Third Edition
ANTHONY GIDDENS ● MITCHELL DUNEIER ● RICHARD APPELBAUM ● DEBORA CARR
Slides created by Shannon Anderson, Roanoke College
Chapter 15: Urbanization, Population,
and the Environment
1
Important issues
•
•
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•
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How cities have changed and why
Rural, urban, and suburban living
Globalization and urbanization
Population growth and its consequences
Globalization, urbanization, growth, and the
environment
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2
Ancient cities
• Organized very differently than today’s cities,
both spatially and socially
• Centers for culture, science, commerce, and so
on
• The vast majority of the population lived in
rural towns and communities, with little or no
connection to cities.
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3
What is urbanization?
•
Urbanization is a shift in population from rural
living to living in cities and towns.
• Occurred alongside industrialization.
• London as a prime example:
– 1800: 1.1 million people
– 1900: > 7 million people
• The United States: 1800: <10% urban
2010: approximately 80% urban
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Global urbanization
• 1900 onward: urbanization became a global,
not just national, process.
• That trend intensified from 1950 forward.
• Global, urban population statistics:
– 1975: 39%
– 2000: approximately 50%
– 2050: estimated 70%
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Theories of urbanism
• The Chicago School
– Urban ecology
• Cities organized naturally so as to generate
equilibrium
• Robert Park
– Urbanism as way of life
• Urban interaction problem
• Louis Wirth
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6
The “urban interaction problem” is a necessity for city
dwellers— respecting social boundaries when so many people
are in close physical proximity all the time.
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Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Theories of urbanism
•
Jane Jacobs, “Eyes and ears”
– Multiplicity of people on the streets increases
security through watchfulness
•
Urbanism as a created environment
– David Harvey
– Manuel Castells
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Rural life
• Stereotypes of idyllic rural America often
misrepresent rural realities
• Rural areas = 75% of land, but hold only 17%
of the population.
• The rural population has been in decline for
most of the twentieth century.
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9
Declining rural population
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•
•
•
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Declines in farming and other rural industries
High poverty rates
Few opportunities or amenities
Few government services
Hard to attract new residents
• New technologies and social programs work to
reverse these trends
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10
Suburban development
• Suburbs are towns that develop as residential
hubs around industrial cities.
• Suburbs developed during the economic boom
that followed World War II.
• This happened with significant government
assistance.
• Suburban populations have been largely white.
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Suburban Levittown, New York, in the 1950s.
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Problems with urban life
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•
•
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Suburbanization led to changes in cities.
Industries left cities, taking mostly bluecollar jobs with them.
This led to increased residential segregation
as poorer, non-whites remained in cities.
This left cities with lower tax revenues,
leading to perpetual financial problems.
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13
Urban renewal
•
•
Gentrification is a process whereby wealthy
people buy and renew deteriorating
properties in cities.
Tends to be good for property values but bad
for the previous, low-income residents.
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14
Clinton Street was a grim, graffi ti- ridden streetscape
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It has evolved into a lively restaurant row on
New York’s Lower East Side
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Global cities
• Saskia Sassen’s global cities are those that house
major transnational corporations and other global
firms.
• These are the seats of global power and control.
• Global cities are sites of extreme wealth and
poverty.
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17
Urbanization in the developing
world
• Africa and Asia are still predominantly rural—
only around 40% urban.
• The urban population is growing more rapidly
in these regions of the world.
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Urbanization in the developing
world
• Major environmental risks are posed by such
rapid growth, overcrowding, and poverty:
– Housing
– Pollution
– Sanitation
– Water supply
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19
Studying global populations
•
•
The study of population is called
demography.
Important terminology:
–
–
–
–
Crude birthrate
Fertility and fecundity
Crude death rate (mortality)
Life expectancy and life span
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20
Map 15.1 Population Growth Rate, 1980–2002
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Consequences of population
change
• Rapid population growth and urbanization may
lead to:
–
–
–
–
–
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Increased internal migration
Significant environmental challenges
Health concerns
Increased crime
More and larger squatter settlements
Famine and food shortages
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22
The environment and society
• The way of life in Western societies creates
major environmental challenges.
– Massive amounts of non-recyclable waste
– Pollution
– Depletion of resources and biodiversity
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23
The environment and society
• Global warming—also a human product—
affects us all.
• Energy consumption may outstrip certain
resources.
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24
Figure 15.2 Shares of Total World Consumption of the
Richest 20 Percent and the Poorest 20 Percent, 1995
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Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Sustainable development and
change
• New sustainable development policies seek
equilibrium between environmental concerns
and the economy.
• Such policies tend to work well for wealthy
countries at the expense of poorer countries.
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26
This concludes the Lecture
PowerPoint Presentation for
Chapter 15: Urbanization, Population, and the Environment
For more learning resources, please visit our online StudySpace at:
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Clicker Questions
1. The statement that “cities do not grow up at random but grow
in response to advantageous features of the environment”
reflects which view of urbanism?
a. Wirth’s urbanism as a way of life
b. the Chicago School’s ecological view
c. Harvey’s view of cities as restructured space
d. Castells’s view of urbanism as contested space
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28
Clicker Questions
2. According to David Harvey, urbanism is a process that
involves a constant restructuring of space. What influences this
process?
a. the movement of new population groups into a city
b. the degree to which cities remain undiversified culturally
c. decisions made by business, government, and investors
d. the pressures of various social movements
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29
Clicker Questions
3. Louis Wirth was among the first to address the “urban
interaction problem.” Which of the following best represents
that problem?
a. the necessity for city dwellers to move around the city quickly
via public transportation
b. the necessity for city dwellers to demonstrate the sophistication
and critical acumen of the urbanite
c. the necessity for city dwellers to put out-of-towners in their
place
d. the necessity for city dwellers to respect social boundaries
when so many people are in close proximity all the time
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30
Clicker Questions
4. As the population of developing countries undergoes a
demographic transition in the years to come, what is likely to
be the consequence?
a. The population of these countries will steadily fall.
b. There will be rapid growth of cities as more people migrate
there in search of employment.
c. There will be less famine and food shortages will decrease.
d. There will be a decrease in religiosity.
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31
Clicker Questions
5. In what way do more recent theories of urbanism differ from
the earlier Chicago School?
a. They focus on the negative social consequences when strangers
occupy the same physical spaces.
b. They focus on the way people interact in public spaces.
c. They stress that urbanism is in response to major patterns of
political and economic change rather than natural forces.
d. They examine the development of urban culture and how that
contributes to a particular way of life.
© 2011 W. W. Norton Co., Inc.
32
Clicker Questions
6. Social problems such as high levels of child poverty, high rates
of motor vehicle fatalities and other accidental deaths, and low
levels of health and educational services are troubling realities
faced by people living
a. in suburbia.
b. in rural areas.
c. in gentrified neighborhoods.
d. in America’s largest cities.
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33
Art Presentation Slides
Chapter 15
Urbanization, Population,
and the Environment
Anthony Giddens
Mitchell Duneier
Richard P. Appelbaum
Deborah Carr
Chapter Opener
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
A coal miner emerges from a mine after a day’s work
in Shanxi Province, China.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Traffic outside of the Bank of England in the financial
district of London in 1896.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
The “urban interaction problem” is a necessity for city
dwellers— respecting social boundaries when so many people
are in close physical proximity all the time.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
The Castro district in San Francisco is not only open to
but celebratory about its large and vibrant gay and
lesbian population.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Joe Peterson and John Baker have coffee in
Chugwater, Wyo-ming.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Suburban Levittown, New York, in the 1950s.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
A new housing development in the exurb, Highland, California.Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Globalization and Everyday Life
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Globalization and Everyday Life
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Clinton Street was a grim, graffi ti- ridden streetscape
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
It has evolved into a lively restaurant row on
New York’s Lower East Side
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
The overcrowded streets of the Hong Kong– Guangdong
megacity.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Families sit on the sidewalk with their belongings after
being evicted by police from a central São Paulo building.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Newspaper salesman Alvarado uses a mask to protect
himself from air pollution as he sells papers at a busy
crossroad in Mexico City.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Map 15.1 Population Growth Rate, 1980–2002
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Passengers travel in an over-crowded train in the
eastern Indian city of Patna.
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Figure 15.1 Median Age, U.S. Population, 1850–2050
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Kids play on a merry-go-round near an oil refinery
at the Carver Terrace housing project play-ground in
west Port Arthur, Texas.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Figure 15.2 Shares of Total World Consumption of the
Richest 20 Percent and the Poorest 20 Percent, 1995
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
A worker at an e-waste recycling company in Bangalore,
India, shows shredded pieces of printed circuit boards of
obsolete electronic gadgets undergoing the recycling process.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
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This concludes the Art Presentation Slides
Slide Set for Chapter 15
Essentials Of Sociology
THIRD EDITION
by
Anthony Giddens
Mitchell Duneier
Richard P. Appelbaum
Deborah Carr