Notes on Key Concepts of Urban Geography | GEOG 120, Study notes of Geography

Download Notes on Key Concepts of Urban Geography | GEOG 120 and more Study notes Geography in PDF only on Docsity! Key Concepts in Urban ~ Geography Overview of lecture Scope of Urban Geography Defining Urban Place and Space Brief History of Urban Geography Levels of Analysis What is urban? Is State College Urban? What makes it urban/rural? How is it different from or similar to a big city like New York or Philadelphia? Why does it matter? Urban as entity Size Economic Base Administrative Criteria Functional Definition • SMSA (Standard MSA) • MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) • PMSA (Primary MSA) • CMSA (Consolidated MSA) What is urban? (2) Urban as a quality Meaning of urban places and effect on people’s lifestyles. • Subjective experience affects physical place • Early notions: Loss of community, moral decline, Jungle, • Now: more complex notions of urbanism Place and Space Place denotes physical location, territory Space is medium in which social, economic and political processes operate Dimensions of space include size, density, distance, direction, territory and location. Disconnection of place and space? Cyberspace or “Space of Flows” Brief History of Urban Geography-3 Postmodernism (late 1980s-present) Rejection of grand theory (both positivism and structuralist) Difference, individuality, multiple viewpoints, subjectivity Unlimited relativism? Moral Philosophy Normative Finding common ground? Levels of analysis Neighborhood Local economic decline/revitalization Segregation Service provision Neighborhood political organization City Economic production and consumption Social networks Political power Levels of analysis-2 Region Megalopolis—MegaCities Metropolitan area governance City-suburb linkages Nation National policy Urban systems Global World system of cities