GEOG 2400 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Sixties Scoop, Ernest Burgess, Capital Accumulation
14 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
GEOG 2400
US and Canada
Colonialism and Commodification of Land
• Seizing indigenous homelands
• Dispossession and commodification of land essential to capital accumulation and urbanization
• Land taken by removing original inhabitant to reservations
• Getting rid of the commons and a transition to public or private ownership was an important part
of urbanization
o Privatization of land in North America
• Justification, private ownership helps 'Indians' integrate to US society and economy
• Vast privatization of the public domain pushed forth one of the greatest economic booms in the
history of the world up to that time
• Growth of Boston, New York, Charleston
Colonial Period
• Almost all North American cities are less than 300 years old
• Colonial cities usually less than a few square miles, less than 100,000 people
• Transition from agriculture to industrial growth
• 1800: indigenous people accounted for 15% of population
Railroad Labour
• Migration of cheap labour, racial and ethnic minorities
• 15,000 Chinese workers working on railroad at any one time
• 20,000 pounds of bones returned to China, about 1,200 Chinese workers
3 Demographic shifts in North America
1. Transition from agriculture base to industrial capitalist base
o Major industrial cities in 19th century: Baltimore, Philly, NY, Toronto, Montreal
2. Decline of Indigenous Populations
o 1800: 15% of population was indigenous
o 1900: 0.5% of population was indigenous
3. Rapid Urbanization
1885-1935 Economy
• Emergence of US as global superpower
• Emergence of powerful corporations
• Fordist era, large scale assembly manufacturing
• Massive economic growth
• Industrial centers: Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland
• Iron and steel
1840-1935 Immigration
• 1980: over 40% of New Yorkers were foreign born
• Turn of 20th Century, 25 million immigrants to the US
• Ethnic enclaves, segregation
• Mostly centralized in urban areas
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• Early high percentage of urban population in North America
Chicago School 1900-1930s
• Survival of the fittest conceptualization of cities, wealthiest groups will reap benefits in housing,
jobs, and desirability
Concentric Zone Model
• Ernest Burgess
• Processes of urban development emerge through processes of competition
• Ignores historical role of colonialism and capitalism in urban development
Canada's Fertility rates
• Declining fertility rates
• Population reliant on immigrants
1950s-1960s
• Largest cities in Northeast and Midwest (Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Toronto)
• 60% population urban
o Home to world's largest industrial companies
o 1960, NY home to 6/10 fortune 500 headquarters
1960s, Sixties scoop
• Indigenous people forced to sign treaties
• 1960 Indigenous Canadians granted right to vote
• Common practice to take children from their parents and place with white families
• Huge barriers to socio-economic equity
1970s
• Slowly economy
• Widening income gap
• Fertility rates begin to decline
1980s
• Market deregulation
• Reductions in trade
• Austerity
• Related to structural adjustment policies in global south
Austerity Urbanism
• Policy regime and discourse
• Urban authorities embracing policies that seek to reduce budgets
o Cut back on essential services
o Reducing/freezing labour costs
o Privatizing of public services
o Feature of urban condition under neoliberalism, post 2008 financial crisis
Inequality today:
• Increasing segregation based on class, race, and ethnicity
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Seizing indigenous homelands: dispossession and commodification of land essential to capital accumulation and urbanization, getting rid of the commons and a transition to public or private ownership was an important part. Land taken by removing original inhabitant to reservations of urbanization: privatization of land in north america. Railroad labour: migration of cheap labour, racial and ethnic minorities, 15,000 chinese workers working on railroad at any one time, 20,000 pounds of bones returned to china, about 1,200 chinese workers. Fordist era, large scale assembly manufacturing: emergence of us as global superpower, emergence of powerful corporations, massive economic growth. 1840-1935 immigration: 1980: over 40% of new yorkers were foreign born, turn of 20th century, 25 million immigrants to the us, ethnic enclaves, segregation, mostly centralized in urban areas, early high percentage of urban population in north america. Survival of the fittest conceptualization of cities, wealthiest groups will reap benefits in housing, jobs, and desirability.
