Urban Geography: An Overview

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Urban Geography An Overview

• August 24, 2001

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Key question

• Are social, cultural and economic differences
  between cities declining as a result of
  globalization?

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Urban Geography

• Forces of change, both global and local
• Processes of urban growth, change and decline
• Outcomes for urban systems, places, and culture

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Global Trigger Factors

• Economy
• Competitive capitalism (1500s-1800s)
• Organized/Fordist/Monopoly capitalism
  (1900-1950/60)
• Informational/Knowledge capitalism (1970s-??)
• Technology
• Irrigation, wheel, steam engine, electricity,
  telecommunications, others?

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Global Trigger Factors-2

• Demography
• Population growth/decline
• Health
• Movements of people
• Politics and political ideology
• Planning, intervention, market
• Society
• Family planning
• Segregation (race, class, disability, other)
• Gender

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Global Trigger Factors-3

• Culture
• Starbucks society
• Yuppies, Dinks, Marbles
• McDonalds-ization of the world
• Cultural commodification
• Environment
• Global climate change
• Natural Resources
• Vulnerabilities

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Globalization

• Economic, political, cultural integration
• Not newprocesses since late 1500s
• Time-space compressionreal-time connection
• Uneven processes

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Localization

• Locally serving industries growing
• Information industries rooted in place
• Globalization processes rooted in local places
• Local and historical contingency
• Marginalized communities growing

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Processes of Urban Change

• Urbanization
• Suburbanization/exurbanization
• Counterurbanization
• Reurbanization
• Peripheral urbanization/exo-urbanization

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Urban Outcomes

• Urban Systemslocal, regional, national, global
  connections
• Urban placessocio-spatial construction
• Urbanismculture, lifestyles, sense of place