Urbanization, population, and environment Flashcards

1
Q

urbanization

A
  • is a shift in population from rural living to living in cities and towns
  • occurred alongside industrialization
  • London as a prime example: 1800 1.1 million people; 1900 >7 million
  • U.S.: - 1800 < 10% urban; 2010 approximately 80 % urban
  • 1900 onward: urbanization became a global, not just a national, process
  • that trend intensified from 1950 forward
  • global, urban population statistics
  • -> 1975 39%
  • -> 2000 approximately 50%
  • -> 2050 estimated 70%
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2
Q

tonnies on urbanization (functionalism)

A

a sense of community (Gemeinschaft) characterizes traditional societies
– family, kin, and community ties are quite strong, with people caring for each other and looking out for one another

As societies grew and industrialized:
Gesellschaft; he was quite critical of this development

  • the loss in urban societies of close social bonds and of a strong sense of community
  • he feared that a sense of rootlessness in these societies begins to replace the feeling of stability and steadiness characteristic of small, rural societies
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3
Q

Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft

A

Gemeinschaft: community, agricultural economy, local politics, consensus of wills, “folk society”, culture and artisans, family is the general basis of life, wealth is in land ownership, imagination

Gesellschaft: rational society; commerce economy; national/international politics; ideological justification in public opinion; public policy; emphasis on science; economic control; capital wealth; rational thought

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4
Q

urban ecology (Robert Park)

A

-Cities organized naturally so as to generate equilibrium

  • The Chicago School believed that cities grew and took shape by adapting to their environments, much as is the case with plants and animals.
  • Large urban areas initially tend to develop along the shores of rivers, in fertile plains, or at the intersections of trading routes or railways.
  • They then become ordered into “natural areas” through such processes as competition, invasion, and succession
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5
Q

Simmel on urbanization

A
  • modern metropolis elements
  • -> were characteristic not merely of cities, but of the broader development and change unfolding in the modern world
  • modern city compelled people to treat one another in a indifferent and cool manner
  • not relate to on another as intimates, but rather in an instrumental and calculating fashion: what can you do for me, in effect, rather than let us get to know one another
  • Metropolitan man
  • ->assertion of personality– fight if the objective spirit
  • ->over stimulation- react with head instead of heart
  • -> intellectually is seen to preserve subjective life
  • ->metropolis is the seat of the money economy
  • ->interaction becomes matter-of-fact: quantitative values
  • ->creates a Blase attitude– reserved and irreverent
  • -> division of labor/specialization
  • ->but much personal freedom: which attracts people
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6
Q

Urbanism (Louis Wirth) Functionalism

A
  • Urbanism as way of life
  • outlines how life in cities both differs from life elsewhere and helps to shape life outside cities
  • ->e.g., by influencing styles of dress and behavior
  • As a “way of life,” cities are unique in that large numbers of people live in close proximity in virtual anonymity, without knowing one another personally—a fundamental contrast to small, traditional villages.
  • As a result, within cities most contact (for example, with sales clerks, baristas, and passengers on trains) is fleeting and partial, serving as a means to other ends rather than contributing to the development of satisfying relationships
  • Urban interaction problem
  • ->the need for city dwellers to respect social boundaries when so many people are so close together all the time
  • ->Through the appearance of apathy, they can avoid unwanted transgressions of social boundaries.

-urban residents hold more tolerant views on several kinds of issues

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7
Q

types of Urbanites (Herbert Gans)

A

Symbolic interactionist
5 types of city residents:
1. cosmopolites: people who live in a city bc of its cultural attractions, restaurants, and other features of the best that a city has to offer (e.g., students, writers, musicians, intellectuals)
2.Unmarried and Childless: live in a city to be near their jobs and to entertainment found in most cities
3. ethnic villagers: recent immigrants and members of various ethnic groups who live among each other in certain neighborhoods. tend to have strong social bonds and more generally a strong sense of community

  1. deprived: people with low levels of formal education who live in poverty or near poverty and are unemployed, underemployed, or low wage
  2. trapped: might wish to leave but are unable to do so for several reasons: alcoholics, drug addicts/ elderly and disabled/ jobless and cannot afford to move
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8
Q

Jane Jacobs on urbanization

A

“Eyes and ears upon the streets”

  • “cities are, by definition, full of strangers,” some of whom are dangerous.
  • cities are most habitable when they feature a diversity of uses, thereby ensuring that many people will be coming and going on the streets at any time.
  • The more people who are out, or who are looking from their windows at the people who are out, the more their gazes will safeguard the street.

now:–>“the eyes and ears upon the street” represent vast inequalities and cultural differences

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9
Q

Fischer on Urbanization

A

Subcultural theories:

  • intimate social circles persist in the urban environment (migrants and specialization)
  • urbanism intensifies social organization
  • urbanism strengthens social life rather than destroying it; actually flourish into new and diverse subcultures

-contact between different subcultures can cause friction and ignite social disorder.

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10
Q

change in urban population

A

1960-2020 Urban, world : 1 billion to more than 4 billion

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11
Q

Gentrification

A

Is a process whereby wealthy people buy and renew deteriorating properties in cities
- this tend to be good for property values but bad for the previous, low income residents

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12
Q

global impact of urbanization

A

Sassen: global cities as urban centers that house the headquarters of large transitional corporations and an overabundance of financial, technological, and consulting services

Global cities have created new forms of inequality: central prosperous areas alongside acute poverty “centrality and marginality”

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13
Q

demography

A

The study of the size, distribution, and composition of populations.

  • size: number of people in a given geographic unit
  • distribution: where exactly are the people located (e.g., how dense or sparse)
  • composition: characteristics of persons who make up a population (e.g., age, gender, race)
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14
Q

Size, distribution and composition of population

A

population growth is exponential: People born today add to the total population, creating a larger base for future growth. 7.8 billion people today

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15
Q

implications of population for business and politics

A
  • industries left cities, taking mostly blue-collar jobs with them
  • this led to increased residential segregation as poorer, nonwhites remained in cities
  • this left cities with lower tax revenues, leading to perpetual financial problems
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16
Q

population density

A

density of population

17
Q

demographic characteristics of U.S. population

A

U.S. will become more racially diverse in future decades

population composition reveals potential for “natural” growth (birth -deaths)

18
Q

trends in U.S. population growth, 1790-2020

A
  • start in 1790-
  • conducted every 10 years to count each and every American
  • documents basic aspects of size, distribution, and composition
  • important mechanism for allocation of public funds
19
Q

fertility

A

level of reproduction in a society

measures:
- crude birth rate: number of births/1,000 people
- Age-specific birth rate: number of births/1,000 women of a particular age group
- Total fertility rate: average number of babies a woman gives birth to in her lifetime.

highly shaped by public policies: e.g,. China’s one child policy (though recent reversals); anti-abortion anti-birth control in Romania

20
Q

mortality

A

level of death in a society
measurement:
-Crude death rate: number of deaths per 1,000 people.
-Age-specific death rates: number of deaths per 1,000 people of a particular age group.
-Infant mortality: number of infants who die in first year of life, per 1,000 live births

public health movements have been highly effective– breasfeeding, prenatal care

state-level policies indirectly affect health: cigarette taxes, medicare/medicaid subsidies

21
Q

migration

A

Movement of people from one geographic area to another

  • shaped by “push” vs. “pull” factors
  • strong life-course component
  • highly shaped by public policies
22
Q

total fertility rate (TFR

A

the total number of children that would be born to each woman if she were to live to the end of her child-bearing years and give birth to children in alignment with the prevailing age-specific fertility rates

23
Q

infant morality rate (IMR)

A

the number of infant deaths for every 1,000 live births
-In addition to giving us key information about maternal and infant health, the infant mortality rate is an important marker of the overall health of a society.

24
Q

crude vs. age-specific fertility and mortality rates

A

crude date rate: A statistical measure representing the number of deaths that occur annually in a given population per year, normally calculated as the number of deaths per 1,000 members. Crude death rates give a general indication of the mortality levels of a community or society but are limited in their usefulness because they do not take into account the age distribution.

25
Q

life expectancy vs. life span

A

life expectancy: The number of years the average person can expect to live.

life span: The maximum length of life that is biologically possible for a member of a given species.

26
Q

population processes

A

typically characterized by processes of birth and immigration, and of death, emigration and catastrophe, which correspond to the basic demographic processes and broad environmental effects to which a population is subject

27
Q

population pyramid

A

important graphs for visualizing how populations are composed when looking a group divided by age and sex
-3 trends: expansive, constrictive, and stationary

28
Q

dependency ratios

A

The ratio of economically dependent members (older adults) to economically productive members (younger working members) of the population.

29
Q

malthusianism

A

A doctrine about population dynamics developed by Thomas Malthus, according to which population increase comes up against “natural limits,” represented by famine and war.

-food supply depends on fixed resources that can be expanded only by developing new land for cultivation

population growth can be controlled by two “checks”
-preventive: prevent birth from happening, via delayed marriage, abstinence
-positive: limit population after birth occur, via war, famine, disease
if poor suffer, then they will stop reproducing

30
Q

population patterns in higher vs. lower-income nations

A
31
Q

doubling time

A

The time it takes for a particular population to double.

32
Q

replacement fertility

A

-an average level of completed fertility (this could be measured using cohort fertility rates) that, if maintained over the long run, would lead to an approximately constant population over time (assuming that there are no significant gains in longevity).
-The replacement-level fertility is typically slightly over 2, because women are about half the population.
In populations that do not experience significant mortality or morbidity risks for people until their childbearing years, a reasonable ballpark for replacement-level fertility is 2.1.

33
Q

demographic transition theory

A

transition from high birth rates and death rates to low birth and death rates
-A three- or four-stage process in which one type of population stability (high death rates offset high birth rates, resulting in low rates of population growth) are eventually replaced by another type of population stability (birth and death rates both decline sharply due to
industrialization, again resulting in low rates of population growth.

Stage 1 refers to the conditions characteristic of most pre-industrial societies, in which both birth and death rates are high and the infant mortality rate is especially high. Population grows little, if at all, as the high number of births is more or less offset by the large number of deaths. Stage 2, which began in Europe and the United States in the early part of the nineteenth century—with wide regional variations—occurs when death rates fall while fertility remains high. This is, therefore, a phase of marked population growth. (Some scholars divide this stage into two phases, one in which birthrates remain high but death rates drop, and a second in which death rates also begin to decline). It is subsequently replaced by stage 3, in which, with industrial development, birthrates drop to a level such that population is again fairly stable. Some societies in Europe have moved into a fourth stage, which we will discuss in the next section.

34
Q

implications of population growth/decline

A

decline:
fewer schools, a drop in house prices, fewer new homes being built, less demand, fewer care facilities, less turnover for shopkeepers and business….

growth :
uncontrolled urbanization–> overcrowding, destitution, crime, pollution, and political turmoil, food resources…

35
Q

environmental injustice

A
36
Q

sustainable development

A

-development that meets the needs of the present (food, housing, economy) without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

37
Q

environmental social movements

A