LAUD371 ANALYSIS OF URBAN ENVIRONMENT 2008 first cours

INTRODUCTIONCities exist on every continent (except Antarctica) and in every country. Most people know when they are in a large city and when they are not, but there is no clear agreement among countries as to what constitutes a city.

So “City” is not a simple thing. It’s a complex entity. Because city is not a simple whole of physical assets such as buildings, roads, bridges and other infrastructures, but a living organism which contains:

PHYSICAL STOCK

SOCIAL RELATIONS

ETHNIC VALUES

LANGUADGE

ECONOMICS etc....

So, to understand and define the city also became a complex phenomena.Dealing with the “city” or which is “urban”, is to deal with so many different disciplines, such as; economics, sociology, geographics, ecology, law, engineering, statistics,.......Urban Sociologists:In general sociologists define cities by their organization, functions and social characteristics. But particularly urban sociology concerned with :

city structure urban lifestyles urban organizations

Traditional studies in urban sociology can be divided into four broad categories|

Human ecology urban community urban problems, policy and planning urbanization

Urban geography dealswith city also in several aspects:Geography studies are more comparative studies and tries to understand :

Sameness & differences Different urbanization processes Deals with:

Abstract spaces =ideal or planned space(land use planning) and relative spaces= lived or relational space(socio-spatial

relationships) Territorialization: what makes a place urban Investigate the patterns of spatial interaction between

producers&consumers, culture groups, neighborhoods or between cities

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Distance Places/ sense of place

Urban economists deal with political economy of urban context.Social, economic and cultural macro structures. The main subjects are:

Global-Local issues Systems approach(A system is a distinct collection of inter-related

phenomena) Input-output and feedback mechanisms.

o Inputs= primary macro economic, political , demographic, cultural, technological and social conditions or phenomena

o Outputs=land use policy, housing market, built environment and other outcomes

o Feedback= Negative / Positive contingencies Economic Change: economy & technology changes

o Kondratiev Long Waves (50-55 years)o Kuznets Cycles(15-25 years)o Modes of productions :competitive (mercantilist), organized

(Fordist), disorganized (flexible)

Statisticians –Urban demographists deals with demographic changes and the city. So their interests are the:

Size Composition Distribution Density of the cities.

Urban Politics deals with: Politics of economic development Politics of cultural groups Political reforms & electoral changes Cultural change is also another issue for political urbanists. They

consider city as a cultural center. Post modernity is another key concept for city in this context.

Technology and engineering is another discipline that can be considered in a multi-disciplinary content’s of urban phenomenon:

Cities as innovation centers İmplications of new technologies for urban centers

As you can see CITY IS AN INTER and MULTI DISCIPLINARY ISSUE

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Within this inter/multi disciplinary understanding process one can investigate the city through various tools:

ROAMING, WANDERINGREADING (novels, histories,…)DINIG THROUGHOUT THE CITY

EXAMINING DIFFERENT LIFE STYLES (Everyday lives, night life..)Etc…..

In this course we will try to understand the city as a part of a scientific discourse, and urban geography, urban sociology, urban economics will lead us to carry on the curriculum. Any of these sciences consist of two primary activities:

CONSTRUCTING THEORIES

TESTING THEORIES

What is a Theory?-A set of interrelated principles and definitions that serves conceptually to organize selected aspects of the empirical world in a systematic way. A theory includes a basic set of assumptions and axioms as the foundation, and the body of the theory composed of logically interrelated, empirically verifiable propositions

During this course, we will interpret theories about “the city” in general or about certain aspect of cities. Now, first of all what we will analyse:

THE CITY

So we should know the definition of our subject. WHAT IS CITY ?

City has a history and it has an accumulation of civilizations: IT’S A HISTORICAL SYSTEM

City has a certain form and geometric relations: IT’S A PHYSICAL SYSTEM

City is a settlement, it’s a place, it’s a locality: IT’S A GEOGRAPHIC SYSTEM

City is a sum of people and a set of population relations: IT’S A DEMOGRAPHIC SYSTEM

City has production-investment and commercial relations: IT’S A ECONOMIC SYSTEM

City has organizational, administrative, control aspects, peace and conflicts: ITS A POLITICAL SYSTEM

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City has feelings, worries and happiness, esthetics and menaces: IT’S AN ARTY SYSTEM

Being more specific with either the term CITY or URBAN: City is a concentration of people with a distinctive ways of life in terms of employment patterns and lifestyle. A high degree of specialized land uses and a wide variety of social, economic and political institution that coordinate the use of the facilities and resources in the city make them very complex.

When looking all these complexity related with the time variable The City could be defined as a living organism.First of all we will start to understand this organism from its historical perspective. Before considering the urban phenomenon as an historical problem and asking following question for urban settlements:

WHAT IS THE ORIGINS OF CITIES? We will here, distinguish the rural from the urban realm. Each country has widely different determinations. You will try to find some examples about this subject for the next course:

Homework 1: LAUD371 ANALYSIS OF URBAN ENVIRONMENT fall 2008

Reflection Papers: 1 :

How can I classify a city ?

Each student will study the following questions:

How countries make the classification of cities? Which variable will be more appropriate to classify “a city”

among other cities in the country and in international arena ? What kind of variables could be used for such a classification?

Students are asked to make a research to answers these questions and find some specific examples of city classifications from different countries.After the examination of several examples from both internet and Bilkent University Library, students will write a small comment on this topic (max. 400 words). The whole folder of this homework will contain the cases (examples found) and student comments.

Submission: 18 September 2008Due: 23 October 2008

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BRIEF HISTORY OF CITIES

The growth of cities inextricably linked to the economic development.

Because there is a fascinating relationship between society and space in

the city. By giving a brief history of cities or urban development, I will look

at the historical development of this relationship; I will plot the economic

trajectory of the city in time.

The First Settlements

The level of technology in early societies was so low that only the most

favorable climatic conditions would allow large permanent population

concentrations. Such conditions did not prevail until about 10,000 B.C.,

when the last stage of Ice Age came to an end in Europe

Than an important social change such as agricultural revolution took

place that a complete change in the structure of society necessary for

settled living occurred. Agricultural revolution/agricultural technology

necessary to support an urban population probably had developed several

thousand years before the emergence of cities. Cities require food surplus

and also its transportation, storage and distribution for socially valued

ends. All these developments are the results of Agricultural Revolution

that human being had the opportunity to be settled which indicates the

Urban Revolution. From here we can obviously said that Agricultural

Revolution and Urban Revolution are separate processes.

THE URBAN REVOLUTION WAS THUS BASED ON THE AGRICULTURAL

REVOLUTION

Archeologists have divided human prehistory into three time periods:

1. Paleolithic /Old Stone Age, lasting from 500,000 to 10,000 B.C. in the

Near East

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2. Mesolithic or transition period of the Stone Age from 10,000 to 8000

B.C. in the Near East

3.Neolit hic or New Stone Age lasting from 8000 B.C. to the appearance of

te first cities in the Near East around 3500 B.C.

During the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods, human existed in small

bands and lived by hunting animals and collecting wild fruit and

vegetables. The first cities developed in this context but emerged fully

with the agricultural revolution of the Neolithic Period.

Paleolithic Period:

During this period humans lived as nomads by hunting and gathering.

-No permanent settlement,

-level of technology so low,

-every individual was required to participate in food gathering,

-the climate was much colder that it is today,

-environmental conditions necessary for agriculture were not present.

Mesolithic Period

The most significant occurrence of this period was the emergence of the

first villages. They were based on agricultural but on a new

survival/subsistence strategy of intensive collecting of plants and animals.

These villages became dominant from near the Baltic Sea at north and

India as far south. Archeologists have concluded, however, that the

technology used by each village was related directly to the foodstuffs

found in the immediate vicinity.

The Mesolithic village form of life was an important step in human social

evolution. Village life, based on the intensive exploitation of plants and

animals, gave people an intimate knowledge of their local environment.

And these experiences formed the bases of knowledge for agriculture

would develop.

Neolithic Period

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The Neolithic period began with the appearance of agriculture. In this

period the climatic conditions were available. The technology was very

poorly developed but, plentiful sunshine and mild winters provided two or

more growing seasons each year, a dry climate permitted the safe and

long-term storage of grain.

Agricultural Revolution

In this period agriculture and animal husbandry were not the only

inventions making village life possible. In addition, we can state the

development of some tools, utensils, cooking techniques. At that time,

people in these societies did not have to work very hard. There were

seasons when life was hard and the food collection became a full-time job,

but most of the year leisure, not work, characterized tribal life.

There are a number of competing theories;

Gordon Child (1957): stress the role of climate on the agricultural

revolution

Flannery (1972): stress the role of population pressure which means the

increase of population density forced hunters and gatherers to adopt

agriculture.

Braidwood (1972), offers a cultural explanation, such as over hundreds of

generations, hunting and gathering societies slowly gathered the

technology and knowledge of the environment to support a settled way of

life

Eventually, the way of life reached the Aegean and spread into Europe.

By about 4000 B.C. the people of southern Mesopotamia had developed

the agricultural technology to produce a large food surplus. Seasonal

fooding of Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and small-scale irrigation had led to

a new form of intensive agriculture. Trade appears to have been a major

factor in motivating villagers to produce more than they needed for their

own use.

Earliest Cities:

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Role of Trade:

Although Neolithic villages were separated by hundreds of miles of

mountains and water, archeological evidence shows that the settlements

throughout the Near East were in active communication. And they have a

strong trade relationship each others.

For example Obsidian, soapstone, textile, pottery, and probable

perishable items were traded. In addition to this trade we can talk about

ancient trade routes of prehistoric people.

The Overgrown Village:

Only a few villages out of hundreds had the right combination of terrain,

climate, technology and location in relation to trade to become trade

centers. The wealth brought to a village through trade permitted it to

increase its population and allowed some individuals to become part-time

specialists in production and trade. These “Overgrown Villages” covering

app. Five-six acres became the containers in which the social changes

necessary for the emergence of cities occurred.

The “Overgrown Villages” represent a transition stage in the emergence

of the first cities. They were up to ten times larger than the surrounding

agricultural villages, and their size permitted a more complex social

structure in which the changes for innovation were enhanced.

Some of the innovations that indicate a city was forming include

(G.Childe,1950):

1. PERMENANT SETTLEMENTS IN DENSE AGGREGATIONS

2. NONAGRICULTURALISTS IN SPECIALIZED FUNCTIONS

3. TAXATION AND CAPITAL ACCUMULATION

4. MONUMENTAL PUBLIC BUILDING

5. A RULING CLASS

6. THE TECHNIQUE OF WRITING

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7. THE ACQUISITION OF PREDICTIVE SCIENCES-Arithmetic, geometry, and

astronomy)

8. ARTISTIC EXPRESSION

9. TRADE

10. REPLACEMENT OF KINDSHIP BY RESIDENCE AS THE BASIS FOR

MEMBERSHIP IN THE COMMUNITY

Here the interesting thing in G.Child’s list of innovations is the

predominance of social innovations to the technical innovations.

Urban Empires

As similar as the role of the “Overgrown Villages” in the development of

“Early cities”, “Early cities” also were crucial in the development of “Early

Empires”. The Urban Empires became knowledge based societies where;

INFORMATION and the CONCIOUS,

REGULAR and SYSTEMATIC COLLECTION of DATA

became an integral part of MAINTAINING CONTROL

The great cities were based primarily on threat and religious appeal.

-Control extended only as far as the threat capacity of the central

authorities.

-Within the city control was clearly visible.(But people on the periphery

were not part of a regular rituals that reaffirmed the social order with

reference to cosmic appeal. Toward the primary power was difficult to

sustain)

-The walls were as much to keep people is to keep others out

-Away from the city, religious appeal was less significant.

-These urban empires housed the social elite

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-In these cities some improvements in technical knowledge, astronomy,

forms of writing, history, geography and mathematics occurred (that is

why we said that the urban empires were knowledge based societies).

-These cities also give us the first recorded literature;

THE GILGAMESH EPIC

This is a poem which tells us of the hero Gilgamesh, probably based on a king of Uruk, a city in Mesopotamia around 4600 B.C.

At that time, the cities were the point of contact between the sacred and

profane. On of the weakness of early cities were their helplessness toward

the brute facts of the physical environment.

In Early Empires, the threat system, and threat capability declined with

distance from the \center. This may explain why the first urban empires

were relatively limited in size. The costs of maintaining power over space

acted as a limiting factor to the extent of these empires, but the limitation

was broken with the exchange system of the merchant.

The Merchant City

Merchant Cities concentrated more on commercial exchange than on

threat. So the size limitation of urban empires was broken when the

exchange system of the merchant cities replace the threat system. The

creation of merchant cities was an important element in creation of a

world economy.

From the middle of the twelfth century trade began to flourish within

Europe and the extension of a trading system implied the creation of a

money economy, the emergence of a merchant class, and the growth of

urban trading centers.

Until about 1400 there were two interconnected trading centers in

Europe:

HAMBURG

LUBECK In the north (Baltic Sea)

BREMEN

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BRUGES

ANTWERP

GENOA

PISA In the south (Mediterranean Sea)

VENICE

DOMINANT MERCHANT CITIES OF EUROPE

CITY PERIOD OF DOMINANCE LARGEST POPULATION/Year

Bruges 1350-1500 100.000 (1500)

Venice 1400-1600 150.000

(1600)

Antwerp 1530-1580’s 100.000

(1568)

Genoa 1570’s-1630 95.000

(1620)

Amsterdam 1630-1750 200.000

(1700)

The City and the Industrial Revolution

From the rise and fall of Bruges, Venice and Amsterdam to the expansion

of London and the steady enlargement of the word economy can be seen.

Over this time European influence extended around the world as an

embryonic global economy.

Britain was the first country to experience that transformation of economy

and society that we call the industrial revolution. So, the role of London

city was crucial. London was and still is a primate city in the nation and

the world by means of its economic, political and social power. London

housing parliament, it was the seat of royalty, the center of finance and

the most important port. London’s growth was extraordinary in 1600 it

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had a population of 200.000 which increased to 675.000 by and to nearly

1 million citizens by 1801

London’s increasing population provides a huge and growing market for

food producers and manufacturers, and additionally this commercial

expansion of London promote its growth. London became a huge center

of consumption. This consumption create an effective demand for

consumer goods which conduct improvements in technology

(Ex::agricultural improvements→ increasing agricultural productivity), and

this series of circumstances prepare. The Second Agricultural Revolution

which is on the other hand signifies THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION and its

place, INDUSTRIAL CITY

POPULATION INCREASE IN LONDON

HUGE AND GROWING MARKET FOR FOOD PRODUCERS AND MANUFACTURERS

COMMERCIAL EXPANSION OF THE CITY

EFFECTIVE DEMAND FOR CONSUMER GOODS

HUGE CENTER OF CONSUMPTION

IMPROVEMENTS IN TECHNOLOGY (EX::AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENTS→INCRESING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY),

II.AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

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INDUSTRIAL CITY/CAPITALISTCITY

During this period, to meet the demands of the urban population:

-better roads were built between link suppliers and the market.

-credit schemes were introduced

-transportation networks between regions that tied the supply and demand sides.

The Characteristics of Industrial-Capitalist City

The coming of Industrial Revolution meant major changes to the urban order.

First of all a concentration of people in one center occurred. Because the developed

factories and industrial areas have placed in the city center. The factory system

was or became the most characteristic form within the city They created new

housing areas for the workers clustered around the factories. Related to the

London’s development processes, the first capitalist cities can be seen again in

Britain which capitalist industrial orders were found. One of these cities is

Manchester

What is the factory system that creates this new order?

First of all in factories, there existed a concentration of production, so the owners

could have reduce their production costs and increased their profits

With this new order industrialization and urbanization went hand in hand and

villages grew into towns, towns to market towns, eventually rural landscape

became doted with the built form of the new order, than the social as well as the

physical landscape of the city and the whole community transformed.

The industrial revolution involved the creation of an industrial proletariat or

capitalist urbanization created a working class.

In this respect European and American experiences are differentiate.

In Europe capitalist urbanization produced a working class that had both radical and

conservative forces. And this allowed that the European cities become the heart of

political radicalism and trade union organizations.

Things were different in the United States, where working class organisations never

achieved importance they did in Europe. The reason lies in the very different

experience: US cities of late 19th and early 20th century witnessed waves of

migration from Europe. So the politics towards different races and ethnicity cut

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across class lines of identification. The dynamic diversity of US cities worked

against the emergence of explicit class ideology.

In Capitalist City, urban growth raise the overcrowding problem. This caused to the

spreading out of some diseases, which have an effect on the social unrest.

The Postmodern City

Postmodern City has three important elements

1.THE NEW LOOK

2.THE NEW ENCLOSURE MOVEMENT

3.THE NEW CIVIC CULTURE

1.THE NEW LOOK: In the 25 years the whole look of central cities has been

changed.

The straith-lined, flat-topped modernist towers, variety of shapes and colors, office

blocks

designed as Greek temples and government offices as Renaissance places This is

an ornamental fashion.

In the 1960’s modernist architecture was all the rage: by the 1990’s a postmodern

look was the

fashion.But there is something more a shift of style. There is a deeper massage to

be drawn. The shift from modern to post-modern came at a time increasing

competition between cities.

2.THE NEW ENCLOSURE MOVEMENT: The postmodern city is more than just a

collection of new buildings. There is a new syntax. Enclosure meant the privileging

of open common lands, enclosure of open fields and private appropriation of public

pastures.

More and more buildings seek to regulate access.

Increasing number of hotels in downtown locations, seek to hide their entrances, to

block them, restrict them to the “ordinary citizen”.

Walls come down to the street.

There has also been the rise of “gated” communities. These have gates to keep out

all but the residents and their friends.

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This is the destruction of public space.

3.THE NEW CIVIC CULTURE : The new look of cities reflects and embodies a new

civic culture which involves a decline in the benevolence of national and urban

government toward welfare, public goods and many of those things that add to the

quality of urban life.

Public transport has been cut back

Spending of cultural affairs Has been reduced

Environmental quality

Maintenance of urban public spaces

In the new civic culture more emphasis has been placed on revenue-generation

that on revenue-disposal.

City governments also taken a more active role in land-development and

encouragement of revenue generating activities.

The redistribution city of late modernism is turning into the entrepreneurial city of

early postmodernism. So,

The richer cities are likely to get richer

The modernist city was one dominated by single objectives and grand narratives

The POTMODERN city is likely to be of richer texture and more varied responsible

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Reading 1 :

HT119 .T46 2002 Thorns, David C. 0333745973The transformation of cities : urban theory and urban life, Palgrave Houndmills, Bal 2002INTRODUCTION, Urban Millennium p:1-7

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