Urbanization, population, and environment Flashcards
urbanization
- 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%
tonnies on urbanization (functionalism)
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
Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
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
urban ecology (Robert Park)
-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
Simmel on urbanization
- 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
Urbanism (Louis Wirth) Functionalism
- 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
types of Urbanites (Herbert Gans)
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
- deprived: people with low levels of formal education who live in poverty or near poverty and are unemployed, underemployed, or low wage
- 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
Jane Jacobs on urbanization
“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
Fischer on Urbanization
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.
change in urban population
1960-2020 Urban, world : 1 billion to more than 4 billion
Gentrification
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
global impact of urbanization
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”
demography
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)
Size, distribution and composition of population
population growth is exponential: People born today add to the total population, creating a larger base for future growth. 7.8 billion people today
implications of population for business and politics
- 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
