Lecture 3
The rise and fall and rise of cities
Question:
How are cities portrayed in fiction in
Indonesia?
– Books
– Films
New York City in fiction
Today: „Sex and the City,‟ „Friends‟ & „How I
met your mother‟
– City is a space for adventure, leisure, creativity,
consumption. A prosperous space
„Law and Order‟ & „Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles‟
Why do we have cities?
Markets for excess food production
– Better agriculture meant we didn‟t all need to be farmers! – New opportunities for commerce, production, control, trade,
thought, belief (easier to do these things when clustered together)
Defence Religion
Consumption – markets for products
Trade
Production
Government
What are cities and why are they
important?
Louis Wirth: a city is a
– relatively large,
– dense,
– and permanent settlement
– of socially heterogeneous individuals
Growing percentage of
world population
currently lives in cities
2008 – half the world‟s
As Geographers, what could we
add to this definition?
Land use, division of space
Activities/functions
– Residential, commercial, administrative etc.
Connectivity, infrastructure
– From ancient roads to mobile phones
Kingsley Davis
–
The Urbanization
of the Human Population
Why does urbanisation occur?
Rural settlements reclassified as towns? (rare)
Births exceed deaths (low-birth rates, high
mortality)
Rural to urban migration
S curve
Urbanisation has a beginning and end point
K Davis and Industrialisation
Agriculture
–
land is the prime instrument of
production
–
spread out
Non-agricultural activities: use land as a site
(of production, consumption etc)
– Cluster together (agglomerations)
– Specialisation
Developing world: similar process, but rates
0
1960 1962 1964 1966 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010
Indonesia Netherlands
0
Papua New Guinea Malaysia
Philippines Thailand
0
1960 1962 1964 1966 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010
South Korea Nigeria Turkey China India Malawi
Question:
How can you explain the development of
spatial land use in Yogyakarta?
Do you see any trends or patterns?
Urban land-use models
Bid rent curve (Alonso, 1960)
Concentric zone model (Burgess, 1925)
Bid-rent theory
W. Alonso (1960)
Central locations most
wanted
Firms/households
compete
Highest bid gets most
central location
Retail and office
generally have highest bids
Trade-off living
Concentric zone model
E.W. Burgess (1925)
Distribution of social
groups within urban areas
Correlation between
distance from CBD and wealth of
inhabited area
Based on Chicago‟s
Sectoral model
H. Hoyt (1939)
Urban expansion along
transportation arteries rather than concentric rings
Rich and poor sections of
cities are segregated
Based urban structure of 40
The Rise and Fall of Cities
19
thCentury: Rapid Industrialisation
– Rapid population growth
20
thCentury: Escape from industrial city
– Modernist ideas for a better urban life
Population growth London and New
Charles Booth
–
mapping poverty
in London
20
thCentury Responses
Anti-urban (decentralist)
Garden city (Ebenezer Howard)
Ebenezer Howard (1898)
Main principles:
– Limited in size
– Self-contained
– Much recreational space
– Range of social institutions
– Segregation of land use
– Land owned by municipality
Examples: Letchworth
(1903), Welwyn (1920)
Also applied in many new
towns and on local levels
Post-war Garden Cities:
New Towns movement
Milton Keynes (near London)
East Kilbride (near Glasgow)
– Abercrombie Report
Zoetermeer (near The Hague)
– Bedroom community („slaapstad‟) for DH
Amsterdam: Western Garden Cities
Ville Radieuse (Le Corbusier)
Satellite towns
Business centre /CBD Train station
Houses
Factories
Ville Radieuse (2)
Le Corbusier (1935)
Main principles:
– Large-scale high-rise public housing in green environment („towers in the park‟, vertical garden cities)
– Emphasis on geometrics (radial and grid patterns)
– Large industrial zones, seperation of functions (housing, working, recreation, traffic)
– Social mix, collectivism, anti-chaos (strictly regulated, hierarchical society)
Based on CIAM principles: Congres Internationaux
d‟Architecture Moderne (1928-1959)
Examples: original plan was never executed, but main
Postwar influence: Bijlmer,
Amsterdam
Egalitarian ideals
Better housing for
ordinary people
Initially very popular
– Big flats, clean,
green space
Broadacre City
Frank Llyod Wright (1932)
Main principle: solving urban
problems by radical decentralisation
Inspired by new technologies (cars, phone)
Ideological: every individual has right to his own acre; back to traditional lifestyle
American vision; hardly pursued in European planning
Edge cities (Garreau) as unplanned or incomplete versions of
So things weren’t looking so good
for cities
Post-war period
Suburbanisation
White flight
Redlining
Slum clearances
Deindustrialisation
– Job losses
Cities seen as:
– Crime
– Decay
Urban resurgence?
Late 20
thCentury: a return to the city?
– Deindustrialisation (cleaner)
– Changing household preferences
– Changing economic drivers
– Changing land use
– Changing policy ideas
Population growth London and New
Gentrification
„Gentrification is the most politically
-loaded
What is Gentrification?
Ruth Glass, London Sociologist (1964):
“One by one many of the working class quarters of
London have been invaded by the middle
class…have been taken over when their leases
expired, and have become elegant, expensive
residences…once this process of „gentrification‟
starts in a district it goes on rapidly until all or most of the working class occupiers are displaced and the
whole social character of the district is changed”
Neil Smith
, Scottish/American Geographer
“
Gentrification is no longer about a narrow and
quixotic oddity in the housing market but has
become the leading residential edge of a
much larger endeavour; the class remake of
the central urban landscape.”
Brian Doucet
“An upward class transformation and the
creation of affluent space.”
Source: Doucet (2010) Rich cities with poor people: waterfront
Low income resident
“Rich people move in, poor move out, rents
go up”
What is Gentrification?
Physical
– Upgrading/restoring of old property
– New-build luxury (later)
– Change in retail structure
Spatial
– Older inner-city neighbourhoods – proximity to
centre
– Working class districts
– Initially in global cities (London, New York)
What is Gentrification?
Social
– Displacement of poor population
– Class transformation (from poor to middle class)
– Character/function of the neighbourhood changes
Actors
– Individual households (sweat equity)
– Developers/investors
– Governments (urban restructuring/state strategy)
Gentrification theories
Do people follow capital?
Explanations:
Supply Side
Neil Smith
The New Urban Frontier:
Gentrification and the Revanchist City. (1996)
Gentrification is a back to the city movement of capital, not people
Production factors
Disinvestment in inner city
Explanations: Demand Side
David Ley, Canadian
Geographer
The New Middle Class
and the Remaking of the
Central City
(1996)
Changes in demand
Brownstones in New York City
Old working class housing
remade as symbols of middle
class success
Selling Gentrification
Urban professional lifestyle is sold to potential
consumers
Media
– TV shows: Sex and the City, Fraser, Cosby Show
– Movies: Notting Hill, Bridget Jones‟ Diary
– New York: from crime to glamour
Evolution of Gentrification
Gentrification moved beyond Ruth Glass‟
observations
– Waves of gentrification (Hackworth and Smith)
Big business (role of developers)
Role of government – municipally-led
Further away from city centre (also new-build)
Faculty of Geosciences Department of Human Geography
Faculty of Geosciences Department of Human Geography
Gentrification in Indonesia??
Slum clearance?
Gated Communities?
Luxury redevelopments?
