Introduction to Cities

Xiangming Chen is the founding Dean and Director of the Center for Urban and Global Studies and Paul Raether Distinguished Professor of Global Urban Studies and Sociology at Trinity College, Hartford, and a guest professor in the School of Social Development and Public Policy at Fudan University, Shanghai, China. Anthony M. Orum is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. He was the founding editor of the journal City & Community. Krista E. Paulsen is Associate Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Florida, USA.

List of illustrations xi

List of tables xvii

List of boxes xviii

About the authors xx

Preface to the second edition xxi

Acknowledgments xxii

Walk-through tour xxiv

Part I The Foundations 1

1 Cities as places and spaces 2

Cities as places 5

Exploring further 1.1 8

Identity, community, and security 10

Places as the site of our identity 10

Places as the site of community 11

Places as sites of security 13

Studying the city 1.1 14

Human beings make and remake places 15

Place and space 17

Studying the city 1.2 18

Making the city better 1.1 21

Cities shape the fates of human beings 22

Cities and people 24

2 Social theories of urban space and place: The early perspectives 26

The social and theoretical roots of modern urban theory 27

Studying the city 2.1 29

Ferdinand Tönnies: Community and society 30

Georg Simmel: The metropolis and mental life 31

Tönnies and Simmel: Further reflections 33

The Chicago School of Sociology 33

The city as social space 34

The city as concentric zones 36

The city, social change, and social order 38

Studying the city 2.2 40

Life in the city as a way of life 41

Making the city better 2.1 43

Early social theories of urban life 44

3 Social theories of urban space and place: Perspectives in the post-World War II era 47

Theoretical descendants of Marx 48

Manuel Castells and the urban question 48

David Harvey: Injustice and inequality in the city 49

John Logan and Harvey Molotch: The city as a growth machine 51

Making the city better 3.1 52

Making the city better 3.2 54

Further reflections: Marx and the critique of modern cities 55

The return to place and the turn to culture 56

Jane Jacobs and the discovery of community in the modern metropolis 56

Studying the city 3.1 57

Sharon Zukin and the turn to culture 59

Exploring further 3.1 61

Going global 64

The 1980s and the creation of the global city 64

Power, politics, and ordinary lives 67

Evaluating theories of the city 68

4 Methods and rules for the study of cities 71

First rules for doing a social science of cities 73

The rule of validity 73

The rule of reliability 75

Exploring further 4.1 76

Cities and the question of numbers 78

Studying the city 4.1 79

The city as a case study 79

The city as the typical case 81

The city as a prototypical case 83

Ethnographic and historical case studies 86

Ethnographic case studies 86

Studying the city 4.2 87

Historical case studies 89

From one to multiple cases 90

Studying the city 4.3 92

A last but very important rule on doing a good social science of cities: Fitting good theory to good methods 94

And what about insight? 95

Part II The Changing Metropolis 99

5 The metropolis and its expansion: Early insights and basic principles 100

Metropolitan growth: Basic features 102

Studying the city 5.1 104

The mobility of people and groups in the metropolis 105

Social differences and migration in the metropolis 106

Migration and the expansion of the metropolis 108

The metropolitan center and its links to the hinterlands 110

Studying the city 5.2 112

Human agents and social institutions in the expansion of the metropolis 112

Making the city better 5.1 115

Planning and metropolitan development 116

Exploring further 5.1 121

Urban growth, institutions, and human agents 124

6 The origins and development of suburbs 126

What is a suburb? Definitions and variations 128

Alternative suburban forms 130

A brief history of suburban development 132

The original suburbs 132

Culture and the demand for suburban living 134

Making the city better 6.1 135

Exploring further 6.1 136

Early suburban diversity 138

Transportation technologies and suburban expansion 138

Making the city better 6.2 140

The role of policy in suburban expansion 141

The mass production of US suburbs 144

Changes and challenges in contemporary suburbs 145

Privatization and gated communities 146

The varied fates of older suburbs 148

Suburbs as places 151

Studying the city 6.1 150

7 Changing metropolitan landscapes after World War II 154

Los Angeles: The prototype of the postwar metropolis 156

Exploring further 7.1 160

The changing metropolitan order 162

The decline of older industrial cities 162

The rise of the postindustrial/postmodern metropolitan regions 163

The importance of transportation, again 164

The remaking of places and spaces: The profound human and political consequences 165

Making the city better 7.1 167

The emerging global economy: A brief overview 168

Studying the city 7.1 172

People, place, and space in a global world 174

Part III Social Inequalities and Power in the Metropolis 179

8 The early metropolis as a place of inequality 180

Colonial cities as unequal places 182

Early urban diversity 184

Gender in the early metropolis 185

Cities of immigrants 187

Immigrant lives: New York’s Five Points 187

Studying the city 8.1 191

The Five Points case in context 193

Early reform and intervention efforts 195

Making the American ghetto 196

Integrated beginnings 196

Making the city better 8.1 197

New neighbours, new tensions 198

The perpetuation and implications of black ghettos 199

Studying the city 8.2 200

Exploring further 8.1 201

The significance of urban diversity and inequality 203

9 Inequality and diversity in the post - World War II metropolis 206

Inequality and the metropolis 207

Poverty and race 207

Exploring further 9.1 209

Poverty and homelessness 210

Making the city better 9.1 212

Gentrification and the remaking of the metropolis 214

Exploring further 9.2 215

Social diversity and the transformed metropolis 218

The new immigration and the transformation of the metropolis 218

Europe 218

Studying the city 9.1 221

The United States and Canada 222

Reconstructing the contemporary metropolis 225

New ethnic enclaves 225

LGBT neighbourhoods 228

Studying the city 9.2 231

The Western metropolis in flux 232

10 Power, authority, and cities as contested spaces 236

States and markets 237

The changing global economy 238

Cities today as contested spaces 240

The nature of local governance and politics 241

Local authorities and marginalized peoples 243

African Americans and local authorities 244

The homeless and local authorities 245

The very poor and local authorities 246

Contesting mistreatment by local authorities: Resistance and aid 246

Making the city better 10.1 247

Exploring further 10.1 249

Major contests over deep meanings and spaces in the metropolis 250

Jerusalem: The quintessential contested city 250

The contested spaces of Berlin 252

Conclusion 254

Part IV The Metropolis in the Developing World 257

11 Urbanization and cities in developing countries 258

Urbanization: The basic path and its impact on place 259

Developing-country cities in historical perspective 261

Studying the city 11.1 262

The basic dimensions of urbanization 263

Urban hierarchy 264

Urban primacy 265

Over-urbanization versus under-urbanization 265

Studying the city 11.2 267

Natural increase and in-migration 268

From process and system to place 269

A profile with multiple wrinkles 269

Megacities as places: Opportunities and challenges 271

Size and density 271

Creating wealth and sustaining poverty 272

Exploring further 11.1 274

Making the city better 11.1 276

The developing megacity as a lived place 277

Making the city better 11.2 279

Governing the megacities 280

Studying the city 11.3 281

Reassessing the developing-country city 283

12 Cities in the global economy 286

Cities in a globalizing world: Theoretical background 287

Emerging cities in the global economy 288

Yiwu, China 288

Rajarhat, India 290

Further reflections on Yiwu 291

Re-emerging cities in the global economy 292

Berlin, Germany: A once-prosperous, then challenged, and now re-emerging local culture 292

Shanghai, China: Local change in a global renaissance city 294

Deeper into the global economy 297

Dongguan, China: A place transformed from a rural township into a global factory-city 297

Studying the city 12.1 300

Dubai, United Arab Emirates: From desert to urban miracle to mirage 301

Cities in a fully networked global economy 303

The regional dimension and mediation of cities 303

Becoming globally networked 305

Exploring further 12.1 306

Interdependence between cities and the global economy 308

Studying the city 12.2 309

Systematic constraint and individual flexibility 310

The global restructuring of cities 310

Making the city better 12.1 312

Part V Challenges of Today and The Metropolis of the Future 315

13 Urban environments and sustainability 316

Making use of nature 317

Natural attributes and urban development 317

Interpreting and manipulating nature 318

Studying the city 13.1 321

Inviting “disaster” 322

Why rebuild? 323

Urban environments 326

Local environmental concerns 327

Making the city better 13.1 329

Environment and inequality 329

Making the city better 13.2 331

Global environmental concerns 332

Urbanization’s environmental impacts 333

Cities and climate change 333

Addressing environmental issues: Toward sustainability 336

Exploring further 13.1 337

14 The remaking and future of cities 341

Between place and space: Reinforcing a theoretical vision 342

Remaking cities at critical moments 344

The crisis of Detroit 344

The remaking of Detroit 345

Making the city better 14.1 346

Place-remaking on a larger scale 348

Daily place-remaking from below 349

Remaking neighbourhoods and communities 350

The remaking of Brooklyn, New York 350

From Detroit and New York to China and Shanghai – again 350

Studying the city 14.1 352

Remaking cities for the future 354

Scaling up and looking forward 354

The China and India scenarios and their wider implications 354

Cities of the future and the future of cities 358

Making the city better 14.2 359

A detour back to planning regarding its role in shaping future cities 360

The foundational attributes of future cities 361

Exploring further 14.1 364

A final look at the twenty-first-century city 365

Glossary 368

References 376

Index 393