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Chapter 15

Chapter 15. Urban Life. Colonial Villages: 1565-1800. The period of 1565-1800 was one of tiny villages Small in size with no more than a few hundred residents at first Walking villages-mostly pedestrian traffic People knew one another These early settlements grew slowly.

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Chapter 15

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  1. Chapter 15 Urban Life

  2. Colonial Villages: 1565-1800 • The period of 1565-1800 was one of tiny villages • Small in size with no more than a few hundred residents at first • Walking villages-mostly pedestrian traffic • People knew one another • These early settlements grew slowly

  3. Westward Expansion: 1800-1860 • Westward migration • Followed new transportation routes • National Road • By 1860 about 20% of the population was living in cities

  4. The Industrial Metropolis: 1860-1950 • Civil war and industrial and urban expansion • Industrial metropolis • Cities grew in population • Expanded outwards around the development of new urban forms of transportation

  5. The Industrial Metropolis: 1860-1950 • Immigration and Anti-Urban Bias • Cities were synonymous with immigrants • Ethnic prejudice and the anti-urban bias • Cities were synonymous with social problems • Early part of the twentieth century urban living was very difficult

  6. Postindustrial Cities and Suburbs: 1950-Present • Post WW II and migration to the suburbs • Suburbs-urban areas beyond the political boundaries of cities • Postindustrial developments-information technology made possible the economic development of the suburbs • Decentralizing population from the central cities

  7. Fiscal Problems • Movement of populations and industry from the central city led to some fiscal problems in the 1970’s • Corporate mergers and downsizing and loss of jobs in the city • Poor were left behind along with an increase in demand for city services

  8. Fiscal Problems • The postindustrial Revival • Postindustrial economic growth and the revitalization of cities • Immigrants and population growth

  9. Urban Sprawl • Cities and outward expansion • Government policies • Interstate highways • Low cost housing • The emergence of the megalopolis-urban region containing a number of cities and their surrounding suburbs

  10. Urban Sprawl • Urban sprawl-rapid,unplanned, and low-density development at the edge of urban areas • Urban sprawl • The numbness of urban sameness • Consumption of land • Auto-gridlock and pollution

  11. Urban Sprawl • Edge Cities – business centers located some distance from the old downtowns • Mostly commercial developments • Most major cities contain several edge cities • Urban decentralization has increased the plight of the poor • Loss of city jobs to edge cities

  12. Poverty • Migration of city jobs to the suburbs and elsewhere and the concentration of poverty in cities • Disadvantaged minorities • Lack of economic opportunities

  13. Housing Problem • The Horror of the Tenements • Immigrants and tenement housing in the early part of the twentieth century • Poorly constructed • Crowded living conditions • The 1930’s and the New Deal saw improvement in housing

  14. Housing Problem • Inner-City Decline • Post WW II and the migration of city dwellers to the suburbs • Decline of the city • Govt., passed the Urban Housing Act of 1949 • Urban Renewal an attempt to revitalize urban areas • Urban renewal and the regeneration of slums

  15. Housing Problem • Public Housing • Urban renewal and the emergence of public housing • Public Housing-typically high density apartment buildings, constructed with government funds to house poor people

  16. Housing Problem • Public Housing • Concerns and Criticisms of public housing • Liberals saw it as a band aid approach to the housing problem • Conservatives objected to government getting into the housing business and interfering with free-enterprise • Poor objected to the cultural stigma associated

  17. Housing Problem • Oscar Newman’s study • High-rise buildings and higher crime rates • Most crimes occurred in public parts of the buildings • Reason • -High-rise living breeds anonymity

  18. Racial Segregation • Race, poverty and residential segregation • Hypersegregation-entire districts of a city racially segregated • Minority/poor urbanites are • -Spatially isolated • -Socially isolated

  19. Homelessness • Approximately 500,000 people are homeless on any given day • Largely an urban problem • Poverty puts people at risk of becoming homeless • Family conflict and becoming homeless • Decline in affordable rental/housing units

  20. Homelessness • Solution to homelessness • Supportive housing-program that combines low-income housing with on-site social services • Build more low-income units

  21. Snowbelt and Sunbelt Cities • Population transfer from snowbelt cities to the sunbelt • Change in political influence and power from snowbelt to sunbelt

  22. Cities in Poor Countries • About 75% of the population of rich nations live in cities • About 25% of the population in poor countries live in cities • Urban population is increasing globally • -Rural to urban migration and the emergence of shantytowns

  23. Structural-Functional Analysis: A Theory of Urbanism • Ferdinand Tonnies: Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft • Gemeinschaft-type of social organization by which people are closely bound by kinship and tradition • -Rural villages • Gesellschaft-type of social organization by which people interact on the basis of self interest • -urban communities

  24. Structural-Functional Analysis: A Theory of Urbanism • Emile Durkheim: Mechanical and Organic Solidarity • Mechanical solidarity-social bonds based on common feelings and shared moral values • -Rural villages • Organic solidarity-social bonds based on specialization and mutual interdependence • -Urban communities

  25. Structural-Functional Analysis: A Theory of Urbanism • Louis Wirth: Urbanism as a Way of Life • Urban life shaped by large dense, and socially diverse populations • Increase in secondary ties and encounters

  26. Symbolic- Interaction Analysis: Experiencing the City • George Simmel: Urban Stimulation and Selectivity • Urbanites and a blasé attitude • Blasé attitude of survival do to over stimulation • Leo Srole: Mental Health in the Metropolis • Studied urban life and mental health

  27. Social-Conflict Analysis: Cities and Inequality • Urban Political Economy • Economic and political structure of the of the society shape the city • David Harvey’s study of Baltimore

  28. Conservatives: The Market and Morality • Market economy should shape the city • Conservatives support creating • -Enterprise zones- inner city where government tries to attract new business with the promise of tax relief

  29. Liberals: Government Reform • Problems of cities stem from social inequality • Liberals favor government intervention into solving the problems

  30. Radicals: The Need for Fundamental Change • Problems of the city are function of inequality,class, race, and gender • Solutions to the problems of the city would require a major overhaul of society and the economic and political order

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