The leading undergraduate textbook on the subject, Urban Geography covers the origins, historical development, and contemporary challenges of cities and metropolitan areas around the world. Incorporating the most recent research in urban studies, authors David H. Kaplan and Steven R. Holloway provide an overview of the dynamic field, introduce key elements of urban theory and methodology, analyze issues of immigration, ethnicity, and urbanism, and more.
Exploring the urban experience in a global context, 16 student-friendly chapters address urbanization processes, industrial urbanization, discrimination in the housing market, gentrification, metropolitan governance, urban planning, geographical and political fragmentation, urban immigration, urban-economic restructuring, and more. Each chapter includes an introductory road map, learning objectives, definitions of key terms, discussion questions, and suggestions for research topics and activities.
The fourth edition of Urban Geography contains two entirely new chapters on urban transportation and the relationship between cities and the environment, including climate change and natural disasters. New discussion of the impact of COVID-19 and other health aspects of cities is accompanied by new data, new figures, new themes, and new pedagogical tools. In this edition, the authors present traditional models of urban social space and new factors that organize intra-urban space, such as globalization and postmodernism.
Examining cities in the developed world and in less developed regions, Urban Geography, Fourth Edition, is the ideal textbook for Urban Geography classes and related courses in Urban Studies, Sociology, and Political Science programs.
Table of Contents
Preface xiii
1 An Introduction to the Changing Field of Urban Geography 1
Why We Study Cities 1
How We Study Cities 4
The Field of Urban Geography 5
Box 1.1 Bright Lights, Big Cities 6
The Origin and Evolution of Urban Geography 8
Approaches to Urban Geographic Research 9
Streams of Urban Geographic Research 10
Spatial Analysis 10
Marxist Urban Geography and Urban Political Economy 13
Critical Social Theory in Urban Geography 13
Feminist Urban Geography 14
Postmodern Urban Geography 14
Nature and Urban Geography 15
Race 15
Defining Cities 16
Rural-Urban Continuum 16
What Is the Spatial Extent of Cities? 17
Box 1.2 Micropolitan Areas 19
Introduction to This Textbook 21
Wrapping Up 21
Readings 22
2 the Origins and Development of Cities 23
What Are Cities? 23
Preconditions to Urban Formation 25
Box 2.1 Cities without Agriculture? 25
Ecology, Technology, and Power 26
Theories of Urban Origins 27
Patterns of Early Urbanization 30
Locations of Early Cities 30
Diffusion of Urbanization 30
Box 2.2 Uncovering Lost Cities 32
Urban Evolution and Early Economic Imperatives: Traditional Cities 33
The Early City- States: Sumeria 33
Other Ancient Cities 36
Imperial Cities 39
Box 2.3 The Collective Alternative 39
Cities as Engines of Economic Growth: Capitalism, Industrialism, and Urbanization 43
Box 2.4 Death of a City 44
The New Trading Cities 44
Box 2.5 The First Ghettos 50
Industrial Cities 51
Box 2.6 Designing Spaces: Bastide Cities and the Grand Manner 52
Wrapping Up 57
Readings 57
3 the Evolution of the American Urban System: Origins Through Industrialization 59
Urban Systems and Urban Hierarchies 59
Rank- Size Rule and Primate Cities 61
Mercantilism and the Development of the Colonial Urban System 63
Box 3.1 America’s Anti- Urban Bias 67
Box 3.2 Central Place Theory 70
Economic Eras of North American Urbanization 70
Economic Eras, Transportation Networks, and the Evolution of the US Urban System 72
Frontier Mercantilism (1790-1830s) 74
Box 3.3 The Erie Canal 76
Early Industrial Capitalism and Iron Rails (1830s-1880s) 77
National Industrial Capitalism and Steel Rails (1880s-1920s) 82
Wrapping Up 87
Readings 88
4 Economic Eras and the Urban System: Industrialization, Decline, and Globalization 89
1920s-1970s: Mature Industrial Capitalism 89
Automobiles 89
Box 4.1 The Interstate Highway System 92
The Great Depression 93
Airplanes 94
1970s-Present: Post- Industrial Neoliberal Capitalism 96
An Urban System in Crisis 96
Rise of the Service and Information Economies 101
High Technology and the Creative Economy 103
Globalization and the Global Urban System 104
Capitalism, Power, and World Cities 105
The World City Hierarchy 107
The Global City 110
A Network of World Cities: Global Interconnections 111
The Tourist World City 111
Telecommunications, Interconnectivity, and World Cities 112
Dispersal or Concentration? 113
Telecommunications and Financial Markets 114
Telecommunications and Urban Society 114
Internet Connectivity and Cloud Data Infrastructure 115
Box 4.2 The Gravity Model in Local and Regional and Global Context 116
Wrapping Up 118
Readings 119
5 Urban Land Use, the Central Business District, Gentrification, And the Growth of Suburbs 120
Toward a Model of Land Use 121
Urban Functions 121
Model of Land Value 122
The Central Business District 125
Manufacturing in the Frame 127
Residential Users 133
Box 5.1 Health and Urban Geography: The Impact of COVID-19 on Downtowns 135
Revitalizing Downtowns 137
Central Business Districts 137
Box 5.2 Downtown Casinos 138
America’s New Downtowns 139
Revitalizing Neighborhoods: Gentrification 140
Five Waves of Gentrification 142
Suburban Changes 145
Box 5.3 Megalopolis 148
Wrapping Up 149
Readings 149
6 Foundations of Urban Social Landscapes 151
Ecological Approach to Cities 151
“Community Lost”: European Perspectives on Cities 152
The Chicago School of Sociology 153
Box 6.1 Rebutting the “Community Lost” Perspective 154
Box 6.2 Health and Urban Geography: Chicago and the 1918 Influenza Epidemic 157
Traditional Models of Urban Spatial Structure 160
Burgess Concentric Zone Model 160
Hoyt Sector Model 160
Harris and Ullman Multiple Nuclei Model 162
More Complex Models 162
Social Area Analysis and Factorial Ecology 163
Box 6.3 Wirth’s “Urbanism as a Way of Life” 164
The Urban Mosaic 165
Contemporary Urban Social Space: Globalization and Cities of Difference 165
Globalization: General Trends 167
Elements of the Global City 168
“In Between” Neighborhoods in the Global City 170
Los Angeles School Urbanism 172
Cities of Difference 173
Wrapping Up 176
Readings 177
7 Urban Housing Markets: Sprawl, Blight, and Regeneration 179
Housing and Housing Markets 179
Sectors of Housing Tenure 180
Housing Markets: Demand 181
Box 7.1 Hedonic House Price Models 181
Box 7.2 NIMBY, LULUs, and YIMBY: How Homeowners React to Adjacent Land Uses 182
Housing Markets: Supply 183
Housing Market Geographies and Neighborhood Change 183
Urban Ecology and Housing Markets: Invasion and Succession 183
Filtering and Vacancy Chains 184
Life‐ Cycle Notions of Neighborhood Change 186
Government Involvement in Housing Markets 187
Securing Home Ownership through Loan Guarantees 188
The Secondary Mortgage Market: A New System of Housing Finance 189
Promoting Home Ownership to Address Inequality: Promise and Peril 190
Unequal Access to Housing 190
Real Estate Agents and Differentiated Access 190
Discrimination in Lending 194
Accumulated Impacts of Housing Market Discrimination 195
Box 7.3 Housing Markets and the Global Financial Crisis 196
Suburban Housing and Postwar Sprawl 199
Supply and Demand Factors 199
Box 7.4 Health and Urban Geography: Sprawl Leads to Depression 200
Sprawl and the Federal Government: Housing Finance 201
Sprawl and the Federal Government: Freeways and Automobility 202
“Blight” and Inner‐ City Housing 203
Early Postwar Redevelopment Pressures 203
The Housing Dynamics of Redevelopment 204
Displacement and Public Housing 205
Wrapping Up 208
Readings 208
8 Segregation, Race, and Urban Poverty 210
Current Patterns of Racial Residential Segregation 211
Census 2020 Figures 211
Box 8.1 Types and Measures of Segregation 212
Recent Change 215
What Causes Segregation? 217
Race and the North American Ghetto 219
The “First” North American Ghetto 219
Box 8.2 Anti- Black White Mob Violence: 1919 Red Summer and the 1921
Tulsa Race Massacre 221
Postwar Institutionalized Ghettos 224
Poverty and the City and Beyond 231
Spatial Concentration of Urban Poverty 231
Consequences of Concentrated Poverty: Neighborhood Effects 233
Box 8.3 Health and Urban Geography: Race, Poverty, and COVID-19 Health 234
Responding to Urban Poverty 237
War on Poverty 237
Retrenchment 238
Wrapping Up 241
Readings 242
9 Immigration, Ethnicity, and Urbanism 244
Definitions of Immigrants 245
The Era of Immigration and US Urbanization 246
The New Catholic Arrivals 247
Box 9.1 Strangers From a Different Shore: Chinese and Japanese Migration to the United States 248
The New European Immigration 252
The Ethnic Kaleidoscope of Today 256
Latino Migration and Its Impact on Cities 259
Box 9.2 Ethnic Diversity Within Canadian Cities 260
Mexicans 263
Cubans 265
Box 9.3 The Creation of Ethnic Economies 266
Puerto Ricans 268
Latino Influences 269
New Asian Immigration 270
Urban Orientation and Some Models of Asian Segregation 271
Asian Indians 273
Indochinese 274
Koreans 276
Asian Influences 277
Wrapping Up 277
Readings 278
10 Metropolitan Governance and Fragmentation 279
Urban Governance and the Growth of Services 280
Expanding Urban Services 280
Box 10.1 Health and Urban Geography: Public Health and the City 281
Box 10.2 Street Plans in Early America 283
Financing the City 285
Who Governs the City? 288
Stages in Urban Governance 288
Power in the City 290
Contemporary Fragmentation in the Metropolis 293
Increasing Fragmentation 293
A Positive View of Metropolitan Fragmentation 295
Fiscal Disparities 296
Countering the Fragmented Metropolis 298
Annexations 298
Metropolitan Government 301
Box 10.3 Metropolitanization and Language in Montreal 302
Wrapping Up 304
Readings 304
11 Planning the Better City 305
Making the Case for Planning 306
Aesthetics 306
Efficiency 308
Social Equity Planning 309
Maintaining Property Values 311
Environmental Protection 311
Development of Modern Planning 313
Visionaries and the Urban Ideal 313
Box 11.1 Health and Urban Geography: Planning a Healthier City 314
Legal Basis for Planning 318
Box 11.2 Planning Rights in Other Countries 320
Growth of Planning as a Profession in the United States 321
Political Nature of Planning 323
Comprehensive Plans and Tools of Modern Planning 325
Box 11.3 The Search for Fair Share Housing in New Jersey 326
Elements and Steps in Comprehensive Plan Development 327
Zoning 329
Problems with Zoning and Responses 332
Growth Management 337
Wrapping Up 338
Readings 339
12 Urban Transportation 341
Urban Transportation and Changes in Urban Form 342
The Walking City 343
Horsecar and Streetcar City 344
Recreational Auto Era 346
Freeway Auto Era 347
Transportation Policy Principles and Actors 349
Principles of Transportation and Costs and Benefits 349
Levels of Governance 351
Transportation Behavior 354
Travel Types 354
Box 12.1 Health and Urban Geography: Urban Transportation in the Time of COVID 356
Modes of Transportation in Commuting and Other Forms of Travel 356
Box 12.2 Building a Sustainable Transportation Network 360
Social Aspects of Transportation 363
Access 364
Box 12.3 The Long Road Home (and to Work) 366
Displacement 367
Wrapping Up 370
Readings 370
13 the Urban Environment 372
Conceptual Foundations 372
Urban Environmental Kuznets Curve 373
City-Nature Dialectic 374
Urban Political Ecology 375
Realms of Urban Nature 376
Water 376
Box 13.1 Health and Urban Geography: Urban Political Ecology and Water in Flint, Michigan 378
Urban Air 383
Box 13.2 Health and Urban Geography: Canadian Wildfires and US Air Quality 384
Box 13.3 Health and Urban Geography: Killer Smog 385
Garbage and Solid Wastes 387
Energy 390
Urban Hazards and Disasters 392
Flooding 393
Hurricanes (Typhoons, Cyclones) 393
Earthquakes 395
Heat 395
Wildfires 396
Cities and Climate Change 398
Wrapping Up 398
Readings 399
14 Cities in the Developed World 400
European Cities 400
Urbanization and the European City System 401
Characteristic Features of European Cities 403
Box 14.1 Stockholm’s Urban Planning 406
Box 14.2 Health and Urban Geography: COVID-19 Responses in European Cities 408
Box 14.3 Postwar Urban Developments: Rome’s EUR Center and Paris’s La Defense 412
Aspects of Change 417
Cities in Post- Communist Europe 420
Communist Urban Development 422
Post- Communist Development 423
Box 14.4 The Old and New City of Prague 424
Cities in Japan 425
Structure of Japanese Cities 426
Changes in Japanese Cities 428
Wrapping Up 428
Readings 429
15 Cities in the Less Developed and Newly Developed World 430
The New Urban Majority 432
How the Cities Have Grown 433
Demographic Factors Involved in Urban Growth 436
Box 15.1 Migration as a Household Process 438
Origins of Urbanization in Less Developed Countries 439
Modernization Perspective 439
International Political Economy Perspective 441
Characteristics of LDC Cities 447
Effects of Growth 447
Housing 448
Box 15.2 Health and Urban Geography: Urban Health in the Developing World 450
Box 15.3 Cities in the Sand: Egypt’s New Towns 454
Employment Opportunities and the Informal Sector 458
Wrapping Up 462
Readings 462
16 Regional Variations in Urban Structure and Form in the Less Developed World 464
The Latin American City 465
Box 16.1 The Middle Eastern City 466
Box 16.2 Health and Urban Geography: China’s COVID-19 Response 467
Colonial Legacies 468
Modern Latin American Cities 468
Sub- Saharan African Cities 475
Indigenous Influences 476
European Intervention 478
Box 16.3 Apartheid in Urban South Africa 478
Modern African Cities 480
South Asian Cities 482
A Typology of South Asian Cities 483
Modern Challenges 486
Southeast Asian Cities 489
Indigenous Influences: Sacred and Market Cities 489
The Colonial City in Southeast Asia 491
Modern Cities 493
Wrapping Up 497
Readings 497
Index 499
