Urbanization

Description

This book provides a coherent, comprehensive introduction to urban geography. It offers a historical and process-oriented approach with a North American focus that also provides a global context and comparative international perspective.   From a global perspective, the authors examine urban trends and their outcomes in both the developed and the less developed countries in order to understand, analyze, and interpret the landscapes, economies, and communities of towns and cities around the world.

Contents

(NOTE: Each chapter begins with a Chapter Preview, contains boxes on important topics, and concludes with Follow Up exercises, Key Sources and Suggested Reading, and Related World Wide Web Sites.)

1 Urbanization and Urban Geography

The Study of Urban Geography

Urbanization: Processes and Outcomes

The Plan of the Book

2 The Origins and Growth of Cities

The Definition of a City

Preconditions for Urbanization

Theories of Urban Origins

Urban Origins

Internal Structure of the Earliest Cities

Urban Expansion from the Regions of Urban Origin

The Roots of European Urban Expansion

Urbanization and the Industrial Revolution

3 The Foundations of the American Urban System

Frontier Urbanization

The Mercantile Epoch (1790–1840)

Early Industrial Expansion and Realignment (1840–1875)

The Organization of Industry (1875–1920)

Early Fordism, the Automobile Era, Suburban Infill, and the Great Depression (1920–1945)

4 Urban Systems in Transition

Freeways, Regional Decentralization, and Metropolitan Consolidation (1945–1972)

Economic Crisis and Neo-Fordist Urban Restructuring (1972–1983)

Neo-Fordist Economic Restructuring and the Emergence of “Informational” Cities (1983–present)

5 The Foundations of Urban Form and Land Use

The Mercantile City (before 1840)

The Early Industrial City (1840–1875)

The Industrial City (1875–1920)

Urban Structure in the Industrial Era

6 Changing Metropolitan Form

Suburban Infill (1920–1945)

Freeways and Metropolitan Sprawl (1945–1972)

Neo-Fordist Development (1973–Present)

The End of “Suburbia”

7 Urbanization in the Less Developed Countries

Urbanization Trends and Projections: The Less Developed Countries in Global Context

Factors promoting Urban Growth

Theories of Urbanization and Economic Development

An Historical Perspective on Colonial Urbanization

Overurbanization and Megacities

8 Urban Form and Land Use in the Less Developed Countries

Patterns of Urban Form and Land Use

9 Urban Problems and Responses in the Less Developed Countries

Urban Problems

Responses to the Problems of Urbanization

10 The City as Text: Architecture and Urban Design

Architecture and the Dynamics of Urban Change

The Style of Production/The Production of Style

11 The Urban Development Process

Property, Location, Rent, and Investment

The Structures of Building Provision

12 The Residential Kaleidoscope

Social Interaction and Residential Segregation

Interpretations of Residential Ecology

The New Mosaic: Attempting to identify “Lifestyle” Communities

13 How Neighborhoods Change

Neighborhood Change

Housing Markets

Residential Mobility and Neighborhood Change

Housing Market Gatekeepers, Bias, and Discrimination

Putting It All Together: The Example of Gentrification

14 Urbanization, Urban Life, and Urban Spaces

Social Life In Cities

Theoretical Interpretations of Urban Life

Gendered Spaces: Women, Home, and Community

15 Problems of Urbanization

Problem? What Problem?

From Haunts of Vice to Gang Wastelands—and Back

Slums and Poverty Areas

Criminal Violence

Homelessness

Infrastructure and Environmental Problems

16 The Politics of Change: Urbanization and Urban Governance

Laissez-faire: Government and Politics in the Mercantile City (1790-1840)

Municipal Socialism and the Rise of Machine Politics (1840-1875)

Boosterism and the Politics of Reform (1875-1920)

Metropolitan Fragmentation and the Formation of Progrowth Coalitions (1920-1945)

Cities as Growth Machines and Service Providers (1945-1973)

Fiscal Crisis and Entrepreneurial Politics (1973-present)

Conceptual and Theoretical Perspectives on Governance, Politics, and Urban Change

17 Urban Policy and Planning

The Roots of Urban Policy and Planning

The Beginning: Philanthropy and Reform

The City Practical

The New Deal

Fordist Era Policy and Planning

Neo-Fordist Policy and Planning

Postmodern Planning

Planning for Healthy and Livable Cities

18 Urban Futures

A Perspective on Future Change

Economic Change

Demographic Change

Social Change

Cultural Change

Political Change

Future Visions

Notes

Glossary

Index

Features

• Process-oriented approach to cities — Benefits the student/professor by focusing on key ideas, concepts, and theories rather than becoming bogged down with a huge collection of facts.

Example: Fig. 1.4, Urbanization as a Process.

• Historical approach to cities — Provides a framework for understanding urbanization and urban change over time.

Example: Chapter 2 covers the origins and growth of towns and cities from Mesopotamia through the Industrial Revolution; Chapter 3 covers the foundations of the American urban system.

• Global perspective and globalization context — Situates cities within both the larger global context and processes of economic, political, and cultural globalization and their outcomes.

Examples: Ch. 1 Box on “Globalization and Cities”; Ch. 7 Box on “Core, semi-periphery and periphery in the world-system.”

• Coverage of new technologies for studying cities — e.g., Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is introduced in the Ch. 1 box on U.S. census definitions and addressed in the Ch. 12 box on how GIS marketing applications help Starbucks brew up better locational analyses.  

Examples: Ch. 1 Box on “Census Definitions;” Ch. 12 Box on “GIS Marketing Applications.”

• Material throughout the text on Western cities — Allowing a focus on North American cities while also paying attention to cities in developed countries elsewhere in the world (in Europe, Australia, Russia, and Japan).

Examples: Ch. 4 box on “Contemporary European Urbanization”; Ch. 6 boxes on “Japanese Cities: Tokyo and the Tokaido Megalopolis” and “ Australian Edge Cities?” Ch. 12 boxes on “Social exclusion and migrant workers in West European cities” and “Residential and economic structure in European cities;” Ch. 13 boxes on “Public and private housing in European cities” and “ Neighborhood stability in West European cities;” Ch. 15 boxes on “Crime and corruption in the cities of the Russian Federation,” “High-speed rail in an integrating Europe,” and “ London’s traffic congestion charge;” Ch. 16 box on “Urban regeneration in London’s docklands;” and Ch. 17 boxes on “The visible legacy of urban policy and planning in European cities,” and “Planning the socialist city in Eastern Europe.”

• Material throughout the text on cities in the less developed countries — Incorporating attention for Latin American, African, Islamic, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and East Asian cities.

Examples: Chapter 7 covers urbanization in the less developed countries; Chapter 8 covers urban form and land use in the less developed countries; and Chapter 9 covers urban problems and responses in the less developed countries.

• “Follow Up” at the end of each chapter — Contains a list of key terms from that chapter, 2-3 study questions or additional activities related to that chapter, and separate instructions for a “portfolio” containing various kinds of material (text, maps and photos, sound recordings, etc.) that students can compile as they work their way through the text.

• Comprehensive glossary of terms that are boldfaced throughout the text.