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The Introduction

The Introduction. Geo309 Urban Geography. Instructor: Jun Yan Geography Department SUNY at Buffalo. Outline. What’s Urban Geography? Key Issues Approaches Definition of City. So What Is Urban Geography?.

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The Introduction

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  1. The Introduction Geo309 Urban Geography Instructor: Jun Yan Geography Department SUNY at Buffalo

  2. Outline • What’s Urban Geography? • Key Issues • Approaches • Definition of City

  3. So What Is Urban Geography? • Geography in general:how areas/spaces are same or different  ‘local variability within a general context’ • So Geography studies both: • Distinctiveness • Regularity • Therefore, Urban Geography studies: • Why cities are alike and different? • Regular patterns of urban development (housing, employment, diversity...) • The social, economic, & political trends of urban vs non-urban spaces

  4. Key Concepts • Urban geographers are generally interested in space: the ‘core’ concept of geography in general • All kinds of opportunities are spreading over space: the medium • City as: • product of underlying economic, social, political forces • also the shaper of them • City as: • part of a system of cities • individual place as well

  5. Key Concepts (Cont.) • To understand a place ‘urban’, urban geographers examine the ‘territorialization’ of economic, political and cultural activities within and between cities as well as between urban and non-urban spaces. • Sense of belongings

  6. Key Concepts (Cont.) • Urban geographers also investigate the patterns of interaction/movement over space • To fulfill their personal or social needs, people have to travel over space. It takes time and resources. • working • shopping • social contacts • goods distribution • Distance: a critical factor

  7. Key Concepts (Cont.) • Urban geographers also study what makes a city or a neighborhood in a city distinct ‘place’ • variability over space • functional differentiation • spatial regularity • Not only physical or material conditions of a place but also a sense of place: in people’s mind • landmarks • symbolic signs

  8. Related Disciplines • Geography (human, physical, historical) • Economics • Sociology • Political science • History • Architecture • Psychology • Anthropology • Urban Planning • …

  9. Careers In Your Future • City & neighborhood planning • Community development • Environmental protection • Transportation • Market research • Real estate development • Historic preservation • …

  10. Approaches • Idiographic: • ‘Settlement Geography’: cities as adaptation to its physical surroundings; • ‘Urban Morphology’: urban form, functional classification; • highly descriptive • site and situation of the city, mostly fieldworks • Positivism: • scientific methods – ‘Quantitative Revolution’, ‘Geographic/Spatial Science’ • hypothesis testing and model building – abstraction • Ignore the underlying process that shapes cities: how and why?

  11. Approaches (Cont.) • Behavioralism: • meaning– ‘social psychology’ • human activities and decision making • individual level • Political Economy • Influence of Marxism • macro level, aggregate and collective effects of group behavior • integration of macroeconomics, social theory, political science: availability of capitals, skilled labor, and the levels of government regulation

  12. So What Is City? • Very vague: • more populated (legally, minimum population) • urban lifestyle • more opportunities • highly specialized land uses • distinctive architectures • way beyond political city limit Definition: a city can be generally described as a concentration of people with a distinctive way of life in terms of employment patterns and life style.

  13. Influence of Cities

  14. So What Is City? • Metropolitan: • Defined by census bureau, since 1950 • county as building unit • Central city: total population > 50,000 and density >=1,000/sqr. Mile  Urbanized Area • Surrounding areas are economically and socially connected to the central city: commuting patterns

  15. Metropolitan Area • Metropolitan Statistics Area (MSA): 1983 • Primary Metropolitan Statistics Area (PMSA) • Consolidate Metropolitan Statistics Area (CMSA): at least 1,000,000 people, > 2 PMSAs

  16. Metropolitan Area

  17. Daily Commuting Field

  18. Population Density

  19. Blackout!

  20. Metropolitan Area

  21. US Census Unit • Census Bureau: • http://www.census.gov/ • Census Units: Hierarchical • Census tracts: uniform in terms of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics; usually fixed over time • Census block groups: smallest with detailed data • Census block: smallest unit with census data (basic population and housing data)

  22. US Census Unit

  23. US Census Unit

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