Chapter Summary
The first chapter of Knox and McCarthy’s book Urbanization provides an overview of the study of urban geography as well as explaining the reasoning and necessity for studying the changing landscape of cities. It also describes the many different ways in which to approach the study of urban geography.
Urban geography first began to be studied in the 1950s, when urban geographers mainly studied the physical geography of the cities, known as the spatial description approach. This mainly concentrated on the physical attributes of a city and scientists theorized that the manner in which the city developed was a direct result of the topography of the land. This theory was gradually discarded in favor of the behavioral approach developed during the 1970s. This meant that urban geographers concentrated on the individual reasons behind movements into or out of cities. This could be because of a drop in real estate prices, thus making homes more affordable, or more jobs becoming available in the cities. Finally, in the late 1970s to the early 1980s, a new approach was conceived, called the structuralist approach. This approach shows how changed in urbanization can affect different classes of people and therefore how different constraints or opportunities will be available for people. Furthermore, the structuralist approach was the first to realize that the study of urban geography must be looked at in various other contexts, such as macroeconomic theory, social theory, and the effects of the current political atmosphere.
This chapter also demonstrates how greatly economics affect urbanization. During the late 18th to early 19th centuries, the economy was in a stage known as competitive capitalism. People had a great deal of freedom, business-wise, and laissez-faire was the main economic theory and people took advantage of the free enterprise system.
Following this stage came organized capitalism, as new and more efficient ways to run factories were discovered. The catalyst for this movement was Henry Ford’s invention of the assembly line, and thus the theory of mass production was discovered. Following this period of time was the Great Depression, and the government began to play a larger role in the economy, a much more regulatory role. Currently, the economy is in a stage of disorganized capitalism and has been since after World War II. This means that there has been a great deal of deindustrialization, meaning that there is just as much, if not more, manufacturing occuring, but there are significantly less jobs in the manufacturing industry.
Kondratiev and Kuznets cycles are two important keys to understanding how economics changes and shapes urbanization. Kondratiev cycles, also known as long waves, show the cyclical nature of the expansions and contractions of economic development. I believe that this is mainly as a result of overproduction and thus surpluses in the market, and then subsequently not enough production and shortages in the market. They are further influenced by technological, societal, political and many other types of changes. These cycles usually last about 50-60 years and are marked by a progressive increase in prices then a sudden, spiraling decline. Simultaneously occuring with the Kondratiev waves are the Kuznets cycle which is a cycle of regular changes in economic growth. These cycles generally take about 40 years to complete and are important to urban geographers because it is generally during times of economic growth that urban areas change the most dramatically.
Key Concepts
- Difference between space, territoriality, distance and place
- Kondratiev and Kuznets Cycles
- Approaches to urban geography- spatial analysis, behavioral, humanistic, structuralist
- Processes and outcomes of urbanization- (and how economics are the root of these changes and consequences)
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