check the highlighting and one sentence summary of each bold section on Tuesday
B2
AP Human Geography –
VII. Cities and Urban Land Use:
Definitions of Urbanism
The land that cities are located on is called urban land. People who live in cities are called urban people.
Urbanism is the process through which cities grow. There are a variety of definitions of cities that are used
in the AP Human Geography course. Historically, it was relatively easy to define the differences between
urban and rural settlements because cities were surrounded by walls. The removal of the walls and the
rapid territorial expansion of cities during the modern period as well as the changing nature of agriculture
have blurred the distinction between the physical differences between cities and urban areas. Today, urban
settlements are defined by legal boundaries, a continuously built-up area, or as functional area. The
legal definition of city varies around the world but is significant because legally defined cities have certain
sorts of political power such as the ability to raise taxes, provide services, and have their own elected
officials. Sometimes, in the U.S., a city surrounded by suburbs (which are also cities) is defined as a
central city. Confusion over the definition of "city" is a problem. These definitions are arbitrary, don’t
worry about learning them. What we need to know is that in the U.S. an urbanized area is usually defined
as a central city plus its contiguously built-up suburban area where the population exceeds 1,000 persons
per square mile. About 60 percent of the U.S. population live in urban areas so defined. Another definition
of a metropolitan statistical area (or MSA) includes the center city, which must have a population of
50,000, the county in which the city is located, and the adjacent counties with at least 15 percent of their
residents working in the center city's county. These counties must also have 60 persons per square mile or
at least 65 percent of their residents working in farm jobs.
Historical Patterns of Urbanization
The first cities occurred when one member of an agricultural village focused totally on nonprimary
(usually a secondary) production activity. Cities in ancient times were mostly associated with the formation
of the state. One of the main functional definitions of cities is the establishment of some sort of ruler or
elite class to create a political system or structure that would govern the population.
Urban areas began approximately 7000 years before present. This was the so-called formative stage. Cities
and their states were beginning to develop in southwestern Asia particularly in the Tigris and Euphrates
basins. Other areas where urbanization occurred very early were the Indus Valley, the Nile Valley, and the
great valleys of China. Urbanization also developed in Central American, the Maya Aztec area, and the
Andean area of South America. These early cities were theocratic, where the rulers had divine authority
and were in essence, "god-kings." (map these areas on a world map)
The ancient city expanded from southwest Asia through Greece to Europe. The Roman Empire developed
massive urban systems based on a network that would move goods from Hadrian's Wall separating Britain
from Scotland, to the upper middle Nile, to the Red Sea coast and the Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf. We
can categorize cities in terms of the degree to which they have been industrialized. We can think of
societies as folk, preliterate, feudal, preindustrial, and urban industrial. Cities continue along a continuum.
The most advanced cities are leaving the urban industrial model and people aren’t sure about what it next.
Historical Patterns of Urbanization
1. first cities formed when people started making money in
Models of Cities
Urban geography really consists of two branches. One focuses on the internal structure of cities, and the
other focuses on where the cities are located. Discussions of internal spatial structure have been
dominated by a series of models that are usually called classical models, and they are based on the work
done by scholars at the University of Chicago in the first years of the twentieth century. The first one is
called the Concentric Zone Model, the second the Sector Model, and third, the Multiple Nuclei Model.
Each of these models assumes cities grow in an orderly, logical fashion – we all know
they don’t. People control cities and people usually aren’t logical or orderly. The models
give an idea of how cities might work or look but in practice they can’t define a city.
Cultural Context and Urban Form
One of the main types of cities is called the primate city. These tended to be preindustrial cities although
they exist in the world today. Primate cities embody all the major features of the culture. They are also
defined statistically as having more than twice the population of the second largest city. Primate cities are
best considered in terms of their cultural impact. They are the centers of the population's culture, and
people feel they must be in the primate city in order to be successful.
The transition to the contemporary urban industrial city or the modern western city went through two
phases. One was the mercantile city or the city of trade that was closely associated with colonial activity.
The manufacturing or industrial city that followed the invention of the factory and all those issues
associated with industrialization was the second phase. We are now moving into the modern city, which is
characterized by suburbanization and an automobile landscape. Finally, some people now feel that we
are in the postmodern period, but that is somewhat debatable because so many places are mixtures of all
these landscapes.
Impact of Suburbanization and Edge Cities
The expansion of cities has been the topic of all the components in the cities and land-use section. The most
recent discussions of suburbanization have pointed out that the development of the suburban office
and retail shopping clusters off major freeways, particularly the ring roads and ring ways, has
produced landscapes that are very much like the old downtowns of the streetcar era. This means that
in the intersections of the highway network, we find offices, residences, and in many locations extensive
entertainment venues. These concentrations have caused people to describe the new suburban landscape as
an edge city. The edge cities promote discontinuity within metropolitan areas because of the population in
the suburban zone relating to the nodes in the edge rather than the downtowns and therefore have an action
space which is quite limited to their section of the metropolitan area.
Urban Growth and Rural-Urban Migration
Most of this material is covered in the Population chapter under "Population movement," but the rise of
cities was dependent upon the movement of people from rural landscapes into cities. This movement was a
function of both the pull of new jobs and opportunities (real and perceived) in the cities, as well as the push
of economic hardship in the agricultural countryside. In Europe there was a process of enclosure through
which peasant farmers were moved off the land to make way for large sheep flocks that could provide the
wool needed for industrialization. These farmers moved into the newly industrialized cities. In the
contemporary world, particularly in Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia, there is widespread
migration into the cities even though the real economic opportunities are more limited than many
migrants believe.
Rise of Megacities
With the expansion of technology and industrialization, demand for labor, and the ability of the industrial
society to maintain high densities, there has been a dramatic increase in the size of cities during the
twentieth century. Megacities can be thought of as world cities. Geographers are beginning to use the term
world city to describe those settlements, which at various times have dominated the world system. The
world system in ancient times consisted of places like Ur in Mesopotamia, which controlled most of the
known world. Ancient Athens was also a world city, because it had influences well beyond its local area.
Of course, Rome was probably the quintessential world city of the ancient times. Medieval life restricted
trade, so it is hard to say whether there were any world cities in medieval times in Western Europe. There
was of course Constantinople, the ruler of the remainder of the Roman Empire.
As urban life revived in the late Middle Ages, western European cities began to reach out and become
world cities. Until the rise of industrial society, world cities, after the fall of the Roman Empire, were in
Asia, not Europe. Beijing and Constantinople were the largest of the cities in that period. Finally, nearly in
the 1800s, London emerged as a world city as a result of its new control of an Empire and England’s
Imperial status.
Today we define world cities as those which are closely integrated into the global economic system
because they are the center for the flow of information and capital. Financial services are highly
concentrated in a limited number of world cities. In this group there are three tiers. In the highest are
London, New York, and Tokyo. Each is the largest city in one of the main regions in the developed world.
The second tier is comprised of places like Chicago, Washington, and Los Angeles in North America,
Brussels, Frankfurt, and Zurich in Western Europe, and Sao Paulo and Singapore in less developed worlds.
The third tier includes four North American cities, seven Asian cities, five in western Europe and one each
in Africa (Johannesburg )and in the south Pacific (Sydney). It is useful to have students think about the
world in terms of the system of flows of power, wealth, and products associated with world cities
instead of as divided into independent political units called countries. The economy really runs through
the networks of world cities rather than national capitals.
Changing Employment Mix
As economies change, cities change along with them. After all, cities are the cultural landscape of industrial
and economic activities. Cities have an economic base which is comprised of two sectors: the basic sector
and the nonbasic sector. The basic sector refers to jobs that produce something that is sold outside the city;
that is, the output is exported resulting in an inflow of money. On the other hand, jobs in the nonbasic
sector while they are necessary, do not bring new money into the city. Most people are engaged in activities
that are a blend of these two, rather than simply being one or the other. City leaders are constantly
searching for factories and other basic employment because of the multiplier effect. That is, one basic job
will produce two to four jobs nonbasic jobs and will enable the city to increase its tax base.
At one time, there was quite a bit of discussion about the functional specialization of cities, and work was
done to classify cities according to their primary function. This work has proved to be somewhat of a deadend because cities are so diverse. In the 1940s, you could see maps that showed cities that were
predominantly manufacturing or retail, university towns, hospital towns, or mining towns, but today with
the economic expansion, most cities would fall under the diversified city category. However, classifying
allows students to think about why cities exist and how they might change. One of the great changes
occurring in the cities today is the process of deindustrialization of industrial sites. Therefore, there has
been a diminution of jobs associated with heavy industry and an increase in the number of jobs in the
service category.
Locational Decisions, Conflicts, and Hazards
Cities are frequently located in sites that have unstable environmental conditions such as flood plains or
active seismic zones. Cities in Japan are famous for the measures architects have tried to ensure the safety
of the cities during earthquakes. Cities built on flood plains and coasts are sometimes subject to flooding.
Most cities are developed in ways to minimize the impact of environment on urban life. For example, cities
are paved and sewered to speed up the run-off of precipitation, and cities develop ways to cope with snow
or heat. Occasionally dramatic environmental forces overtake urban life, and a hurricane may devastate a
large swath of urbanized area. In fact, because of heavy urbanization of the portions of the United States
subject to hurricanes, wealth lost or value of damage done by storms, continues to increase. Students should
not be left with the perception that the environment has changed; rather, urban places are being developed
in places that are prone to certain kinds of conditions such as hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, or seismic
forces.
Patterns of Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Class
The segregation process, discussed earlier in regard to the nature of the internal structure of North
American cities and cities around the world, has produced very obvious patterns in the distribution of
people by race, ethnicity, class, and gender. Far and away the most powerful force in locating groups is
their ability to pay for space. This produces general sorting by economic class that characterizes cities all
around the world. The wealthy are able to have choices and choose high amenity locations in comfortable
surroundings. The middle-class buy what they can afford, seeking to emulate the landscapes and lifestyles
of the high-income populations. People with limited or no incomes are relegated to the lowest quality
housing in the locations with the most disamenities. In some cultures, governments have intervened to
create alternatives to the landmark. These public housing developments vary remarkably in quality and
location. In some areas, the public housing is quite satisfactory. While not luxurious, it provides pleasant
surroundings for low-income individuals and families. In other areas, public housing has failed to provide a
safe and secure neighborhood for any individuals.
To the degree that there is a correlation between race/ethnicity and class, a similar pattern of population
distribution can be found. In the United States, for example, where there is a significantly strong correlation
between race and ethnicity, it is possible to find large areas of certain populations living in high quality
housing while other populations live in low quality housing. This could be observed in the 1920s when the
great northern migration of African Americans occurred. Several programs were developed, both official
and unofficial, in the northern cities to keep African Americans confined to certain parts of the city. These
practices were finally declared illegal during the administration of Lyndon Johnson and the civil rights acts
of the 1960s and early 70s. It is not correct to say that one ethnic group prefers to live in one sort of
housing or one sort of neighborhood. The group's location is a result of when they arrive in the city and
what groups are already there, what space is available, and how much individual groups can afford to pay.
In most cities, ethnic groups such as the Japanese, are not concentrated at all. Other groups, such as
Hispanic and Native American populations, are found in striking concentrations in North American cities.
It is also possible to see some specific concentration of gender groups in cities. In recent years,
neighborhoods have developed safe, comfortable places for gays and lesbians. There is also a pattern of
single groups, which are largely female, who can be found in apartment complexes either in the suburban
or freeway zones or downtown. There is also a striking rise in female-headed households that corresponds
to two types of locations. One type, the low-income, single mother is concentrated in cheap housing close
to downtown, and the second type, middle- and upper-income single parent households (middle-class
divorcees) is located in areas deemed to be safe and close to suburban amenities.
Political Organization of Urban Areas
Initially, cities were governed in very straight-forward way. As suburbanization developed and people tried
to avoid the governments of the interior cities — which they viewed as corrupt — a whole host of minor
civil governments developed. Today's metropolitan areas are divided into a plethora of political
constituencies ranging from school districts to modern shared management areas, specialized service
districts, full municipal governments, and in some cases, a kind of metropolitan planning or government
organization. The same pattern is found in other parts of the world. South Africans, however, seem to have
broken through the intellectual log jam around city governments and have developed a way to expand the
political boundaries of cities and reduce the number of cities to achieve the goals of economic
development.
It is very hard to predict what will happen to government structures in urban areas. In the 1960s there were
enthusiastic discussions about the rise of metropolitan governments in Toronto and the Twin Cities of
Minneapolis and St. Paul. Entrenched political structures have prevented any significant movement toward
metropolitan government. There has been some movement toward exchange of wealth through revenue
sharing. That is, some wealthy jurisdictions will share their tax incomes with the less wealthy, but the
procedure is quite limited.
Transportation and Infrastructure
As the Borchert model indicates, the location of cities was highly influenced by transportation
technologies. Similar processes affected the nature of cities themselves, and so, as transportation
technologies changed, the nature of cities' infrastructure and landscape also changed. It is possible to
classify cities into categories that closely match Borchert's epochs. First is the Walking/Horse-Cart Era,
second is the Streetcar Era, third the Recreational Automobile Era, and fourth, the Automobile Era.
The Walking/Horse-Cart Era ended in the late nineteenth century with the invention of the electric
streetcar. The Streetcar Era or mass transit era continued until the beginning of the mass production
of automobiles. The Recreational Automobile Era began in the 1920s when the upper-class began to
use personalized transportation systems, while the majority of population still rode streetcars.
The balance between automobiles and streetcars continued until the post-World War II decades when the
shift to automobiles took place in North America. In other parts of the world, mass transportation systems
(either surface cars or subways) continued to dominate, and the automobile did not prevail until the end of
the century. Most industrial cities are now a combination of mass transit and automobile transportation.
This mixture of technology promotes social inequalities and is responsible for creating some special
segregated landscapes.
As we look into the future, it is not easy to see what will happen to transportation. The forecast of the
decline of the automobile based on increased cost seems to have been poorly founded. Although the cost of
transportation continues to rise, people seem willing to pay more for the privacy, mobility, and freedom of
choice associated with automobile transportation. The other unknown is the impact of computer technology
and the ability to substitute the movement of information for the movement of individuals. It is too early to
see how that will impact the structure of cities, although many predict dispersal of population through the
development of telecommunications.
Uneven Development, Ghettoization and Gentrification
Observers of industrial cities and cities of the mercantile era of the Middle East point out that all these
landscapes are shaped by forces of segregation and separation. Arab cities had clear-cut quarters and
divided ethnic groups. Many of these quarters were walled with gates that were shut at night. As industrial
society developed, sociologists argue, there was a need for specialized places for residence because of the
need for social status. Because the increased capacity for production, middle-class people began to dress
like upper-class people. The elite realized that they had to withdraw to homogeneous quarters to separate
themselves from the status-seeking middle and lower classes. In addition to this social segregation, there is
a long-held notion that economic activities which were blighting and unpleasant should be avoided if
possible. Thus, citizens sorted themselves according to wealth and in response to location of amenities and
disamenities in the landscape.
In addition, the development of new transportation systems changed the relative location of parts of the
city. The old core areas ,which were developed during the days of the railroad and river transportation eras,
were less accessible in the era of automobiles and freeways because of the increased accessibility of
suburban locations. As a result, by the end of the twentieth century, manufacturing jobs were more
frequently found at the edge of the city than in the core. This produced a mismatch between potential
employees among the lower income population residing in the city centers and the availability of jobs in the
suburban development zones. Geographers argue that there is a conscious effort to devalue some parts of
the city so those capitalists can come in and make huge profits. While these theories are far from being
proven, it is clear is that some parts of the landscape are less valued and less attractive for residential
development.
Ghettoization is a different process. It refers to the legal restriction of people to certain areas. This was a
widespread practice in the Mediterranean areas and in Europe. The practice was transported to North
America and other parts of the colonial empires by the imperialists, thus all cities dominated by the global
economy have some form of ghettoization. The term ghettoization has of course been redefined to mean
more simply a concentration of a certain group to a certain area against their will, not necessarily legally,
but through paralegal practices and practices of social discrimination. Ghettoization is different from
separation of people by income. Ghettos refer to areas where populations are of mixed income, but
confined to a certain area even though they might be able to, want to, and can afford to move out of their
area.
Gentrification is a different activity. It is a process through which higher income people repopulate an area
that which once was an upper-class neighborhood, but had been abandoned and taken over by lower
income people. Gentrification is something that began in 1960s in London and other large cities where
rather low paid white-collar workers were employed in the central business district. They became frustrated
with the cost of the long-distance commutes and moved into lower rent areas in the center cities where they
were able to rent or buy conveniently located larger housing units at a low cost. However, these places
were in disrepair and in neighborhoods that were thought to be dangerous and a very risky investment. The
proponents of gentrification argue that the alternative was to have these places continue to deteriorate until
they had to be condemned and pulled down. Low income owners or renters could not afford the costs of
rehabilitating the buildings.
Urban Planning and Design also known as Zoning
The human geography course is not the place for the detailed analysis of the history of planning, but
students should be aware that in the twentieth century, planning in industrialized societies has reached a
new level of impact. What we usually think of urban planning refers to the process through which middleclass and lower-income groups are protected from arbitrary development of the city by those who
maximize their incomes in certain places. The most significant form of planning is probably the zoning law
that was developed in the United States in the 1920s. This law establishes patterns of land use and, while
not perfect, stabilizes many residential areas. The design issues that are significant in the study of human
geography are those designs of suburbs that have transformed cities studied in the AP Human Geography
Course.
Models of Urban Systems
There are two ways to think about models of urban systems — those that develop in abstract form
(primarily in Christoler's Central Place Theory) and those that developed using a combination of physical
geography and technology, such as the series of epochs of urbanization in North America developed by
John Borchert. His work is important because it can be used in several scales both at city level, but also
within city boundaries.
Christoler's Central Place Theory is fun to teach. It is fun to show how the geometry works, but it is
most important for students to understand the fundamental concepts behind the Central Place Theory. The
concepts of threshold and range are useful in understanding human behavior and urbanization. Students are
quick to reject the hierarchical structure and hexagonal hinterlands developed by the Christoler model
because they are abstract, and students have a hard time understanding the utility of an abstract model. But
they find validity in the concepts of threshold and range and are able to use them. After some discussion,
students also understand the utility of the concepts of hierarchy, and the levels of goods, service, and
differentiation of places according to the level in the hierarchy. These are all extremely important concepts
and help students think about the development of cities and industrial activity.
Borchert's systems are based on the impact of the evolution of transportation and communication
technology on the development of the North American system and also make use of the concept of the
system of hierarchy. Borchert discusses the way cities' growth and decline affects their position in the
hierarchy. He has been able to define different periods or epochs in North America based on the technology
that significantly impacted urbanization. Students should also pay close attention to the concept of
innovation waves so they can understand how technology will have great impact on the location and nature
of urbanization in the future. Unfortunately, not all textbooks provide an adequate treatment of the Borchert
system of epochs.
Borchert's system starts with the Sail and Wagon Epoch from 1790-1830. During this period, the
movement of people was limited and slow because of the difficulty of overland transportation; primary
goods were moved along waterways. The system changed with the development of steam and its
application to boats and early railroads. Hence the second epoch is called the Steamboat Iron Horse Epoch
and runs from 1830 to1870. The third epoch is called the Steel Rail or long haul, which runs from 1870
to1920 which, coincided with the Industrial Revolution. Cities expanded their hinterlands dramatically;
goods were moved long distances making it possible to develop intensively industrialized areas. The fourth
period running from roughly from 1920 to1970 — but really continuing into the present — is called the
Auto/Air Amenity Epoch. The urban system has been transformed dramatically by the use of automobiles
which opened up new locations for development. Many people believe now we are in our fifth epoch, the
so-called High Technology Epoch or Telecommunications Epoch since both are shaping cities in many
ways.
Another model that is fundamental to thinking of urban geography is the so-called rank size rule or the
hierarchical model which basically says that cities can be all put into one system based on their size so
that the largest city is ranked number one and so on down to the smallest city. When this is done on a
graph, you see two or three types of city systems including the primate city, where the graph steeply falls
away from the first rank, and the more advanced urban systems where there the relationship between
population and size is more of a straight line.
I. Concepts of Urbanization
A. Definitions of an Urban Area –
1. early cities were areas surrounded by walls
2. today, defined as 1000 persons/square mile
3. a concentrated area with 50,000 people or more
B. Commonalities and Characteristics of Urbanization
1. have some political power over their citizens
2. right to tax and provide services like garbage and parks
3. have elected officials