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GEOG 261 INTRODUCTION TO URBAN GEOGRAPHY E. McCANN STUDY GUIDE FOR FINAL EXAM EXAM: WEDNESDAY APRIL 16 2014, 9.30-­‐11.20, SAYWELL HALL 10041 (Note that the Student Information System says this exam begins at 8:30 and lasts for three hours. This is wrong! It is a two-­‐hour exam, beginning at 9:30am) A copy of this study guide has also been placed on the class web page at the library: http://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/subject-­‐guides/geography/geog261 This is a study guide. It is not comprehensive. Rather, it is intended to provide you with a general framework to help you study for the exam. The exam will be worth 50 points. You will be asked to answer 10 definitional questions, each worth 2 points, and 6 short answer questions, each worth 5 points. The questions will ask you to demonstrate your knowledge of both concepts and examples from the course readings and lectures. There are some sample questions at the end of this review sheet. The exam is listed in the syllabus as ‘comprehensive.’ What this means is that the themes of the course build on each other throughout the semester, therefore, while the exam will largely focus on themes from the period after the midterm exam, a knowledge of themes from the whole course will help your grade. Furthermore, I may begin the exam with an overarching question, which explicitly asks you to pull in themes from both halves of the course. In studying for the exam, you should be sure to look over your lecture notes and the readings again and you should be clear on the topics listed below. (In all cases you should know how the concepts relate to ‘real-­‐world’ examples discussed in lecture, tutorials, and readings and how the concepts relate to each other). You should study with a pen and notepaper in your hand, not just by reading and/or highlighting. Start with the lecture notes. Go through them again and summarize them on a separate sheet of paper to draw out the main points. Then use this as a guide to work through the readings. Read the notes you’ve taken on the readings to make it easier to identify the most relevant parts. Lecture: The city & social reproduction Reading: JMT Ch. 6 • What is social reproduction? Who tends to do it? • How is social reproductive labour distributed on the urban landscape? • How is social reproductive labour shaped by the urban landscape? • The relationship between social reproduction & economic production. • How do dominant social expectations about social reproduction relate to public & private spaces? • What does the term ‘gendered division of labour’ mean? • How is social reproductive labour romanticized and exploited? • What are the global geographies of social reproduction discussed in class? (Know details of the examples.) • How is social reproduction debated and contested in cities? Lecture: The state, planning, & urban politics Reading: JMT Ch. 7 • Neoliberal entrepreneurial city. Know its characteristics and origins. • What is the ‘growth machine’? Who is part of it (core & allies), why, and what do they do? • Why & how does urban development happen? 2
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Who is most interested in making urban development happen (and why)? How is the state involved in promoting & managing development? Why (and how) must we think regionally when thinking about development & planning? What are the key goals of Metro Vancouver’s regional planning strategy and what are their purposes (individually & collectively)? What were the two connotations of ‘growing up’ used in lecture? What do they say about the challenges of planning Greater Vancouver? What is an urban containment boundary? •
Lecture: Experience, difference, space, & power Reading: JMT Ch. 8 The following terms are from my list of definitions: • Embodied experience • Power • Normative • Trope • Social exclusion • Cosmopolitanism • Emotions Other important things to know: • What is the relationship between our identities, our experiences, & the city as a socio-­‐spatial process? • How does social difference shape and reflect the production of cities? • What do we understand about cities if we analyze them from the perspective of difference? • Know the details and important themes from the documentary film, Flag Wars. • How are urban geographies related to identity and difference? • How are urban spaces shaped by and reflective of different experiences? • How does power (e.g., the power of the state) play out through normative definitions of who should be where (and how they should be when they are there)? Lecture: Molding, marketing, and challenging cities’ identities Reading: JMT Ch. 9 [REMEMBER: I told you not to read Ch 11. It will not be examined.] The following terms are from my list of definitions: • Affect • Brand • Myth • Booster/Boosterism • Entrepreneurial city • Speculative economic strategies • Imagineering Other important things to know: • What are the key strategies used in shaping urban marketing images? • What audiences or markets are targeted by city marketing campaigns? • What political struggles surround the (re)shaping of cities for marketing purposes? • The affective work of city marketing and the media. 3
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Why do politicians and other members of local growth machines pay so much attention to city rankings? Lecture (based on the reading) discussed four city marketing strategies and four audiences for city marketing. Know what they are and why they are important. Lecture: Urban nature & environment Reading: JMT Ch. 10 The following terms are from my list of definitions: • Environment • Nature • Urban Political Ecology • Metabolism • Sustainability Other important things to know: • In what ways are cities natural? • How do urban geographers understand the relationships between nature & cities? • What was the ‘Parks Movement’ and what does it tell us about the relationship between urban development and socially-­‐produced nature? • In what ways can we see Stanley Park as ‘socially produced nature’ in the city? • What is the complex relationship between settler colonial societies and native populations that can be seen in the production of nature in cities? • What does the story of the Vancouver AIDS memorial tell us about the ongoing policing of the boundary between nature and the city? • What role do planning innovations like greenbelts and parkways play in the relationship between urban society and nature? • Is the concept of the sustainable city in conflict with urban economic development? Lecture: Another city is possible / Course wrap-­‐up Readings: JMT Ch. 12 The following terms are from my list of definitions: • The right to the city (including the rights to participation and appropriation) • The new urban commons • Urban citizenship • Just sustainability • How do urban residents pursue economic, social, and environmental goals outside dominant growth machine rhetorics and state institutions? • What urban development processes are eroding the urban public realm? • How are environmental and social justice movements connecting together in the city? • Where in the city can we look for alternative economic spaces THE FINAL EXAM WILL BE STRUCTURED SIMILAR TO THE MIDTERM, SO I HAVE ATTACHED THE MIDTERM TO REMIND YOU. SEE OVER. 4
Spring 2014 MIDTERM EXAM Answer all questions in the exam book provided. Put your name, student number, and tutorial section on the front page of the book. You have the full class period to complete the exam. Take your time and plan out your answers. Good luck! SECTION 1. DEFINITIONS. (EACH OF THESE IS WORTH 2 POINTS). For each of the following terms, provide a definition (1 point) then provide an illustrative example from lecture or readings that is specific and clear (1 point). 1
Clustering 2
Intellectual approach 3
Cities are socio-­‐spatial processes 4
Urbanism 5
Natural areas 6
Global City 7
Global sense of place 8
Advanced Producer Service 9
Fordism 10
Contingent labour SECTION 2. SHORT ANSWERS. (EACH OF THESE IS WORTH 5 POINTS). These questions allow you to demonstrate your knowledge of both concepts and examples from the course readings and lectures. The best answers will refer to specific authors and examples from lectures and readings. 11
What are the key features of a specifically geographical approach to studying cities? Define each of those that you mention and discuss how they are useful when they are used in combination. 12
Why are the terms, ‘Urbanization,’ ‘Urbanism,’ and ‘Development (& planning)’ useful for studying cities? After providing an answer to this general question, take two of the terms and discuss each in turn, providing a brief example of what aspect of cities is highlighted by each. 13
Draw the abstract version of the Concentric Zone model and clearly label each zone (I’d suggest using numbers in the zones, then a key beside it where you link each number to a description). Once you have done that, discuss the key concepts that defined the Chicago School’s understanding of cities and how their approach led them to produce this model. Finally, critically discuss the merits of, and problems with the model. 14
Global Cities researchers like Saskia Sassen argue that globalization increases, rather than decreases, the importance of place, clustering, and geography. Explain this argument using specific examples to show how (urban) places etc. matter for the contemporary globalized economy. 5
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Describe and discuss the iconic map of 55 ‘Alpha, Beta, & Gamma’ Global Cities. What are the assumptions and concepts that influence how the map is drawn? What does the map help us to understand about cities and the contemporary global economy? What does it not tell us about the world of cities, according to authors who have critiqued it? Finally, give your well-­‐justified opinion of the map and its usefulness for understanding cities. 16
Compare and contrast Fordism and Post-­‐Fordism and explain, using examples, how these two types of socio-­‐economic organization are related both to the changing landscapes of cities and also to urban life. Good Luck!