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GEOG 340Urban Systems

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Welcome to 340!• My name is Don Alexander, and this is the

second time I have taught this course, which was originally Michael Tripp’s.

• My background is in urban planning and I have a strong interest in cities and what makes them work or not, and what makes for a strong sense of place and what diminishes it.

• I’m curious to know what all of you think this course is about or should be about?

• I’d also like to know more about you…

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Welcome to 340!• My office is across the road in Building

359, Room 215. My office hours are Wednesdays from 3 to 4, but can arrange to see you at other times if mutually convenient.

• In general, the course will be a mix of lectures, guest speakers, films, and discussion, including discussions led by you! We will also do a field trip.

• Lectures will be on my web site: web.viu.ca/alexander2 under “Courses.”

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Welcome to 340!• But first, if you need stuff for establishing your

household, VIU is sponsoring a Student Free Store 9 to 2 on Thursday at the Welcome Centre. The Student Union may also have activities planned.

• Each of you will be writing a major case study report. If it would be helpful for these projects, I can invite

in a research librarian to let youknow about the. numerous resources avail- able through the Library. There are also the resources of the Writing Centre.

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Welcome to 340!• Who has travelled where? Also: why have you

taken the course and do you have any particular interests? Perhaps you could talk to your neighbour about what cities have meant the most to you and why you think they were great cities.

• I have what may be an overly ambitious agenda for this week, so we may start to get behind on our schedule. Fortunately, we have some wriggle room at the end of the course.

• Today we’ll do the mechanics of the course and then start to get into the subject matter of Chapters 1 & 2 and some supplementary reading.

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Welcome to 340!

• This is a course about what cities are, how they evolve and why, about the challenges they are facing, and how we can cope with those challenges.

• As all of us have lived in cities. Though some of us have travelled more than others, we all have a certain amount of expertise and experience we can bring to bear, even from the experience of living in Nanaimo.

• Travel certainly gives us a broader basis of comparison.

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Introduction to 340• This is a course about North American cities mainly.

We will initially skip the chapters on cities in developing nations and return to them later, time permitting.

• The course will cover a bit about the origin of cities, different geographical ideas about cities, the various phases of their evolution in North America, the reasons for postwar sprawl, the problem of de-industrialization, patterns of residential segregation, neighbourhood change, urban politics/ policy and planning, and future problems and prospects. Please bring in your relevant experience and ideas, as each of you is an expert on cities in your own way.

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The Textbook• The text by Knox and McCarthy is dense and

sophisticated, and it means we have a lot to cover in 13 weeks.

• It also focuses almost exclusively (with the exception of the chapters on the develop-ing world) on the U.S., so we will have to work to bring Canadian content in. For that reason, I will be putting Urban Canada, ed. by Harry Hiller, on reserve. I will ask you to lead discussions on excerpts from that book to correct the U.S. bias of the textbook.

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The Assignments• Look through the course outline and read it

carefully. I will discuss the assignments briefly, and will provide more detailed instructions in the next few days.

• The major assignment consists of two options: writing an in-depth case study on a particular city and what has made it the way it is; and compiling an e-portfolio using the suggested using 3 or 4 of the ‘Review Activities’ provided at the end of each chapter in the text.

• You will also lead a discussion and there will be two exams – a mid-term and a final.

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Evaluation• To do well in the course, you should:  demonstrate a knowledge of key concepts of

urban geography and urbanization, and be able to apply them in a variety of contexts (as measured by the mid-term, major project, and final exam);

demonstrate a knowledge how geographical and technical-economic processes have affected different cities in different ways (as measured by the mid-term, major project, and final exam);

demonstrate knowledge of emerging crucial urban issues (as measured by the major project, and final exam), and

demonstrate an improvement in your research, writing, speaking, and analytical skills, as well as your ability to present material in a graphically appealing format.

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Chapter 1• Key questions for urban geographers: What makes cities and neighbourhoods distinctive? Are there spatial regularities in the arrangement of

cities and towns across a country or region of the world?

Are there spatial regularities in the organization of land uses within cities and in who lives where?

How do people choose where to live and what constraints do they face in this?

How does where we live affect our behaviour and our quality of life?

What groups manipulate the urban environment and for what purposes? Who benefits from these manipulations?

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Four Key Concepts• Space- Space both shapes and is shaped by patterns

of urban development and behaviour. [examples?]

• Territoriality- “the tendency for particular groups within society – ethnic groups, gangs, gated communities, -- to attempt to establish some form of control, dominance, or exclusivity within a given area.” [examples?]

• Distance- “influences patterns of social interaction and the shape and extent of social networks.” Relates to accessibility of goods and services to people.

• Place- noting regularities of urban areas at a variety of scales as well as what gives them a distinctive ‘sense of place.’ E.g., the feel of a place can influence our sense of safety and whether it is economically attractive.

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Practical Aspects

• Geographers have increasingly made use of quantitative methods and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to study housing trends and other urban geographical matters. One project I would encourage one of you to undertake if you have GIS skills would be to map the areas of the Arbutus Corridor where there are community gardens, the areas that have been bulldozed by CP Rail and what the wider significance of the gardens is.

• They can be and are consulted about a variety of issues – redrawing political boundaries, how to foster social and economic revitalization of distressed neighbourhoods, and how to do more ecologically and socially sensitive urban and regional planning.

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“Arbutus Gardeners Gain

Reprieve…”

This struggle reflects aspects of all four concepts – how?

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History of Urban Geography

• Different approaches have been taken over time: Towns and cities as adaptations to natural physical

conditions (e.g. rivers, oceans and harbours, resources, availability of potable water, etc.).

Spatial description of form, layout and functional patterns as partly determined by topography, availability of rivers for industry, etc.

Spatial analysis based on gathering of data to test models and hypotheses – e.g. why the rich live in certain neighbourhoods and the poor in others.

Behavioural approach that considers why people make the decisions they do and a humanistic approach that considers the meanings behind our behaviour.

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History of Urban Geography• Others include:

Structuralist approach which looks at the larger political, economic, and technological structures which drive urban change and set limits to people’s choices (also includes the political economy approach).

Feminist approach which looks at unequal gender relations and experiences in cities.

Structure-agency approach which tries to strike a balance between a ‘big picture’ structuralist approach and how people choose to respond to constraints in their lives.

Finally, a post-structuralist approach which “accepts the shifting and unstable nature of the world and concen-trates on questions of who defines meaning, how this meaning is defined, and to what end. It is concerned with understanding the power of symbolism, images, and representation as expressed in language, communication, and the urban landscape.”

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Images/ Messages

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Images/ Messages• When we see iconic images of cities, districts, and

individual buildings they speak to us, they unleash related associations. Some of these are individual to each of us, and some are conditioned by the media. Can you think of examples of each?

The same is true of the people we see in cities. We make assump-tions about them based on age, dress, behaviour, and a host of other factors. Examples?

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What is ‘Normal’?• Our notion of a normal city is conditioned by the

range of our experience, whereas if we travel to other countries we discover that cities can be something altogether different.

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What is ‘Normal’?

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Hiller: Introduction• What is “urban”? Is it what is contained within

specific municipal boundaries or is there a continuum between the urban and the rural? And what about people who live in the ‘country’ and commute to jobs in the city.

• Stats Can defines an urban community as comprising 1000 people or more; in the US it’s 2500. However, having 1000 and having a million is a huge difference. Stats Can defines Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) as having a core of at least 10,000 people. Nanaimo is a CMA.

• Municipalities are under the jurisdictions of provinces and, in recent years, provinces have – in the name of efficiency – begin to amalgamate them into super-cities like Toronto, Ottawa-Gatineau, and Montreal. This often goes against people’s historic sense of place and loyalty to smaller units.

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Are All Cities the Same?• Two definitions of urbanization:

· migration of people into and increasing densification of cities,· a way of life and mindset (even people in the countryside are exposed to urban culture, attitudes, and lifestyles), Cities are the main sites of innovation and of media.

• Louis Wirth defined urbanness in terms of population size, density, and heterogeneity, as opposed to the homogeneity of many rural or small town populations.

• Demographically, Canada is defined as being over 80% urban, ranging from 45.0% in PEI to 85.4% in BC.

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Societal Shift• Our experience of living in a city is affected

by the size of the city and by our class, race, gender, immigration, and housing status. Can you think of examples of each of these.

• Attitudes regarding cities have changed over time. In the past, cities were seen as dirty, disease-ridden, and full of crime. Nowadays, in most developed nations, cities are seen as ‘where the action is’ – as full of amenities – so much so that a lot of people have been priced out of the urban market. Cities like Vancouver and Toronto have become ‘world cities’ such that rich people from all over the world seek them out and price a lot of the original residents out of the market.

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Societal Shift• 19th century German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies

described urbanization as involving a shift from Gemeinschaft (community) to Gesellschaft (society) where interactions are more impersonal and regulated by laws, rules, and other ‘automatic’ norms. This could be thought of as a continuum. Where does Nanaimo fit on the continuum?

• Cities like Vancouver are still relatively civilized, despite their impersonality, but others are not so blessed. Have you ever experienced this?

• What I’d like to do before we go is have everyone take out a sheet of paper, divide it into four squares. Write your name on one square, your major on the second, your favourite pastime on the third, and draw images to represent where you come from without actually naming it.