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  • Polity Press 2013

    This file should be used solely for the purpose of review and must not be otherwise stored,

    duplicated, copied or sold

    CHAPTER COMMENTARY

    This chapter opens with a consideration of eighteenth-century Paris, and three modern-day

    global cities: London, New York and Tokyo, using these to prompt the question of what the

    urban experience is like, how it is changing, and how is it differentiated across the world. In

    the twentieth century observers began to distinguish between towns and cities, the latter

    being more cosmopolitan and international, often as a result of cross-national migration to

    new cities like Chicago. From the start, attitudes to cities have been polarized, with

    assessments ranging from civilized virtue to smoking inferno. Such views found

    expression in novels and poetry, much of which focused on the extreme inequalities of

    urban settings.

    From here, the chapter moves on to outline and compare theories of urbanism. Beginning

    with the basic ideas of Weber and Tnnies, introducing Simmels Metropolis and Mental Life

    as a Classic Study. We then move on to a full account of the Chicago School urban research,

    from which two themes are outlined: the urban ecology approach and urbanism as a way

    of life. The ecological approach uses a metaphor adapted from physical science: cities were

    organisms which responded to their environmental conditions, a view supported empirically

    by the tendency for cities to grow beside sources of water, fertile land or transport

    networks. Similarly, within cities themselves there is a natural balance between competing

    groups, who often become spatially segregated. The analogy of species in a lake is used to

    support this idea.

    Urban ecology is associated with the image of a city of concentric rings with the inner city at

    its core. Beyond this decaying core the rings are cut into segments which are competed for

    by different population subgroups. Hawley later revived this approach by stressing

    interdependence between areas rather than the continual competition for scarce resources.

    Businesses in the core service the populations of other areas; those populations in turn

    provide a labour force. The perspective overall has made enormous contributions, but most

    Chicago School work draws very heavily on the US experience and tends to disregard the

    importance of interventionist planning and design in the process of urban evolution.

    Wirths concept of the urban way of life (presented here as a Classic Study) stresses the

    overall effect of the city on social life and in particular the paradox of proximity and

    anonymity. In other words, the existence of greater opportunity for social interaction leads

    to greater superficiality and instrumentality in those meetings. Again, Wirth was largely

    working from the experience of American cities and is thought, even by his close

  • Cities and Urban Life

    44

    contemporaries, to have overplayed the impersonal nature of the urban. Theorists like Gans

    and Krupat have offered alternative accounts.

    Recent theories of urbanism, influenced by Marx, stress the need to analyse the wider

    economic and political changes which impact upon cities. Harvey sees urbanism as one

    aspect of the created environment brought about by industrial capitalism. Supply and

    demand operate to alter the commodity price of land. There is an ongoing restructuring of

    space which is shaped by industrial location, regulation of planning decisions and individual

    choices about housing moves, etc. David Harvey has highlighted social inequalities inherent

    in this, which he calls uneven spatial development.

    Another recent theory suggested by Stephen Graham argues that techniques and

    technologies which were designed for war zones have crossed over into civilian applications

    in urban environments, which he calls new military urbanism. Cities have become key sites

    for terrorist aggression, and governments have adopted military-style surveillance

    techniques of monitoring.

    Patterns of suburbanization have been facilitated by tax breaks and broader economic

    change. Castells also stresses the importance of spatial form in expressing underlying social

    struggle. Skyscrapers represent the dominance of moneys role in the city. A city is not just a

    location but is the expression of a process of collective consumption. This process, affected

    by both government and the market, helps produce a distinctive created environment.

    While such ideas move away from the biological analogies of Chicago, they also

    complement them. The text uses Logan and Molotchs work as a way of integrating the two.

    The emphasis here is on the ways in which broad economic forces are mediated by

    distinctive local social systems, often leading to conflicts between the interests of business

    and residents.

    The text then traces the development of cities from the ancient walled cities of Rome to

    more modern forms that have emerged via the process of urbanization that has led to the

    huge cities we know today as conurbations. The cutting edge of urban life today is the

    megalopolis as first represented by the north-east seaboard of the United States. Britain

    was the pioneer urbanizer, but latecomers outstripped even that pace of change.

    Urbanization is now a global phenomenon as Figure 6.1 on page 220 illustrates, a trend

    likely to become even more marked in the future.

    Post-war urban changes in the USA and the UK are examined. Key themes in the

    development of the USA have been suburbanization, inner city decay and ethnic conflict.

    Suburbs have attracted white middle-class families seeking more space, lower taxes, less

    pollution and (initially) racially segregated schools. As a direct result, inner city areas

    suffered as the tax base declined, the physical environment deteriorated and burdens on

    welfare spending grew. In some areas this cycle of deterioration has been as bad as

    anywhere in the developed world. Examples of urban unrest in many of the worlds larger

    cities are included and these are seen as extreme examples of urban problems. Key factors

    are poverty, ethnic hostilities and crime and insecurity caused by all three. Nonetheless,

    despite such a grim portrait, attention is given to positive responses to such problems, such

    as that contained in the Faith in the City report (1985) in the UK

    Also covered here is the fiscal and political background to urban decline as well as policies of

    urban renewal. All the major landmarks of centrallocal relations are here local

    government reorganization, the introduction of capping and budget crises. Also included is

  • Cities and Urban Life

    45

    an analysis of housing privatization and the subsequent slump in house prices. The material

    includes a case study of the redevelopment of London Docklands, a famous example of

    urban recycling. This is often a key aim of the planning process but is frequently the

    outcome of selective gentrification of inner-city areas.

    It is the developing world where major urban growth will take place in the twenty-first

    century the so-called megacities and the text includes a case study of Mumbai to illustrate

    the emerging economic, environmental and social challenges associated with such rapid

    growth. These are sketched in with reference to other developing countries. The text then

    turns to the emergence of urban centres which have become hubs for the global economy,

    what Sassen terms global cities. This globalizing process is exacerbating the tensions that

    always exist between cities and their surrounding areas.

    The recent infrastructural turn in urban studies has also drawn attention to the enormously

    complex networks on which cities depend. Rather than giving up on cities altogether, as

    some radical environmentalists have argued, there is a growing interest in modifying and

    transforming them into eco-cities or sustainable cities which aim to minimize its inputs of

    energy and resources and to reduce its outputs of pollutants and waste products.

    The final section highlights the ongoing importance of the city as a political unit even under

    conditions of globalization. At least three functions are likely to be important. Firstly, cities

    are responsible for managing the urban habitat; second. they deal with problems of cultural

    integration presented in their cosmopolitan populations; and third, they provide venues for

    political representation and management. The London 2012 Olympics is given as an example

    of cultural projects used for tackling urban decline. The consequent importance of the role

    of city mayors is discussed and this positive tone marks the end of the chapter.

  • Cities and Urban Life

    46

    TEACHING TOPICS

    1. Representations of the city

    This topic aims to isolate the main processes and features of the modern city. There is also

    an attempt to examine the varying attitudes towards urban living which have accompanied

    its development.

    2. The Chicago School

    The aim here is to place key writers in historical and geographical context. Another key goal

    is to demonstrate the continuity between the Chicago School and contemporary urban

    sociology.

    3. Urban growth and urban decline

    This topic stresses the immense contrast between the relative decline in urban living in the

    West and the continuing mushrooming of cities in the developing world. The focus is on

    corrective policies in the West and on population issues in the developing world.

    4. Governing cities

    Here the emphasis is on the role of cities as active agents of socio-economic activity, and

    the recognition of the emergence of a number of tiers of global cities as described by Sassen

    and by Castells. In particular this topic examines the concept of the city as an engine of

    regeneration and a site of cultural experience.

    ACTIVITIES

    Activity 1: Representations of the city

    A. Read pages 206-8 on the ideas of Weber, Tnnies and Simmel. Look for the similarities in

    their views of urban life. Which, if any, seems to be more positive about the possibilities of

    urban living? Why?

    B. Read the two passages below. The first is an account of nineteenth-century English

    urbanization. The second relates Ebeneezer Howards later enthusiasm for a different kind

    of pattern.

    Night spread over the coal-town: its prevailing colour was black. Black clouds of

    smoke rolled out of the factory chimneys, and the railroad yards, which often cut

    clean into the town, mangling the very organism, spread soot and cinders

    everywhere. The invention of artificial illuminating gas was an indispensable aid to

    this spread: Murdocks invention dates back to the end of the eighteenth century,

    and during the next generation its use widened, first in factories, then in homes;

    first in big cities, later in small centres; for without its aid work would frequently

    have been stopped by smoke and fog. The manufacture of illuminating gas within

    the confines of the towns became a characteristic feature: the huge gas tanks

    reared their bulk over the urban landscape, great structures, on the scale of a

  • Cities and Urban Life

    47

    cathedral: indeed, their tracery of iron, against an occasional clear lemon-green sky

    at sunrise, was one of the most pleasant aesthetic elements in the new order.

    Such structures were not necessarily evil; indeed, with sufficient care in their

    segregation they might have been comely. What was atrocious was the fact that,

    like every other building in the new towns, they were dumped almost at random;

    the leakage of escaping gas scented the so-called gas-house districts, and not

    surprisingly these districts frequently became among the most degraded sections of

    the city. Towering above the town, polluting its air, the gas tanks symbolized the

    dominance of practical interests over life-needs.

    (Louis Mumford, The City in History, London: Pelican, 1966, p. 536)

    Howards alternative antidote to the horrors of the overcrowded city was a

    commonwealth along the lines of Thomas Mores Utopia: the population evenly

    distributed among a number of manageable towns, containing well-built houses

    and attractive gardens, and surrounded with a green belt of countryside. As with

    Ledouxs plans for Chauz, the towns circular in shape were to incorporate and

    harmonize the residential and the industrial. There was to be a strict limit on the

    size of the garden city Howard suggested 32,000 people. As the first city reached

    its specified limit, another would be started a short distance away. Thus, over time,

    a vast planned network of garden cities would spread over the country, each

    connected to the others by an Inter-Municipal Railway. Howard called this vision

    Social City

    Howards cities were to be co-operative commonwealths, superseding capitalism.

    The basic tenet was to eliminate the private landlord by transferring the ownership

    of land to the community; rents would finance roads, hospitals, libraries and

    schools, rather than lining the pockets of rich men. Howard also advocated gas and

    water socialism, that is, utilities provided by the town on a non-profit basis. He

    originally called his scheme new Jerusalem, and considered the names Rurisville

    and Unionville (all very American-sounding), but finally settled on Garden City since

    it was pictorially evocative while politically neutral. Howard then set forth to

    preach the Gospel of the Garden City, under the title The Ideal City Made

    Practicable, A Lecture Illustrated With Lantern Slides.

    (Pamela Neville-Sington and David Sington, Paradise Dreamed: How Utopian

    Thinkers Have Changed the World, London: Bloomsbury, 1993, pp. 723)

    1. As you compare the two passages, make a list of the contrasts between the two models

    of urban growth.

    2. Think about an urban centre with which you are familiar. It may be your home town, the

    location of your educational institution or simply one you know well. Consider it in

    relation to the above models and then write a short account of its distinguishing

    features. Evaluate your feelings towards the place.

    Activity 2: The Chicago School

    Read the sections of the text which apply (starting on page 208) and then study these

    extracts from two of the Chicago Schools key figures, Robert Park and Louis Wirth:

  • Cities and Urban Life

    48

    Not only transportation and communication, but the segregation of the urban

    population tends to facilitate the mobility of the individual man. The processes of

    segregation establish moral distances which make the city a mosaic of little worlds

    which touch but do not interpenetrate. This makes it possible for individuals to pass

    quickly and easily from one moral milieu to another, and encourages the fascinating

    but dangerous experiment of living at the same time in several different

    contiguous, but otherwise widely separated, worlds. All this tends to give to city life

    a superficial and adventitious character; it tends to complicate social relationships

    and to produce new and divergent individual types. It introduces, at the same time,

    an element of chance and adventure which adds to the stimulus of city life and

    gives it, for young and fresh nerves, a peculiar attractiveness. The lure of great cities

    is perhaps a consequence of stimulations which act directly upon the reflexes. As a

    type of human behaviour it may be explained, like the attraction of the flame for

    the moth, as a sort of tropism.

    The attraction of the metropolis is due in part, however, to the fact that in the long

    run every individual finds somewhere among the varied manifestations of city life

    the sort of environment in which he expands and feels at ease; finds, in short, the

    moral climate in which his peculiar nature obtains the stimulations that bring his

    innate dispositions to full and free expression. It is, I suspect, motives of this kind

    which have their basis, not in interest nor even in sentiment, but in something

    more fundamental and primitive which draw many, if not most, of the young men

    and young women from the security of their homes in the country into the big,

    booming confusion and excitement of city life. In a small community it is the normal

    man, the man without eccentricity or genius, who seems most likely to succeed.

    The small community often tolerates eccentricity. The city, on the contrary,

    rewards it. Neither the criminal, the defective, nor the genius has the same

    opportunity to develop his innate disposition in a small town that he invariably

    finds in a great city.

    (Robert Park, Suggestions for the investigation of human behaviour in the urban

    environment, in Robert Park and Ernest Burgess, The City, Chicago: University of

    Chicago Press, 196, pp. 401)

    While urbanism, or that complex of traits which makes up the characteristic mode

    of life in cities, and urbanization, which denotes the development and extensions of

    these factors, are thus not exclusively found in settlements which are cities in the

    physical and demographic sense, they do, nevertheless, find their most pronounced

    expression in such areas, especially in metropolitan cities. In formulating a

    definition of the city it is necessary to exercise caution in order to avoid identifying

    urbanism as a way of life with any specific locally or historically conditioned cultural

    influences which, though they may significantly affect the specific character of the

    community, are not the essential determinants of its character as a city.

    It is particularly important to call attention to the danger of confusing urbanism

    with industrialism and modern capitalism. The rise of cities in the modern world is

    undoubtedly not independent of the emergence of modern power-driven machine

    technology, mass production, and capitalistic enterprise; but different as the cities

  • Cities and Urban Life

    49

    of earlier epochs may have been by virtue of their development in a preindustrial

    and precapitalistic order from the great cities of today, they were also cities.

    For sociological purposes a city may be defined as a relatively large, dense, and

    permanent settlement of socially heterogeneous individuals. On the basis of the

    postulates which this minimal definition suggests, a theory of urbanism may be

    formulated in the light of existing knowledge concerning social groups...

    (Louis Wirth, Urbanism as a way of life, in On Cities and Social Life, Chicago:

    University of Chicago Press, 1964, p. 66)

    1. Visit an estate agent and compare the prices and locations of different types of property.

    Consider the way the relative merits of the urban and the rural are presented in

    descriptions of location. Try and relate these to sociological ideas about the nature of

    urbanism.

    2. Take a walk or a drive around a nearby town or city. Try to visit different types of areas

    and make notes on the types of housing you see, the attractiveness of the physical

    environment and the general vibes you get from the place. What makes different areas

    different from one another, and are they both equally urban?

    Activity 3: Urban growth and urban decline

    A. Read pages 219-27 of the text.

    1. Make a list of the key trends that have affected cities in the West in the last few decades.

    2. Focus now on the idea of urban renewal. What do you think are the main barriers

    preventing repopulation of inner areas?

    3. Look particularly at the subsection Gentrification and urban recycling (page 225). How is

    it that urban inequality can actually be dangerous?

    B. Read pages 227-32, Urbanization in the developing world, and also the Global Society

    Box 6.1 (pages 229-30) on Mumbai. Make notes on the contrasts between the megacities in

    developing countries and the way London, New York and Tokyo are portrayed in the

    opening paragraphs of the chapter.

    C. Now read the sections on pages 236-8. List the ways in which space can act as a thinking

    board for broader social changes relating to living more sustainably.

    Activity 4: Governing cities

    Read pages 238-40 of the text.

    A. Study this passage from a Fabian Society pamphlet making the case for elected mayors:

    Localities today compete with each other for resources, inward investment and,

    indeed, citizens. Whether its Birmingham and London competing for Millennium

    lottery monies in Britain, or Liverpool and Valencia competing to build the Ford

    Escorts in Europe, or increasingly Tokyo and Derbyshire competing to produce TVs

    in the global economy, competition has become a key task for government at the

    local level. Thats a change from the pre-Thatcher era and its a change we have to

  • Cities and Urban Life

    50

    recognise as we reconstruct our local institutions. It demands a capacity in local

    government to act as a voice for the community, promoting the locality and arguing

    the case for inward investment and public resources.

    [W]e acknowledge that public ownership is not essential to the pursuit of the

    public interest. Translating this to the local level, we know that local authorities,

    acting alone, cannot achieve progress in tackling many difficult public policy

    problems. We need a range of players and agencies to act together to achieve

    change. The police alone cannot reduce crime, the local authority alone cannot

    create jobs, and the public sector by itself cannot reduce pollution. It is by local

    authorities acting in partnership with other stakeholders that change can be

    effected. Local councils working with the private sector, TECs [Training and

    Enterprise Councils] and education institutions to create jobs; the police working

    with local communities and public bodies in Health and Education to tackle crime

    and so on.

    So interest in the elected mayor springs entirely from our view that local

    government is changing and must change further if it is to play a vibrant role in a

    pluralist democracy,

    (M. Hodge, S. Leach and G. Stoker, More than the flower show: elected mayors and

    democracy, Fabian Society Discussion Paper 32, 1997, pp. 23)

    1. See if you can find examples in the passage of the three realms described in the text.

    Which seems the most significant in your view?

    2. How convinced are you that cities need mayors in order to be influential agents? Can

    you think of examples that lend support to that notion? How many mayors of European

    cities can you name?

    B. Study this passage from Logan and Molotchs analysis of the activity of urban politics:

    For those who count, the city is a growth machine, one that can increase aggregate

    rents and trap related wealth for those in the right position to benefit

    Cities are in a position to affect the factors of production that are widely believed

    to channel the capital investments that drive local growth. They can, for example,

    lower access costs of raw materials and markets through the creation of shipping

    ports and airfields Localities can decrease corporate over-head costs through

    sympathetic policies on pollution abatement, employee health standards and taxes

    Perhaps most important of all, local publics should favour growth and support the

    ideology of value-free development. This public attitude reassures investors that

    the concrete enticements of a locality will be upheld by future politicians. The

    challenge is to connect civic pride to the growth goal, tying the presumed economic

    and social benefits of growth in general to growth in the local area. Probably only

    partly aware of this, elites generate and sustain the place patriotism of the masses.

    According to Boorstin, the competition among cities helped create the booster

    spirit as much as the booster spirit helped create the cities.

  • Cities and Urban Life

    51

    (John Logan and Harvey Molotch, Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place,

    California: University of California Press, 1987, pp. 5062)

    1. Do some background research into a locality of your choice. Try and get hold of samples

    of its promotional material. What examples can you find of the boosterism referred to

    above?

    2. Do you think judgements about places actually make much difference to the pattern of

    social life? Can you think of examples from your own experience where they have?

    DISCUSSION & REFLECTION QUESTIONS

    Representations of the city

    Would life really be more pleasant if we gave up on the concept of urban life?

    How do ideas about and attitudes to urban life affect the shaping of social space?

    Does the countryside really exist now that societies are so highly urbanized?

    The Chicago School

    Is it useful to think in terms of places being more or less urban than others?

    Can you see traces of Chicago School thinking in urban sociology today?

    What do you understand by the term created environment?

    Urban decline and urban growth

    Should the developing countries stop urbanizing because of the terrible conditions of

    overcrowding?

    Is inner city decline largely a case of place problems or people problems?

    Why is Los Angeles such a dangerous and divided city?

    Managing cities

    Does locality matter in a world of globalized social relationships?

    Why do groups come into conflict over the use of space in cities?

    What do you think are the most important elements for successful urban

    management?

    ESSAY QUESTIONS

    1. Is the urban a place or a way of being?

    2. Assess the contemporary relevance of the Chicago School for an understanding of the

    urban condition.

    3. Compare the relative fortunes of urban centres in the First and the Third World since the

    1960s.

    4. Discuss the view that places have become little more than commodities to be sold to the

    highest bidder.

  • Cities and Urban Life

    52

    MAKING CONNECTIONS

    Representations of the city

    Images of and attitudes towards cities can be gauged with further reference to theories of

    globalization in Chapter 4. The impact of urban life on the environment is tackled in Chapter

    5 and the importance and power of visual representations can be further appreciated after

    some study of media influence (Chapter 18).

    The Chicago School

    The emphasis on the fate of the individual in an urban environment leads to obvious

    parallels with the interactionist paradigm and the structuring of space and time, both the

    subject of Chapter 8. The Chicago School has also come to stand for a particular tradition of

    fieldwork and could therefore be used as an illustration in relation to Chapter 2.

    Urban growth and urban decline

    The experience of the poor and homeless of both developed and developing countries can

    be used to link into the chapters on poverty and global inequality (Chapters 13 and 14). The

    general problems of the contemporary city also feature in the context of environmental

    risks in Chapter 5.

    The importance of place

    Once again the idea of spacetime as constitutive ties this topic back to Chapter 8; it also

    raises important questions about the role of localities in political and economic decision-

    making. One might want to consider especially the debates about political and social

    movements discussed in Chapter 22.

    SAMPLE SESSION

    Governing cities

    Aims: To demonstrate the strategies and techniques employed in the marketing of cities.

    Outcome: By the end of the session students will be able to:

    1. Articulate reasons for the practice of place marketing.

    2. Apply many of the techniques to a specific example.

    3. Locate their own decisions about location and migration within the debates about

    place.

    Preparatory tasks

    Students will divide into two groups and each group will be given a place (a city or a region

    is best) to sell. The groups should read thoroughly the boxed inset about the staging of the

    2012 Olympic Games in London (pages 241-2). In addition, they should access background

    information and publicity material from the cities that competed to host the 2012

    Olympics. They should then research and prepare material for presentations: one group

    taking the role of the organizing committee reassuring London taxpayers of the benefits

  • Cities and Urban Life

    53

    the Games will bring; the other adopting the identity of a pressure group concerned at the

    adverse effects the preparation for the games will have on the community in their part of

    East London.

    Classroom tasks

    1. Two individuals will be chosen to form a panel along with the tutor. Each group will

    then in turn deliver a presentation in which they deliver their case. Multimedia may be

    used if resources and setting are appropriate. Each group will face questions from the

    panel. (25 minutes each)

    2. Tutor will sum up and panel will deliver its judgement on which presentation was the

    most convincing. (510 minutes)

    Assessment task

    Construct a portfolio of work containing:

    (a) a draft copy of a press release, summarizing the core elements of your argument;

    (b) a critical commentary on the issues raised and conflicts experienced during the

    preparation of your presentation.