Cities Urban Geography

Lecture 3
The rise and fall and rise of cities

Dr. Brian Doucet

Question:


How are cities portrayed in fiction in
Indonesia?
–
–
–

Books
Films
TV

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‟
–

City is a dangerous space, crime, decay, gritty

Why do we have cities?

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
Finance

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
population lives in cities

As Geographers, what could we
add to this definition?



Land use, division of space
Activities/functions
–



Connectivity, infrastructure
–



Residential, commercial, administrative etc.
From ancient roads to mobile phones

Relationship to hinterland, other places

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
–

Urban growth has no 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
of population growth much higher

Urbanisation Rates 1960 - 2010
The Netherlands and Indonesia
100

90

80

70
Indonesia

60

Netherlands
50

40

30

20

10

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

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Urbanisation rates 1960 - 2010
Selected European countries

Belgium

France

Germany

Netherlands

United Kingdom

1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970

1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Urbanisation rates 1960 - 2010
Selected North and South American countries

Canada

United States

Argentina

Bolivia

Brazil

Mexico

1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011

Urbanisation rates 1960 - 2010
South East Asia
100

90

80

70
Indonesia

60

Papua New Guinea
Malaysia
Philippines

50

Thailand
40

30

20

10

0
19601962196419661968197019721974197619781980198219841986198819901992199419961998200020022004200620082010

Urbanisation rates 1960 -2010
Other selected countries
90

80

70

60

South Korea

Nigeria
Turkey

50

China
India
40

Malawi

30

20

10

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

Question:




How can you explain the development of
spatial land use in Yogyakarta?
Do you see any trends or patterns?
–

i.e. zones, rings, corridors, centres?

Urban land-use models





Bid rent curve (Alonso, 1960)
Concentric zone model (Burgess, 1925)
Sectoral model (Hoyt, 1939)

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
space/commuting costs

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
urban structure

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
US cities

The Rise and Fall of Cities


19th Century: Rapid Industrialisation
–



20th Century: Escape from industrial city
–



Rapid population growth
Modernist ideas for a better urban life

Urban decline in the post-war decades

Planned Cities

19th Century Industrial population
explosion

Population growth London and New
York (1800 – 2010)

Population Growth Amsterdam and
Toronto

Source: http://sohomemory.com/tag/tours-of-soho/

Charles Booth – mapping poverty
in London


http://booth.lse.ac.uk/

20th Century Responses

Pro-urban
(centralist)
Ville
Radieuse

Garden
City

Broadacre
City

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
(„garden neighbourhoods‟)

Metroland, London

Post-war Garden Cities:
New Towns movement



Milton Keynes (near London)
East Kilbride (near Glasgow)
–



Zoetermeer (near The Hague)
–



Abercrombie Report
Bedroom community („slaapstad‟) for DH

Amsterdam: Western Garden Cities
(Westelijke tuinsteden)

Ville Radieuse (Le Corbusier)
Satellite towns
Business centre /CBD
Train station

Houses

Factories
Warehouses/distribution
Heavy industry

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
principles are applied in e.g. Parisian suburbs,
Marseille, Bijlmermeer (Amsterdam)

The Paris that could have been!

Postwar influence: Bijlmer,
Amsterdam




Egalitarian ideals
Better housing for
ordinary people
Initially very popular
–



Big flats, clean,
green space

Quickly declined

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
Broadacre City

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
Poverty

Urban resurgence?


Late 20th Century: a return to the city?
–
–
–
–
–
–

Deindustrialisation (cleaner)
Changing household preferences
Changing economic drivers
Changing land use
Changing policy ideas
End of modernism?

Population growth London and New
York (1800 – 2010)

Gentrification


„Gentrification is the most politically-loaded
word in urban geography‟ (Davidson and
Lees, 2005)

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”
(Source: Glass, (1964) London: Aspects of Change)



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.”



Source: Smith (1996) The New Urban Frontier. p.39



Brian Doucet



“An upward class transformation and the
creation of affluent space.”
Source: Doucet (2010) Rich cities with poor people: waterfront
regeneration in the Netherlands and Scotland‟



Low income resident



“Rich people move in, poor move out, rents
go up”
–

Source: (Lees, 2008)

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)
Now global phenomenon

What is Gentrification?


Social
–
–
–



Actors
–
–

–



Displacement of poor population
Class transformation (from poor to middle class)
Character/function of the neighbourhood changes

Individual households (sweat equity)
Developers/investors
Governments (urban restructuring/state strategy)

Represents upward neighbourhood change

Gentrification theories


Do people follow capital?



Or does capital follow people?

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



„Frontiers of Capital‟

Explanations: Demand Side


David Ley, Canadian
Geographer



The New Middle Class
and the Remaking of the
Central City (1996)



Changes in demand
preferences, lifestyles,
demographics causes
gentrification

What does traditional
gentrification look like?

Brownstones in New York City

Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, December 2006

Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, December 2006

Old working class housing
remade as symbols of middle
class success

Islington, North London, January 2009

Notting Hill, London

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

Advertising - Westside Lofts

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)



Lack of criticism

Faculty of Geosciences
Department of Human Geography
and Planning

Faculty of Geosciences
Department of Human Geography
and Planning

Gentrification in Indonesia??







Slum clearance?
Gated Communities?
Luxury redevelopments?
New housing?
Government led?