Suburbia

An International Assessment

Donald N. Rothblatt, Daniel J. Garr

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9780367772567
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000383669
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Geography
• Index: Geography

Originally published in 1986, and drawing on material from the USA, The Netherlands and Israel, this book addresses the question of whether suburban environments enhance the quality of life and which factors influence this quality. It examines whether suburbs really provide improved housing and community services compared to the central city and whether they foster rewarding social patterns and psychological well-being. It also analyses precisely what characteristics suburban areas offer and how congruent these characteristics are with the preferences of suburban residents.

CHAPTER 1

Suburbia in the Industrialized World: Metropolitan Decentralization Since 1945

Throughout human evolution we have developed an adaptive huddling quality, a need to be near others, at first tentative and cyclical, and then gradually permanent in character. From the first cave dwellings and simple hamlets, to the splendor of capitals of vast empires, to the rapid dynamics of industrial centers, close physical proximity was essential for not only collective survival and social and spiritual needs, but for the efficient production, distribution and consumption of the ever changing goods and services desired by an expanding urban society.¹

Yet, Lewis Mumford points out that patterns of population dispersion in the form of ‘the suburb becomes visible almost as early as the city itself’.² Indeed, evidences of suburban development have even been discovered outside the walls of ancient Mesopotamian cities, such as Ur.³ But suburban environments - essentially outlying residential areas adjacent to and usually dependent on the central city - were available primarily for the very privileged throughout most of urban history.⁴

A. Early Suburban Development in the Industrialized World

It was not until the second half of the 19th century that suburbia even became a model of the good life for the average household as an alternative to the evils of the industrial city. This phenomenon was made possible by transportation innovations, such as the establishment of commuter trains and streetcar lines, which opened many new sites for development beyond the city limits. An economic imperative was supplied by the emerging middle classes of industrial countries with their desires to find their own healthful and peaceful environments in the hinterland.⁵ Indeed, suburban and new town conceptualizations became the cornerstone of Anglo-American planning ideology - an ideology still with us today in much of the industrialized world, and one which has generated the image of a pastoral garden city with safe residential environments suitable for families with children.⁶

The outward movement of the central, city population to the suburbs in the most industrialized countries was further reinforced with the advent of automobile usage during the 1920s and 1930s which opened up still larger areas for suburban development for middle income families. By the end of the 1930s, metropolitan areas - central cities tied to a ring of expanding suburban communities - were an established and growing phenomenon in advanced nations. By 1940 the United States had become primarily metropolitan, with 51.1 percent (67 million) of its national population living in 147 metropolitan areas⁷ while England had about 40 percent of its national population in its six major conurbations.⁸ As Lewis Mumford observed:

By the middle of the twentieth ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgments
• Dedication
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. Suburbia in the Industrialized World: Metropolitan Decentralization Since 1945
• Chapter 2. Suburban Trends in Three Countries
• Chapter 3. A Study of the Quality of Life of the Suburban Environments in Three Countries
• Chapter 4. Findings and Discussion
• Chapter 5. Summary and Implications for Metropolitan Development in the Industrialized World
• Chapter 6. Implications for Cross-National Research
• Appendix A Questionnaire Schedule
• Appendix B Dependent Variables
• Appendix C Independent Variables
• Appendix D Exploratory Variables
• Appendix E Dependent Variable Mean Scores: U.S.A., Israel and the Netherlands
• Appendix F Independent Variable Mean Scores: U.S.A., Israel and the Netherlands
• Appendix G Exploratory Variable Mean Scores: U.S.A., Israel and the Netherlands
• Bibliography
• About the Authors
• Subject Index
• Name Index