yes, decline i homicide rates, police forces, support infrastructures, improvement security technologies

Question 23

What did Max Weber say about european cities?

Answer 23

European city is crucial for explaining difference between western europe and the rest of the world