Showing papers on "Urban geography published in 2001"

Urban Geography : A Global Perspective

Abstract: Today, for the first time in the history of Humankind urban dwellers outnumber rural residents. Urban places, towns and cities, are of fundamental importance - for the distribution of population within countries; in the organisation of economic production, distribution and exchange; in the structuring of social reproduction and cultural life; and in the allocation and exercise of power. Furthermore, in the course of the present century the number of urban dwellers and level of global urbanisation are destined to increase. Even those living beyond the administrative or functional boundaries of a town or city will have their lifestyle influenced to some degree by a nearby, or even distant, city. The analysis of towns and cities is a central element of all social sciences including geography, which offers a particular perspective on and insight into the urban condition. The principal goal of this third edition of the book remains that of providing instructors and students of the contemporary city with a comprehensive introduction to the expanding field of urban studies. The structure of the first two editions is maintained, with minor amendments. Each of the thirty chapters has been revised to incorporate recent developments in the field. All of the popular study aids are retained; the glossary has been expanded; and chapter references and notes updated to reflect the latest research. This third edition also provides new and expanded discussion of key themes and debates including detailed consideration of metacities, boomburgs, public space, urban sprawl, balanced communities, urban economic restructuring, poverty and financial exclusion, the right to the city, urban policy, reverse migration , and traffic and transport problems. The book is divided into six main parts. Part one outlines the field of urban geography and explains the importance of a global perspective. Part two explores the growth of cities from the earliest times to the present day and examines the urban geography of the major world regions. Part three considers the dynamics of urban structure and land use change in Western cities. Part four focuses on economy, society and politics in the Western city. In part five attention turns to the urban geography of the Third World, where many of the countries experiencing highest rates or urban growth are least well equipped to respond to the economic, social, political and environmental challenge. Finally part six affords a prospective on the future of cities and cities of the future. New to this edition are: further readings based on the latest research; updated data and statistics; an expanded glossary; new key concepts; additional study questions; and a listing of useful websites. The book provides a comprehensive interpretation of the urban geography of the contemporary world. Written in a clear and readable style, lavishly illustrated with more than 80 photographs, 180 figures, 100 tables and over 200 boxed studies and with a plethora of study aids Urban Geography: A Global Perspective represents the ultimate resource for students of urban geography.

Skateboarding, Space and the City: Architecture and the Body

Abstract: Skateboarders are an increasingly common feature of the urban environment - recent estimates total 40 million world-wide. We are all aware of their often extraordinary talent and manoeuvres on the city streets. This book is the first detailed study of the urban phenomenon of skateboarding. It looks at skateboarding history from the surf-beaches of California in the 1950s, through the purpose-built skateparks of the 1970s, to the street-skating of the present day and shows how skateboarders experience and understand the city through their sport. Dismissive of authority and convention, skateboarders suggest that the city is not just a place for working and shopping but a true pleasure-ground, a place where the human body, emotions and energy can be expressed to the full. The huge skateboarding subculture that revolves around graphically-designed clothes and boards, music, slang and moves provides a rich resource for exploring issues of gender, race, class, sexuality and the family. As the author demonstrates, street-style skateboarding, especially characteristic of recent decades, conducts a performative critique of architecture, the city and capitalism. Anyone interested in the history and sociology of sport, urban geography or architecture will find this book riveting.

In poor health: Supermarket redlining and urban nutrition

Abstract: Over the past 100 years, ethnic minorities and the poor have become increasingly concentrated and isolated in low-income urban neighborhoods. While the demographic changes in cities are well documented, the parallel history of urban retailing is less well known. Little research has been done on changes in urban food retailing, particularly as they concern the urban poor. As the residential character of urban neighborhoods changed during the 20th century, so did the amenities available in those neighborhoods. The low point for urban retailing was in the 1980s, when cities experienced a net loss of supermarkets even as, nationally, store openings exceeded closings. The trend toward fewer, bigger stores located outside cities has continued to the present. Some critics have referred to this disinclination of large chains to locate in cities as `supermarket redlining'. Changes in food availability are a key element in the changing social conditions of the urban poor and, as good nutrition is critical for good health, a contributing factor in the decline of urban health. This paper will examine changes in urban retail food availability, the impact these changes have had on the health status of the urban poor, strategies utilized by the urban poor to address inadequate access to quality food sources, and the role of supermarkets in distressed communities.

Defining environmental justice and environmental racism

Abstract: (2001). DEFINING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM. Urban Geography: Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 78-90.

Urban Design, Urban Space Morphology, Urban Tourism: An Emerging New Paradigm Concerning Their Relationship

Abstract: The paper concerns the relationships between the physical form of the urban environment and leisure activities. It examines how urban space morphology - i.e. spatial patterns and formal patterns - may have an impact on tourists' attraction and preferences in the contemporary cultural context of urban tourism. Can urban design and the physical form of space in themselves determine anything in urban tourism development?

Australia's Changing Economic Geography: A Society Dividing

Abstract: This volume describes and analyses aspects of economic development in Australia and its effect on the nation's cities and regions. Some of the topics discussed include the arrival of new technologies, structural adjustment, deregulation, population shifts, and the variations of households. The authors show how the nation's economic geography is being shaped by a range of processes that are leading to the uneven distribution of both people and jobs.

The Olympic spirit and civic boosterism: The Sydney 2000 Olympics

Abstract: This paper draws together two dominant themes in urban geography, cities as spectacle and social polarization. Urban spectacle is provided by Sydney's preparations to host the 2000 Olympic Games. Social polarization within Sydney provides a plurality of social contexts within which residents evaluated this preparation stage. These two themes are drawn together by examining the anticipatory emotional affects arising from Sydney becoming designated the host city. Operating at the level of feelings and effect, this paper explores the extent to which Sydneysiders, increasingly polarized by socio-economic status, were united by the prospect of hosting the 2000 Olympics. The results are interpreted within the theoretical arguments of the civic boosterism school, i.e. hallmark events are an instrument of hegemonic power, conceived to generate feelings of enthusiasm for community and national pride in an era noted for its culture of nihilism. Whilst the results of this paper confirm civic boosterism arguments tha...

Social Justice, Integrated Development Planning and Post-apartheid Urban Reconstruction:

Abstract: The paper focuses on the intersection between South African urban reconstruction and the development of social justice debates in urban geography. Drawing on a case study located in the Cape Metropolitan Region of South Africa, this investigation illustrates how decision-makers have implemented a planning strategy referred to as integrated development planning (IDP) to aid post- apartheid urban reconstruction. In so doing, the paper shows how this mechanism draws upon the spatial imagination as a method of (re)directing the development of this city. Moreover, the case study demonstrates how an imagined urban space, expressed in the planning system of the IDP, functions as a device by which shared understandings of social justice are enabled. Finally, the paper reflects on how these findings might (re)direct the theoretical development of the social justice concept in geographical and urban planning debates.

Power, discourse and city trajectories

Abstract: Examines social theory and contemporary human geography in the context of urban development. Covers theoretical debates in political ecology, the cultural turn in the economy, social relations and scale, space and place, and colonialism and post-colonialism.

Geography, environment and development in the Mediterranean

Abstract: Explores the many geographies of the Mediterranean Basin with chapters on the Mediterranean environment, geopolitics, economic development, trade, demography, migration, cities, tourism, landscapes, mountains and islands Written by an international team of geographers, the book offers a carefully integrated and up-to-date treatment of the contemporary human geography of one of the world’s most fascinating and significant regions

Children at home in the wired world: reshaping and rethinking home in urban geography

Abstract: This paper is concerned with two developments which place questions about the home center-stage in urban geography, namely the growth of new information and communications technologies (ICT) and the rise of “critical geographies.” The paper draws on an empirical investigation into British children's domestic use of ICT to move beyond Utopian and dystopian hyperbole about the future of the home in the wired world and consider how children's ICT usage is shaped within and reshapes the home environment. In so doing, the paper both broadens and deepens the conceptualization of home in urban geography. In terms of breadth, the analysis illustrates the importance of including children's as well as adults' voices and experiences in studies of domestic life. In terms of depth, it highlights the importance of studying the microgeographies of home as well as how social relations within the home shape its relation to the wider world. [Key words: geography, urban, home, children, ICT, computers.]

A model for South African urban development in the 21st century

Abstract: INTRODUCTION ‘The victory over the apartheid state in 1994 set policy makers in all spheres of public life the mammoth task of overhauling the social, political, economic and cultural institutions of South Africa to bring them in line with the imperatives of a new democratic order’ (Asmal, 2001). Because South African cities and towns entered the 1990s with an apartheid urban planning and development legacy, urban planners and managers, and politicians responsible for urban development were faced with the task of reconstructing the impression of a spatially segregated, highly fragmented and dispersed urban society. Restructuring, transforming, reconstructing, and integrating separate and divided cities pose pertinent spatial planning challenges. Where apartheid policies had meshed perfectly with modernist urban planning philosophies of ‘the idea of progress and a belief in the power of rationality to overcome spatial chaos and disorder; the notion that, in order to bring into being a better world, control should be exercised by the state and its agents at virtually every level of society; the suppression of cultural and gender differences; and a belief in a homogenous public in whose interest the planner is empowered to act’ (Brooks & Harrison, 1998: 93), new policies had to be formulated to move explicitly away from general urban planning to development planning principles.This presentation will focus on three aspects. Firstly, what urban related policies after apartheid wanted to address. Secondly, what the observed urban outcomes were during transition. Thirdly, how the policies and expected urban outcomes would be implemented in terms of future urban structure.

The quantitative revolution in urban geography

Abstract: The quantitative revolution in urban-economic geography flourished in the 1960s at a time when United States domestic policy focused on cities, problems of race and poverty, urban renewal and housing, land use and transportation, and environmental pollution. Theoretical work in previous decades in economic geography, spatial analysis, and quantitative social science had set the stage for the 1960s. After computers came along, psychology and economics moved briskly into theoretical areas, with application of quantitative analysis and statistical analysis, while applied mathematics vaguely promised to unify theoretical and applied realms of social science. Geography's main research agendas through the 1950s had been dominated by physical geography and regional analysis, but a new generation of scholars at Washington, Northwestern, Michigan, Ohio State, Chicago, Minnesota, and Penn State pushed ahead with serious attention to theory development and quantification in human geography and statistical cartograph...

An Approach for Measuring Urban Deprivation Change: The Example of East Montréal and the Montréal Urban Community, 1986 – 96:

Abstract: The concept of urban deprivation has emerged as an important theme in urban geography and urban studies. In light of the significant problems and issues affecting cities in North America and Europe there is a growing need for researchers to acquire a better understanding of the process of urban social change. In this paper the author proposes a model of urban deprivation change and applies it with the use of census indicators to East Montreal, a section of the central city, and the Montreal Urban Community. The changing spatial structure and nature of urban deprivation is examined at the neighbourhood level in this study area over the period 1986 – 96. The author finds that urban deprivation is largely an economic problem, with declining conditions apparent throughout a large part of Montreal's central city and in several inner-suburban municipalities. The model, selection of indicators, and statistical techniques presented in this paper can be used as a guide for further research into urban deprivation c...

The Un(known)City... or, an urban geography of what lies buried below the surface

Abstract: About the book: The Unknown City takes its place in the emerging architectural literature that looks beyond design process and buildings to discover new ways of looking at the urban experience. A multistranded contemplation of the notion of "knowing a place," it is about both the existence and the possibilities of architecture and the city. An important inspiration for the book is the work of Henri Lefebvre, in particular his ideas on space as a historical production. Many of the essays also draw on the social critique and tactics of the Situationist movement. The international gathering of contributors includes art, architectural, and urban historians and theorists; urban geographers; architects, artists, and filmmakers; and literary and cultural theorists. The essays range from abstract considerations of spatial production and representation to such concrete examples of urban domination as video surveillance and Regency London as the site of male pleasure. Although many of the essays are driven by social, cultural, and urban theory, they also tell real stories about real places. Each piece is in some way a critique of capitalism and a thought experiment about how designers and city dwellers working together can shape the cities of tomorrow.

Study of China's Urban Centrality Hierarchy

Abstract: As an important concept of urban geography, urban centrality means the relative importance of a city as the provider of central goods and service in excess of the needs of its own residents. The concept of centrality is widely used in the study of cities system. But in China, there are some mistakes in the application of centrality for the lack of no special study. In view of this, the paper gives a thorough clarification to urban centrality and does a case study on the cities system of China. The paper firstly clarifies the concept of centrality, and gives a review to the theory studies of it home and abroad. After a brief comparison to the study methods of centrality, this paper selects the employment personnel as the measurement of urban centrality and constructs a series of centrality index system including 9 items based on China's statistical datum in 1997. By the method of the smallest demand quantity, the paper calculates the centrality index of each industry, then works out the general centrality index of 223 cities through factor analysis. According to the results, China center cities are divided into five degrades, which are national cities, regional cities, provincial cities, etc.

Robert E Dickinson and the growth of urban geography: an evaluation

Abstract: Although an innovative researcher on urban geography during the 1930s, and a prolific textbook writer thereafter, Robert Dickinson is not now recognized as one of the influential pioneers of that subfield. This paper explores why that was the case by examining his career, writings and influence, and by setting him in the context of a model of scholarly impact. [Key words: Robert Dickinson, pioneers, influence, history of urban geography.]

Middle east urban studies: identity and meaning

Abstract: (2001). MIDDLE EAST URBAN STUDIES: IDENTITY AND MEANING. Urban Geography: Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 175-181.

Urban life and society

Abstract: PART I: INTRODUCTION AND EARLY URBANIZATION. 1. Urban Sociology as a Field of Study. 2. The Origins and Early Development of Cities. 3. The Impact of the Industrial Revolution on City Life. PART II: BASIC FORMS OF URBAN LIFE IN THE MODERN METROPOLIS. 4. The Metropolitan Revolution: Cities and Suburbs. 5. Neighborhoods, Networks, and Associations. 6. Social-Psychological and Cultural Dimensions of Urban Life. PART III: URBAN SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 7. Urban Economic Institutions. 8. Urban Political Institutions. 9. Welfare and Education as Emergent Urban Institutions. 10. The Impact of Urbanization on Religion and the Family. PART IV: PERSISTENT URBAN SOCIAL PROBLEMS. 11. Urban Patterns of Social Stratification. 12. Urban Crime. 13. Problems of Racial and Ethnic Minorities in Urban America. PART V: URBAN PLANNING, SOCIAL POLICY, AND THE URBAN FUTURE. 14. Urban Planning and Development. 15. The Future of American Urban Life and Urban Social Policy. 16. World Urbanization and Globalization.

Special Issue Articles: Yesterday as Tomorrow´s Song: The Contribution of the 1960s "Chicago School" to Urban Geography.

Abstract: On December 17,1971, a 33-column-inch article by Alan Wilson appeared on the front page of the \"books\" section of The Times (London, UK), titled \"Big boost for new geography.\" In it, Wilson reviewed four textbooks: Spatial Organization (Abler, Adams, and Gould); Industrial Location (Smith); Internal Structure of the City (ISC) (edited by Bourne); and The North American City (NAC) (Yeates and Garner). Given that at least two of these books {ISC and NAC) are firmly in the realm of urban geography, what had happened in the field to warrant this banner treatment? Examination of ISC and NAC indicates that both are in large part rooted in research themes pursued in the Department of Geography (particularly by Brian Berry, and graduate students) at the University of Chicago from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. Some of these themes are as follows: the emphasis on process over place; the notion of the geographical matrix; the idea of systems within systems; the spatial topology of commercial structure; social theory and the internal structure of cities; the connection between social space and housing space in a race-determined society; the need for research relevance; and the importance of \"professionalism\" to the geographical research enterprise. The paper concludes by situating the collective work of this group within the proud tradition of the Chicago School of urban studies and by identifying the ways in which this efflorescence of activity continues to energize developments in urban geography and in the discipline at large. [Key words: urban geography, research themes, Chicago School, Brian Berry.]

Classical models of urban population density. The case of Barcelona Metropolitan Area

Abstract: In this paper, we study the classical functional forms density-distance and its relation with the suburbanization for the Barcelona Metropolitan Area. The investigation of population concentration will be based on a mesure of the population density gradients derived from the classical models of urban population density. The monocentric urban density analysis has received considerable attention in urban geography and regional science as an empirical issue as well as from a theorical standpoint. The classic study by Colin Clark (1951), followed by the work of Muth (1969) and Mills (1970, 1972), has led to an extensive body of literature dealing with empirical implementations for a wide range of metropolitan areas and cities, in different countries and moments of time. In this work we analize the classical econometric models of urban density. Some of them have been used in studies about the traffic planning and some others in theoretical models on housing market. Quantitative geography has also attempted to model the urban population density. The functions have been estimated from the data sets of Barcelona Metropolitan Area (for six periods of time, 1975-1998) and eleven subcenters whose population ranges from 50.000 to over 200.000 (for one period, 1991). The data are taken from the municipality and census tract area and population data from the Census of Population