SO4029 Sociology of the City

Urbanis(z)ation

Urbanis(z)ation

• Louis Wirth: ‘For sociological purposes a city may be defined as a relatively large, dense, and permanent settlement of socially heterogeneous individuals’

• Castells:• 1. ‘The spatial concentration of a population on the basis

of certain limits of dimension and density’

• 2. ‘The diffusion of the system of values, attitudes and behaviour called “urban culture”’. (See Castells, 2002 p. 21)

The Origin of Cities

• Homo Sapiens Sapiens emerged cc 130,000 - 120,000 years ago

• No cities for 99% of human history

• First Cities cc 10,000 - 6000 years ago

• Now more than half of all human beings live in cities

• Cities developed independently in different regions: The Indus Valley, along the Tigris-Euphrates rivers, Northern China, Meso-America (Mayas) and Egypt.

• see Sjoberg, The Origin and Evolution of Cities (1965)

Ancient Cities

‘The Urban Revolution’ V.Gordon.Childe

• Evolutionary Model (Hunter/Gatherer – Pastoral – Urban Economy – Modernity)

• Early Urbanisation: Key stage in human civilisation and ‘social basis of modern life’.

• Demographic Shifts – population growth• Technology, Metallurgy, Tools and Irrigation (Ecology) • Agriculture (surplus), Trade, Specialisation • Social Stratification, Religion, Warfare – leaders (lugals), palaces,

fortresses – symbiotic relationship between military expansion and trade

• Writing, numbers, arts.

• See Childe ‘The Urban Revolution (1950)

Early Western ‘Citizens’

• Knossos (pre-Hellenic Minoan Civilisation) - from around 2000BC - achieved writing, craftmanship and architecture comparable to Mesopotamia.

• Athens – settlement since cc5000bc- from cc750BC Central Hellenic city state – Greek city states formed the cradle of subsequent Western Civilization

• Notions of Citizenship conflate with religion and cosmology in the construction of Hellenic cities.

• Foundations of Western Art, Architecture, Philosophy, Astronomy, Politics (Democracy)

The Imperial City• Rome – cc800BC to cc 500AD

• First Urban Civilisation

• cc270 BC Rome gains control of Italy and begins to build the ‘global’ Empire which spanned Europe, the Mediterranean, the Aegean and North Africa

• Population of the city of Rome peaked at around 1 million

• Decline of Rome – self-indulgence, fragmentation & economic failure?

• Roman capitol moves to Constantinople cc 300AD

Decline of Classical Urbanism & The Rise of the Pre-Industrial City

• Fall of Rome 476AD

• Beginning of the ‘Middle Ages’

• Europe’s cities shrink – Imperial Urbanism to Agrarian Localism

• Elias – ‘decivilising spurt’?

• Revival of urban life begins with the ‘bourgs’, trade, charters and competition beginning in the 10th century

The Renaissance City: 13thC onwards

• Trading Centres (many self governing) • Banking and Business (see Weber’s The City)

• Recovery of Classical Influence Humanism

• Universities (see also the preservation of the classical city in the monasteries (Mumford,1961)

• Science

Towards the Industrial City

• Agricultural Change & Increased Production• Technology• Economic Developments• Legal & Political Changes• Secular Outlook• Nation State & Imperialism• Market Development , Uneven Development,

Managed Cities & ‘Collective Consumption’

(see Castells,1977)

Industrial/Capitalist Urbanisation

The Expansion of Cities in the 19th Century

1800 1850 1900

London 1,000,000 2,685,000 6,500,000

Paris 500,000 1,000,000 2,700,000

Vienna 247,000 444,000 1,675,000

Berlin 172,000 419,000 1,889,000

New York 60,515 515,000 3,437,000

Chicago <1000 29,000 1,689,000

The Modern Industrial City

• Mixed Economy• Mass Consumerism• Suburbia & Urban Sprawl• Social Diversity• Uneven Development• Social Problems• Public Welfare

The Post Industrial (Postmodern?) City

• De-industrialisation

• Service Economy

• Mass Consumerism

• Counter-urbanisation or Global Megalopolis

• Social Polarisation

• Social Problems

• Privatisation