Unhappy with your grade on the last exam?
Try these strategies!
•Come to every lecture. Hearing things different ways
helps!
•Read the chapter before lecture. Hearing things twice
means you’ll retain information.
•Focus. Stop checking Facebook during lecture.
•Use your smartphone to make flashcards with
definitions of key terms.
•Hit your TA up for help during office hours
QUIZ #5 OPENS MONDAY AT
4:00
GOOD LUCK!
 Chapter 10 review
Chapter 10 review
Beijing
Urbanization:
Life in the City
Urbanization: Key questions
 Why is urbanization is one of the most important
geographic phenomena in today’s world.
 How do changes in the world economy drive
urbanization?
 How do rapidly growing populations strain city
infrastructures?
 What effects do inadquate infrastructures and services
have on urban populations?
I. What role do cities play in the world?
 Mobilize: Organize labor, capital and
raw materials to produce goods and
drive economies.
 Make Decisions: Cities concentrate
political and economic institutions and
concentrate power, so decisions get
made.
I. What role do cities play in the world (cont.)?
 Generate innovation: By concentrating
people in one space, cities promote
collaboration, competition, and the
development of new ideas.
 Transform populations: The size and
anonymity of city life liberates people to
participate in new lifestyles and behaviors.
How do we think about cities?
 Urban Systems: a group
of related cities in a
region.
 Urban form: the built
environment
 Urban ecology: the social
and demographic
composition of
neighborhoods
NYC neighborhood
Histories of Urban
Development
THE RISE OF CITY LIFE
The rise of cities
 City life arose in the
ancient Middle East--from 3500 BC!
 Large scale political
organization is key to the
rise of cities.
 Political elites organize
taxation, building, and
the control of labor
Erbil, Iraq: The world’s oldest city.
6000 years of continuous occupation
European Urbanization
 Rome, the seat of
empire, is Europe’s
first big city.
 Other cities emerge
in the medieval
period: university
centers, religious
centers, defensive
strongholds,
administrative
centers
Jagiellonian University, Krakow
The Rise of Gateway Cities
 Gateway cities link one
country or region with
others.
 Developed in 15th-17th
centuries for trade and
colonial administration.
 Often port cities: Rio de
Janeiro, Accra, Buenos
Aires.
Industrialization
 The industrial
revolution created
new city spaces in the
early 19th c.
 Large pools of labor
and extensive physical
infrastructure (like
factories).
 The countryside
empties and people
leave for the city
Cotton mills in Manchester, 1850
Shock Cities
 Manchester:



1750: 15,000
1801: 70,000
1911: 2.3 million
 Chicago:




1850: 30,000
1880: 500,000
1900: 1.7 million
1930: 3.3 million
Contemporary City Forms
WHAT DO CITIES LOOK LIKE TODAY?
Primate Cities
 Primate cities: world
cities disproportionately
larger than second cities
 Violate the rank-size rule

Nth largest city should be
1/n the size of largest city
 Are “central places” that
are functionally
dominant
World Cities
*Organize space beyond their own national boundaries
*Originally colonial or imperial cities: Istanbul, London,
Genoa, Lisbon
*Today: are key sites of TNC organization, international
finance, supranational government, and commodity
markets.
(Examples?)
*Benefit from agglomeration effects.
World Cities: Spheres of Influence
Based on international headquarters of TNCs and business services
Increasing Urbanization
Periphery urbanizing faster than core
Overurbanization
Peripheral and Semi-peripheral megacities
 Population: 10 million and up.
 Industrialization in peripheral and semi-peripheral
cities leads to high rates of urbanization
 Related to demographic transition
Mexico City: Megacity
Overurbanization
 Urban population grows
faster than jobs and city
services.
 Produces urban slums
 Lack housing, education,
basic sanitation,
employment, and
emergency services
 Kill more than 10 million
people per year from
disease
Brazilian favela
Lagos: City of Slums
TAKE-HOME POINTS
 Increasing population growth and industrialization
has led to the rise of megacities.
 These cities are largely in the periphery
 With relatively low GDP, they have a hard time
providing housing, education, and sanitation.
 Poor living conditions affect the lives of millions of
people