Chapter 1: The Study of Urban
Geography
The Study of Urban Geography
• Concerned with Local Variability in a
General Context
– Want to know the distinctiveness of individual
places and regularities within and between
cities
• How did these Distinctive identities evolve?
• Are there significant patterns/regularies in
the spatial arrangement of towns and cities
across a country or region in the world?
• Are there regularities in the spatial
organization of land use within cities or
neighborhoods, for example?
• Why and how do people choose to live
where they live?
• Who can manipulate the spatial
organization of a city?
• Space – not just a medium, it is factor that
influences patterns of urban development
• Territoriality – Important to geography
since it shapes individual and group
behavior that create distinct spatial settings
• Distance – affects the behavior of both
producers and consumers/influences
patterns of social and ecnomic interaction
• Place – The distinctiveness of a particular
metropolitan area
Approaches to Urban Geography
• 1900-1950s The Regional Cultural Tradition
• 1950s-1960s Analytical Urban Geography
or Spatial Analysis Approach
• 1970s-Behavioral Urban Studies
• 1970s – Humanistic Approach
• 1970s-1980s Structuralist Approach
• 1970s-1980s Feminist Approach
• Structure-Agency Approach
Approaches to Urban Geography
• 1900 Poststructural and Postmodern
Urbanism (came out of architecture and
French Deconstructionist School.)
• 1995-Current Transnational Urbanism
•