GEOG 1410 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Urban Geography, Industrialisation, Industrial Revolution
3 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
GEOG 1410
November 7, 2017
Why Cities?
Professor Basu - Urban Geography
Today’s topics
● Why is the study of urban geography important?
● The city has existed throughout history as one of the most complex human
environments
● After the industrial revolution, after the large migration of people looking for work in
cities, are the cities we are interested in
● In 1950 just 30% of the world’s population was urbanized, in 2007 it was is 50%
● We cannot escape city life, it is the dominant form of existence
● Centre of political and economic processes
● What is the city? How did it come into existence? What function does it perform?
How do you conceptualize a city? What are contrasting views of a city?
● Cities are distributed unevenly geographically, especially in developing countries
Defining a city
● Ideologically it is important how cities are conceptualized
● How would you define a city?
○ Urban and economic centres
○ Interdependent, inter-relationality
○ Transhistorical, varied by time, space (Geography), and socially
○ Not transhistorical universal objects
○ They are very much changing in a different way due to technology
● Some of the basic functions that cities should perform
○ Economic, political administrative function, a social function (diversity)
○ A city has a responsibility of thinking of its inhabitants social welfare
● How have conceptions of cities evolved over time?
● Workshop of industrial civilization
○ Nerve centers for the political, social, economical and cultural life
○ Centre for innovation, change, exchange, and communication
○ Living environments for people
● Growth machine - there is always an interest in the elites to generate profit
● Whenever you are looking at an article related to a city, you can always perceive the
author’s point of view
Organization
● Mobilizing function - related to distribution of labour and raw materials
● The decision making capacity
● The generative function - concentration of people, greater interaction of competition
○ Example of technology and innovation; toronto sells itself as a city of diversity,
using this to promote drawing in different kinds of people
● Transformative capacity
Document Summary
The city has existed throughout history as one of the most complex human environments. After the industrial revolution, after the large migration of people looking for work in cities, are the cities we are interested in. In 1950 just 30% of the world"s population was urbanized, in 2007 it was is 50% We cannot escape city life, it is the dominant form of existence. Cities are distributed unevenly geographically, especially in developing countries. Ideologically it is important how cities are conceptualized. Transhistorical, varied by time, space (geography), and socially. They are very much changing in a different way due to technology. Some of the basic functions that cities should perform. Economic, political administrative function, a social function (diversity) A city has a responsibility of thinking of its inhabitants social welfare. Nerve centers for the political, social, economical and cultural life. Centre for innovation, change, exchange, and communication.
