Urban geography Flashcards
Who came up with the concept of complete urbanisation?
Henri Lefebvre (2003)
How has complete urbanisation been adopted recently?
Brenner (2013) planetary globalisation
What interesting things does complete urbanisation uncover?
- Makes us think about what “being urban” or “urban effects” means
- URBAN NOT AS A PLACE, BUT A PROCESS/ABSTRACT IDEA
What is nature and what is natural?
- Also useful for understanding how urban areas rely upon infrastructure (metabolism of capitalism) beyond what conventional urban boundaries
(Brenner 2013)
What is complete (/planetary) urbanisation?
- Urban is too frequently viewed as a discrete space.
- Complete urbanisation is when “the urban” is everywhere
- The epitome of modernism, according to Lefebvre (2003)
(Brenner 2013)
What is the “urban fabric” (Lefebvre, 2003)?
The way in which urbanisation extends into rural areas beyond what are usually viewed as “urban areas”
(Lefebvre, 2003)
What is meant by “the urban”?
An abbreviation of urban society
Name a good paper on the ontological categorisation of cities worldwide
Robinson, 2002 (epistemologies, ontologies and methods of studying cities globally)
Why are world cities problematic?
Capitalist economic metrics of wealth and economic growth
Robinson, 2002
Who formulated the concept of “world cities”? Why is this interesting?
King (1990) formulated world cities. Since been inappropriately used - King saw every city as a world city because of globalisation
Who has been critical of “subaltern” urbanism?
Roy (2011)
What does Roy (2011) discuss?
- Romanticisation of slums in third world countries
- Role of capitalism in obtaining slums as a place for investment (cheap, unused land)
What is interesting about Koolhaas’ (2002) study of Lagos?
- Romanticises slums, suggesting that they have achieved a pinnacle of capitalism (based on asymptotes on graphs, see Gandy, 2004)
- Slums seen as a site of entrepreneurialism
Why is “slumdog” an inappropriate term for those living in poorer parts of cities in the “developing world”?
- Mumbai slum dwellers don’t like the term
- “Poverty pornography”
Roy 2011
What are the origins of the subaltern?
A Marxian term against colonialism (Roy, 2011)
What is interesting about the subaltern?
It has a dualism:
1) “Archival recognition” (of poverty and colonialism)
2) “An agent of change” (political aspects)
(Roy, 2011)
How does Soto (2000) see slums?
“Dead capital” needing to be liquified - good links to frontier thesis! (Soto, 2000)
Why are gangs important in Slums?
Link informal economy of sums to the formal economy (Weinstein, 2008)
How has the notion of peripheries changed?
- Peripheries not just geographically outside of cities or in suburbs
- Increasingly within cities, esp degraded spaces (slums)
- Being ‘in’ the periphery can be politically advantageous (Simone,2010)
- A politics from below - GOOD LINKS TO CULTUREAL GEO
(Roy, 2011)
How has the conceptualisation of informality been critiqued by Roy, 2011?
- Informal previously equated with poverty
- Informality is not confined to the slum
- (in)formality is epistemologically linked to law, determined by dominant classes in cities
- Poverty and informal can be mutually exclusive
Roy, 2011
When did Engels write the condition? How does it relate to urban nature?
Translated in 1987 - a big focus on waste and wastelands
What is a good paper on botanical gardens and biotic colonialism?
Baber, 2016
Give a good quote from Baber 2016 that is symbolic of plants being direct decedents of colonialism
“Botanic gardens constituted one of the key sites – physical, intellectual, social and cultural – in which colonial power was literally rooted”
Baber, 2016
What does urban political ecology focus on?
Urban metabolism
Give a paper that focusses on the internal/homeostatic aspects of urban metabolism in an urban political ecology framework
Rademacher, 2015
Give a paper that focusses on the metabolic rift in an urban political ecology framework
Swyngedouw 2003
What is a limitation of complete urbanisation?
- Cities are felt, experienced and understood in different ways
- Urban natures are unique in the dense built environment
(Rademacher, 2015)
What is a good paper on the study of urban nature as a lab?
Francis, et al., 2012 - “Urban ecosystems as ‘natural’ homes for biogeographical boundary crossings”
Why is Philol (1995)’s historiographic analysis of animals in cities interesting? What dilemmas does it raise?
- Shows that nature used to be more commonly accepted in cities, but now seen as separate and solely for rural areas
- Slaughterhouses seen as disgusting places; miasmic discourses and likening to owners
- Ironic aspects with complete urbanisation and animals still consumed and slaughtered in urban areas
Philol, 1995)
Is content or form more important in landscapes?
Form more important than content in landscapes (Tan, 2016 - based on Shanshui paintings)
What does Tan, 2016, raise awareness of regarding urban nature?
- Material aspects of urban nature are an important epistemological aspect - determines how natural/genuine it is (fake rocks)
- Landscape representations mainly about form, not composition
- Landscape representations are read from side to side
- Nature not always historically or scientifically conceived
Tan, 2016
Are urban natures confined to biological natures?
No, a political ecological approach highlights the role of water in infrastructures. Also contradictions of nature being separated from urban areas whilst rain/air continually flows through
CITATION?