Fourth Edition
ANTHONY GIDDENS ● MITCHELL DUNEIER ● RICHARD P.APPELBAUM ● DEBORAH CARR
Chapter 15: Urbanization, Population,
Economy & Environment: China
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Important issues
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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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Ancient cities
• Organized very differently than today’s cities,
both spatially and socially
• Centers for culture, science, commerce, and
the arts
• The vast majority of the population lived in
rural towns and communities, with little or no
connection to cities.
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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
• United States:
– 1800: <10% urban
– 2010: approximately 80% urban
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Global urbanization
• 1900 onward: urbanization became a global,
not just a 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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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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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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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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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 historically been
largely white.
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Changes in the ‘burbs
• Members of nonwhite racial groups have been
moving to the suburbs.
• Population growth in suburbs, 2000–2010:
– Blacks: 11%
– Latinos: 41%
– Whites: -9.7%
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Suburban Levittown, New York, in the 1950s.
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Regional population shift
• Overall, the American population is moving
away from the North and the East, and to the
South and the West.
• 2010 census showed the following growth:
– Northeast: 3.2%; Midwest: 3.9%
– South: 14.3%; West: 13.8%
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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, nonwhites remained in cities.
This left cities with lower tax revenues,
leading to perpetual financial problems.
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Urban renewal
•
•
Gentrification is a process whereby wealthy
people buy and renew deteriorating
properties in cities.
This tends to be good for property values but
bad for the previous, low-income residents.
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Clinton Street was a grim, graffiti-ridden streetscape.
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It has evolved into a lively restaurant row
on Manhattan’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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Urban Areas with over 10 Million
For the first time ever, more than half the world’s population People
lives in cities.
Source: Bruinius 2010.
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Urban Areas with over 10 Million
People
For the first time ever, more than half the world’s population live in cities.
CITY POPULATIONS IN 1950 Numbers in millions
CITY POPULATION
2010
2025
Tokyo, Japan
36.7
37.1
Delhi, India
22.2
28.6
São Paulo, Brazil
20.3
21.7
Mumbai, India
20.0
25.8
Mexico City, Mexico
19.5
20.7
New York–Newark, USA 19.4
20.6
Shanghai, China
16.6
20.0
Calcutta, India
15.6
20.1
Dhaka, Bangladesh
14.6
20.9
Karachi, Pakistan
13.1
18.7
Numbers in millions
SOURCE: Bruinius 2010
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Urban Areas with over 10 Million
People
For the first time ever, more than half the world’s population live in cities.
Tokyo
Japan
CITY POPULATIONS IN 1950 Numbers in millions
CITY POPULATION
2010
2025
Tokyo, Japan
36.7
37.1
Delhi, India
22.2
28.6
São Paulo, Brazil
20.3
21.7
Mumbai, India
20.0
25.8
Mexico City, Mexico
19.5
20.7
New York–Newark, USA 19.4
20.6
Shanghai, China
16.6
20.0
Calcutta, India
15.6
20.1
Dhaka, Bangladesh
14.6
20.9
Karachi, Pakistan
13.1
18.7
New York City
USA
São Paulo
Brazil
Mexico City
Mexico
30
Delhi
India
Mumbai
India
Calcutta
India
Dhaka
Bangladesh
20
Karachi
Pakistan
Shanghai
China
10
Numbers in millions
0
5.0
5.1
6.5
4.5
4.2
Chicago
USA
Buenos Aires
Argentina
Paris
France
Calcutta
India
Osaka-Kobe
Japan
12.3
8.4
New York, USA
London, UK
5.4
Moscow, Soviet Union
4.3
11.3
Shanghai, China
Tokyo, Japan
SOURCE: Bruinius 2010
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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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Studying global populations
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•
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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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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–
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–
–
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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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The one-child solution
• Beginning in the late 1970s, China instituted
what became known as the one-child policy,
intended as a solution to slow population
growth.
• While population growth fell dramatically,
there were unintended consequences, namely a
population with a gender ratio skewed strongly
toward males.
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The environment and society
• The way of life in Western societies creates
major environmental challenges.
– Massive amounts of nonrecyclable waste
– Pollution
– Depletion of resources and biodiversity
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The environment and society
• Global warming—also a human product—
affects us all.
• Energy consumption may outstrip certain
resources.
• In 2010, China outpaced the US in energy
consumption for the first time.
– Even so, individuals in the US use more than
individuals in other countries (China has 5x as
many people…)
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Figure 15.3 Shares of Total World Consumption of the
Richest 20 Percent and the Poorest 20 Percent, 1995
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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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Do-IT-Yourself Sociology
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Do-IT-Yourself Sociology
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This concludes the Lecture
PowerPoint Presentation for
Chapter 15: Urbanization, Population, and the Environment
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Clicker Questions
1. What approach to urban analysis claims that “cities do not
grow up at random but in response to advantageous features of
the environment”?
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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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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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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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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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.
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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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