Introduction to Cities

How Place and Space Shape Human Experience

Xiangming Chen, Anthony M. Orum, Krista E. Paulsen

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781119167723
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Sociologie urbaine

The revised and updated second edition of Introduction to Cities explores why cities are such a vital part of the human experience and how they shape our everyday lives. Written in engaging and accessible terms, Introduction to Cities examines the study of cities through two central concepts: that cities are places, where people live, form communities, and establish their own identities, and that they are spaces, such as the inner city and the suburb, that offer a way to configure and shape the material world and natural environment.

Introduction to Cities covers the theory of cities from an historical perspective right through to the most recent theoretical developments. The authors offer a balanced account of life in cities and explore both positive and negative themes. In addition, the text takes a global approach, with examples ranging from Berlin and Chicago to Shanghai and Mumbai. The book is extensively illustrated with updated maps, charts, tables, and photographs.

This new edition also includes a new section on urban planning as well as new chapters on cities as contested spaces, exploring power and politics in an urban context. It contains; information on the status of poor and marginalized groups and the impact of neoliberal policies; material on gender and sexuality; and presents a greater range of geographies with more attention to European, Latin American, and African cities.

Revised and updated, Introduction to Cities provides a complete introduction to the history, evolution, and future of our modern cities.

PART I
THE FOUNDATIONS

1 Cities as places and spaces

2 Social theories of urban space and place: The early perspectives

3 Social theories of urban space and place: Perspectives in the post-World War II era

4 Methods and rules for the study of cities

CHAPTER 1
Cities as places and spaces

Contents

Cities as places

Identity, community, and security

• Places as the site of our identity
  Places as the site of community
  Places as sites of security

Human beings make and remake places

Place and space

Cities shape the fates of human beings

Cities and people

KEY TOPICS

• The definitions of place and space as applied to cities.
• The role of place attachment in imbuing places with meanings and significance.
• The importance of place in providing identity, community, and security for human beings.
• The ways that human beings shape cities, and are in turn shaped by them.
• Familiarity with the features of the text, including informative boxes on “Studying the city” and “Making the city better”; boxes that provide opportunities to delve into topics and concepts, called “Exploring further”; definitions of keywords; and critical thinking questions that will help you to continue to consider the issues raised in each chapter.

This is a book about cities, a topic that seems familiar enough but that most of us have not considered in any great depth. There are plenty of reasons why we should. We can estimate statistically that most of you live or have lived in a city or metropolitan area; more than half of the world’s population now lives in cities (see Figure 1.1). Cities are also the centers of the world’s economy. They are not only sites of production, where industries cluster, but also the central nodes in service and distribution networks and the command points from which economic decisions are made. Across the globe, wealth is already overwhelmingly generated, and spent, in cities (see Table 1.1). But cities are also the locus of profound environmental challenges (they consume two-thirds of the world’s energy, especially through the heating and cooling of buildings, and are home to many toxic industries and waste sites), and social problems ranging from pronounced poverty and uneven access to the most basic of human necessities, to crime, violence, and even warfare. Without a doubt, cities deserve our attention now more than ever.

Figure 1.1 Percentage of population in urban areas by world and region, 1950–2050. Source: Developed by David Boston from data from the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Urbanization Prospects 2009.

Table 1.1 Select cities’ share of national population and share of national GDP. Cities are increasingly the centers of economic production, with higher per capita contributionsto GDP than rural areas or smaller towns. This is particularly pronounced in many developing world cities.

City	Share of national population (Percentage)	Share of national GDP (Percentage)	Ratio of GDP share to population share
Auckland	31.8	47.5	1.49
Buenos Aires	32.5	63.2	1.94
Dhaka	8.7	35.5	4.08
Helsinki	21.1	30.1	1.43
Kabul	10.3	64.3	6.24
Lima	1.9	5.5	2.89
London	20.3	25.4	1.25
Manila	20.0	46.9	2.35
Mumbai	2.0	6.3	3.15
Nairobi	9.0	20.0	2.22
New York City	7.2	9.7	1.35
Paris	16.2	26.5	1.64
Sao Paulo	10.5	19.5	1.86
Shanghai	1.4	2.9	2.07
Tokyo	28.6	34.1	1.19
Toronto	17.2	19.5	1.13

Source: Developed by authors; Based on data from CIA World Factbook, Field Listing: GDP – Composition by Sector.

We would like to draw greater attention, at the very outset, to the much faster pace of urbanization and much larger scale of cities in developing countries, which account for the overwhelming shares of the world’s urban growth, energy consumption, and needed social services. While some scholars now prefer to use the Global South instead of developing countries when referring to their cities, we will stick to the more familiar label by devoting a whole chapter to urbanization and cities in developing countries (Chapter 11) that better suit our readers.

While cities, in both developed and developing countries, are important for these reasons, we argue that cities are also particularly important kinds of places. So what do we mean by places? Places are specific sites, whether entire cities or smaller locations within cities, that are shaped by human beings and shape the lives of human beings. Places include large metropolitan areas as well as individual homes, workplaces, playgrounds, schools, and street corners. They are all those specific and rich sites to which we feel attached, that become a part of us. As places, cities are distinct and meaningful sites in which people live out their lives. These meanings derive from the histories of places, whether the formal history found in books or the informal history that is created by individuals as they go about their daily routines. In turn, these histories reflect the uses to which places are put: who has lived in a place and how, the businesses and industries that thrived or failed there, and conflicts over just what should occur where. Histories, uses, and experiences imbue places with memories and meanings that distinguish one place from another. Places are thus inherently social creations.

places Specific sites that are shaped by, and shape, the lives of human beings. Sites of human identity, security, and community.

Attending to the histories of places draws our eyes to the important work that individuals and groups do to make and remake places. That places are the result of human efforts may seem obvious enough, but all too often we take places as givens, assuming that they just are the way they are; that they are somehow immutable and unchanging. This is particularly common when we compare two places – two very different cities or neighborhoods, for example. An impoverished ghetto area is drastically different from a wealthy gated suburb, and these differences may appear almost natural. But, as we explain in this book, places come to be different from one another through human efforts, whether the work of individuals building their own homes on the outskirts of growing cities or the policies of nations that seek to industrialize their lagging regional economies. Culture, power, nature, resources – these and other factors affect the ways that places become what they are, and human beings are always at the helm.

Places are not only created through social processes but also fulfill an important array of social needs. Among these needs we single out three for special attention: identity, community, and security. As we explain in this chapter, places provide us with a sense of who we are, and we may attach the meanings associated with a place to ourselves. Telling someone where we are from becomes an important way of announcing who we are – our identity. Places are also the cradles of community. Though some communities exist and even thrive in virtual spaces (groups on Facebook and other internet networks are prime examples), the places where we live, work, and play often link us to groups that care about and share our fates. Significantly, these groups may exclude as well as include individuals, and constrain as well as support them. Identity and community are actually key constitutive elements of our third dimension of place – security. When we identify with a place and feel connected to groups there, we often feel the most secure. But security extends beyond the psychological and emotional to the material. Some places provide the kinds of environments in which humans thrive – clean air and water, shelter, and freedom from violence, as a minimum – while others deprive residents of these basic elements of a safe and decent life. Moreover, some places are vulnerable to political upheavals and environmental catastrophes that undermine the security of large populations.

Cities are also important spaces. In distinguishing the ideas of place and space, we separate the particular from the general. Places are specific sites, whether structures or neighborhoods or entire metropolitan areas, to which people have attached meaning. As such, São Paulo is a place, as is Heliopolis (a slum area in São Paulo), or the block on which you grew up. But these particular places are also different kinds of spaces – geographic entities with distinct shapes, scales, and other properties that set the stage for certain kinds of human activities.

spaces Geographic entities with distinct shapes, scales, and other properties that set the stage for certain kinds of human activities.

Consider, for instance, a city block. As a space it may be dense or sprawling, accessible or remote, pedestrian-friendly or designed to accommodate automobiles. These qualities of space and others may then predispose the block to becoming a certain kind of place, as human beings live out their lives and write its informal history. As you will learn in this book, the spatial forms of cities have changed dramatically since the mid-twentieth century or so (indeed, some would argue that the word “city” is no longer appropriate for describing the sprawling urban regions that now house many millions of persons), and this has in turn affected them as places. While you will have a chance to fathom the gigantic scale of megacities later in the book, you will be guided to appreciate the microscopic meanings they also possess as places.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, places shape our destinies. They are contexts in which lives are created, and as such they furnish many of the resources that we need to develop as human beings and to reach the opportunities to which we aspire. And, while all cities play this role as places, different cities and the neighborhoods within them do so unequally. Places are thus an important e...