Culture Regions

 Urban culture regions

 Cultural diffusion in the city
 The cultural ecology of the city
 Cultural integration and models of the city
 Urban landscapes
Six processes at work in the city

 Concentration — differential distribution of

population and economic activities in a city, and the
manner in which they have focused on the center of
the city
 Decentralization — the location of activity away
from the central city
 Segregation — the sorting out of population groups
according to conscious preferences for associating
with one group or another through bias and prejudice
Six processes at work in the city

 Specialization — similar to segregation only refers to

the economic sector
 Invasion — traditionally, a process through which a
new activity or social group enters an area
 Succession — a new use or social group gradually
replaces the former occupants
 The following models were constructed to examine
single cities and do not necessarily apply to
metropolitan coalescences so common in today’s
world
Concentric zone model

 Developed in 1925 by Ernest W. Burgess

 A model with five zones.
Concentric zone model

 A model with five zones.

– Zone 1
 The central business district (CBD)
 Distinct pattern of income levels out to the commuters’
zone
 Extension of trolley lines had a lot to do with this pattern)
Concentric zone model

 A model with five zones.

– Zone 2
 Characterized by mixed pattern of industrial and
residential land use
 Rooming houses, small apartments, and tenements
attract the lowest income segment
 Often includes slums and skid rows, many ethnic
ghettos began here
 Usually called the transition zone
Concentric zone model

 A model with five zones.

– Zone 3
 The “workingmen’s quarters”
 Solid blue-collar, located close to factories of zones 1
and 2
 More stable than the transition zone around the CBD
 Often characterized by ethnic neighborhoods — blocks
of immigrants who broke free from the ghettos
 Spreading outward because of pressure from transition
zone and because blue-collar workers demanded better
housing
Concentric zone model

 A model with five zones.

– Zone 4
 Middle class area of “better housing”
 Established city dwellers, many of whom moved
outward with the first streetcar network
 Commute to work in the CBD
Concentric zone model

 A model with five zones.

– Zone 5
 Consists of higher-income families clustered together in
older suburbs
 Located either on the farthest extension of the trolley or
commuter railroad lines
 Spacious lots and large houses
 From here the rich pressed outward to avoid congestion
and social heterogeneity caused by expansion of zone 4
Concentric zone model

 Theory represented the American city in a

new stage of development
– Before the 1870s, cities such as New York had
mixed neighborhoods where merchants’ stores
and sweatshop factories were intermingled with
mansions and hovels
– Rich and poor, immigrant and native-born, rubbed
shoulders in the same neighborhoods
Concentric zone model

 In Chicago, Burgess’s home town, the great

fire of 1871 leveled the core
– The result of rebuilding was a more explicit social
patterning
– Chicago became a segregated city with a
concentric pattern
– This was the city Burgess used for his model
– The actual map of the residential area does not
exactly match his simplified concentric zones
Concentric zone model

 Critics of the model

– Pointed out even though portions of each zone
did exist, rarely were they linked to totally
surround the city
– Burgess countered there were distinct barriers,
such as old industrial centers, preventing the
completion of the arc
– Others felt Burgess, as a sociologist,
overemphasized residential patterns and did not
give proper credit to other land uses
Sector model

 Homer Hoyt, an economist, presented his

sector model in 1939
 Maintained high-rent districts were
instrumental in shaping land-use structure of
the city
 Because these areas were reinforced by
transportation routes, the pattern of their
development was one of sectors or wedges
Sector model

 Hoyt suggested high-rent sector would expand

according to four factors
– Moves from its point of origin near the CBD, along
established routes of travel, toward another nucleus of high-
rent buildings
– Will progress toward high ground or along waterfronts,
when these areas are not used for industry
– Will move along the route of fastest transportation
– Will move toward open space
Sector model
 As high-rent sectors develop, areas between them
are filled in
– Middle-rent areas move directly next to them, drawing on
their prestige
– Low-rent areas fill remaining areas
– Moving away from major routes of travel, rents go from high
to low
 There are distinct patterns in today’s cities that echo
Hoyt’s model
 He had the advantage of writing later than Burgess
— in the age of the automobile
Sector model

 Today, major transportation arteries are

generally freeways
– Surrounding areas are often low-rent districts
– Contrary to Hoyt’s theory
– Freeways were imposed on existing urban pattern
– Often built through low-rent areas where land was
cheaper and political opposition was less
Multiple nuclei model

 Suggested by Chauncey Harris and Edward

Ullman in 1945
 Maintained a city developed with equal
intensity around various points
 The CBD was not the sole generator of
change
Multiple nuclei model

 Equal weight must be given to:

– An old community on city outskirts around which
new suburbs clustered
– An industrial district that grew from an original
waterfront location
– Low-income area that began because of some
social stigma attached to site
Multiple nuclei model

 Rooted their model in four geographic principles

– Certain activities require highly specialized facilities
 Accessible transportation for a factory
 Large areas of open land for a housing tract
– Certain activities cluster because they profit from mutual
association
– Certain activities repel each other and will not be found in
the same area
– Certain activities could not make a profit if they paid the
high rent of the most desirable locations
Multiple nuclei model
 More than any other model takes into account the
varied factors of decentralization in the structure of
the North American city
 Many criticize the concentric zone and sector
theories as being rather deterministic because they
emphasize one single factor
 Multiple nuclei theory encompasses a larger
spectrum of economic and social possibilities
 Most urban scholars feel Harris and Ullman
succeeded in trying to integrate the disparate
element of culture into workable model
Feminist critiques

 Most criticisms of above models focus on

their inability to account for all the
complexities of urban forms
 All three models assume urban patterns are
shaped by economic trade-offs between:
– Desire to live in suburban neighborhood
appropriate to one’s economic status
– Need to live close to the city center for
employment opportunities
Feminist critiques
 Models assume only one person is a wage worker —
the male head
 Ignore dual-income families and households headed
by single women
 Women contend with a larger array of factors in
making locational decisions
– Distances to child care and school facilities
– Other important services important for different members of
a family
 Traditional models that assume a spatial separation
of workplace and home are no longer appropriate
Feminist critiques
 Results of a study of activity patterns of working parents
– Women living in a city have access to wider array of employment
opportunities
– Better able to combine domestic and wage labor than women in
suburbs
– Many middle class women choose a gentrified inner-city location to
live
 Hope this area will offer amenities of suburbs—good schools and
safety
 Accommodate their activity patterns
– Other research has shown some businesses locate offices in
suburbs because they rely on labor of highly educated, middle
class women spatially constrained by domestic work
Feminist critiques

 Most women seek employment closer to home than

men even those without small children
 Criticism of models by women
– Most families require two real wage earners
– Models tend to reflect an urban structure that isolates
women who do not participate in the urban labor market
– Raises problems of timing and organization for those who
combine waged and domestic labor
– Created by men who shared certain assumptions about
how cities operate, and represent a partial view of urban life
Feminist critiques

 Other theories incorporated alternative perspective

of female scholars
– Studies using mostly female students, focused on “race,”
ethnicity, class, and housing in Chicago
– Emphasized role of landlords in shaping discrimination in
the housing market
 Study by urban historian Raymond Mohl
– Follows the making of black ghettos in Miami between 1940
and 1960
– Reveals role of public policy decisions, landlordism, and
discrimination
Apartheid and post-apartheid city

 Apartheid —state-sanctioned policies of

segregating “races”
 Intended effects of these policies on urban
form are delineated in next slide
Apartheid and post-apartheid city

 Important components of the apartheid state

– Policies of economic and political discrimination were
formalized under National Party rule after 1948
– Government passed two major pieces of legislation in 1950
 First was the Population Registration Act — mandated
classification of population into discrete racial groups: white,
black, and colored
 Second called the Group Areas Act — goal was to divide cities
into sections that could be inhabited only by members of one
population group
Apartheid and post-apartheid city

 Important components of the apartheid state

– Policies of economic and political discrimination were
formalized under National Party rule after 1948
– Government passed two major pieces of legislation in 1950
 First was the Population Registration Act — mandated
classification of population into discrete racial groups: white,
black, and colored
 Second called the Group Areas Act — goal was to divide cities
into sections that could be inhabited only by members of one
population group
Apartheid and post-apartheid city

 Important components of the apartheid state

– Government passed two major pieces of
legislation in 1950
 Effects of the two acts
– Downtowns were restricted to whites
– Areas for non-whites were peripheral, restricted, and often
without urban services—transportation or shopping
– Large numbers of non-whites were displaced with little or
no compensation
– Buffer zones were created between residential to curtail
contact
Apartheid and post-apartheid city

 Model apartheid city most closely resembles the

sector model
 Cities were artificially divided into discrete areas
 Non-white populations suffered the consequences
 Notorious example — Sophiatown in Johannesburg
 Remains to be seen what form the post-apartheid
will take
The Soviet and post-Soviet city

 Cities were shaped by the Bolshevik

revolution of 1917
– Socialist principles called for the nationalization of
all resources
– Economics would no longer dictate land-use—
allocation planners would
 New ideals had profound effect on urban
form of Soviet cities
The Soviet and post-Soviet city

 Soviet policies attempted to create a more equitable

arrangement of land uses
– Relative absence of residential segregation according to
socioeconomic status
– Equitable housing facilities for most citizens
– Relatively equal accessibility to sites for distribution of
consumer items
– Cultural amenities located and priced to be accessible to as
many people as possible
– Adequate and accessible public transportation
The Soviet and post-Soviet city

 The situation outlined above was less than ideal

– By the 1970s and 1980s many Soviets realized their
standards of living were well below those in the west
– Centralized planning system was not successful
 In the late 1980s economic restructuring introduced
perestroyka
 The post-Soviet city
– Market forces are again the dominant force in shaping
urban land uses
– Pace and scale of urban change are unprecedented
The Soviet and post-Soviet city

 The privatization of the housing market —example of

Moscow
– Private housing grew from 9.3 percent in 1990 to 49.6
percent in 1994
– Does not mean better housing for all people
– Many people cannot afford the high prices
– Apartments are particularly expensive in the center of
Moscow
– Most people have no choice but to live in communal
apartments from the old Soviet system
The Soviet and post-Soviet city

 Cities are taking on the look of Western cities

– Downtowns now have most expensive land
– Increasingly dominated by retailing outlets of familiar
Western companies
– Tall office buildings housing financial activities are replacing
industrial buildings
– Processes akin to gentrification are taking place in city
centers displacing residents to peripheral portions of the
cities
 The outcome of the new changes is not certain and
will be continued to be studied
Latin American model

 More complex because of influence of local

cultures on urban development
 Difficult to group cities of the developing
world into one or two comprehensive models
 Latin American model is shown in next slide
Latin American model

 Generalized scheme both sensitive to local cultures

and articulates pervasive influence of international
forces, both Western and non-Western
 In contrast to today’s cities in the U.S., the CBDs of
Latin American cities are vibrant, dynamic, and
increasingly specialized
– A reliance on public transit that serves the central city
– Existence of a large and relatively affluent population
closest to CBD
Latin American model
 Outside the CBD, the dominant component is a
commercial spine surrounded by
 the elite residential sector
– These two zones are interrelated and called the
spine/sector
– Essentially an extension of the CBD down a major
boulevard
– Here are the city’s important amenities — parks, theaters,
restaurants, and even golf courses
– Strict zoning and land controls ensure continuation of these
activities, protecting elite from incursions by low-income
squatters
Latin American model

 Inner-city zone of maturity

– Less prestigious collection of traditional colonial
homes and upgraded self-built homes
– Homes occupied by people unable to participate
in the spine/sector
– Area of upward mobility
Latin American model

 Zone of accretion
– Diverse collection of housing types, sizes, and
quality
– Transition between zone of maturity and next
zone
– Area of ongoing construction and change
– Some neighborhoods have city-provided utilities
– Other blocks must rely on water and butane
delivery trucks for essential services
Latin American model

 Zone of peripheral squatter settlements

– Where most recent migrants are found
– Fringe contrasts with affluent and comfortable
suburbs that ring North American cities
– Houses often built from scavenged materials
– Gives the appearance of a refugee camp
Latin American model

 Zone of peripheral squatter settlements

– Surrounded by landscape bare of vegetation that
was cut for fuel and building materials
– Streets unpaved, open trenches carry wastes,
residents carry water from long distances,
electricity is often “pirated”
– Residents who work have a long commute
– Many are transformed through time into
permanent neighborhoods
Culture Regions

 Urban culture regions

 Cultural diffusion in the city
 The cultural ecology of the city
 Cultural integration and models of the city
 Urban landscapes
Themes in cityscape study

 Landscape dynamics
– Because North Americans are a restless people,
settlements are cauldrons of change
 Downtown activities creeping into residential areas
 Deteriorated farmland on city outskirts
 Older buildings demolished for new
– When visual clues are mapped and analyzed,
they offer evidence for current of change
Themes in cityscape study

 Equally interesting is to note where change

in not occurring
– An unchanging landscape conveys an important
message
 Part of the city is stagnant because it is removed those
forces effecting change in other parts
 Conscious attempt by local residents to inhibit change
 Preserve open space by resisting suburban
development.
 Preserving a historical landmark
Landscape Dynamics:
Alexandria, Virginia
Landscape Dynamics:
Alexandria, Virginia

 Cities grow through

intensification of already
urbanized areas and by
extensification into rural
areas.
 This new development is on
agricultural land near
Washington, DC.
 Many farmers on urban
peripheries, lured by rising
land prices, ultimately sell to
developers
Landscape Dynamics:
Alexandria, Virginia

 As a mixture of open land

and urban structures, this is
a good example of leapfrog,
or checkerboard
development.
 Moreover, the houses are
being sold as “Gentlemen
Farms,” a landscape of the
elite.
Themes in cityscape study

 The city as palimpsest

– Because city landscapes change, they offer a field for
uncovering remnants of the past
– Palimpsest
 An old parchment used over and over for written messages
 Before a new message could be written, the old was erased,
but rarely were all previous characters and words completely
obliterated
 The mosaic of old and new is called a palimpsest — used by
geographers to describe visual mixture of old and new in
cultural landscapes
City as Palimpsest: Singapore
City as Palimpsest: Singapore
 Like many cities,
Singapore’s landscape is
one of historic artifacts
amidst the contemporary
fabric. This is the core of
old Singapore, as developed
by the British after 1819.
Strategically situated on the
Straits of Melaka, the city
functioned as an important
entreport in Southeast Asia
attracting a population of
Chinese, Indians, Malays,
and Europeans.
City as Palimpsest: Singapore
 Trade offices, shophouses, and
godowns (warehouses) lined
the Singapore river and
commercial activity choked the
area. After Singapore became
independent in 1963-1965, the
combination of rapid population
growth and aging infrastructure
called for a renewal plan. Old
housing stock and godowns
were razed to be replaced by
modern public housing, malls
and office buildings.
City as Palimpsest: Singapore
 In the 1980s, people realized
that they were destroying the
character of the city and efforts
were made to preserve and
restore some of old Singapore.
Waterfront shophouses have
been “boutiqued” into clubs and
restaurants. Here, remnants of
the past stand in the shadow of
the symbols fo the future: The
Bank of the People’s Republic
of China (left) and the Telecom
building.
Themes in cityscape study

 Symbolic cityscapes
– Landscapes contain more than literal messages about
economic functions
 Loaded with figurative or metaphorical meaning
 Subjectivized emotion, memories, and content essential to the
social fabric
– To some, skyscrapers are more than high-rise buildings
– Historic landscapes help people define themselves in time
 Establish social continuity with the past
 Codify a forgotten, yet sometimes idealized, past
Themes in cityscape study

 D.W. Minig maintains there are three highly

symbolized townscapes in the
 United States
– The New England village
– Main Street of Middle America
– California Suburbia
– Each is based upon an actual landscape of a particular
region
– Each has influenced the shaping of the American scene
over broader areas
Themes in cityscape study
 Cultural landscape is important vehicle for constructing and
maintaining social and ethnic distinctions
– Conspicuous consumption is a major means for conveying social
identity
– Elite landscapes are created through large-lot zoning, imitation
country estates, and detailed ornamental iconography
 Cultural geographers are interested in how townscapes and
landmarks take on symbolic significance
– Question whether idealizations are based on some sort of reality or
fabricated from diverse predilections
– Interested in how to assess the impact of symbolic landscapes
– Messages inherent in loaded landscapes determine how we treat
our environment-bow it is managed, changed, or protected
Pigeon Problems: Rome, Italy
Pigeon Problems: Rome, Italy
 Pigeons, starlings, and
sparrows thrive in urban
environments. Feral
pigeons, descended from
rock doves, favoring cliff-
face roosts, like to nest in
similar building niches.
Accumulated droppings
raise serious problems.
They corrode stonework,
particularly limestone, and
many historic buildings and
statues have been
irreparably damaged.
Pigeon Problems: Rome, Italy
 Fouled pavements are
slippery and hazardous to
pedestrians. Pigeon
excreta, feathers and
detritus can block gutters
and drains providing a
potential health hazard. In
many cities today, people
are discouraged from
feeding pigeons and
renovated buildings are
fitted with spiked rails to
discourage roosting.
Themes in cityscape study

 Perception of the city

– Social scientists assume if we know what people
see and react to in the city we can design and
create a more humane urban environment
– Kevin Lynch, an urban designer, assumed all
residents have a mental map of the city
 Figured out ways people could convey their mental map
to others
 What do people react favorably or negatively to?
 What do they block out?
Themes in cityscape study

 Perception of the city

– On the basis of interviews, Lynch suggested five
important elements in mental maps of cities
 Pathways — threads that hold our maps together
 Edges — tend to define the extremes of our urban vision
 Nodes — any place where important pathways come
together
 Districts — small areas with a common identity
 Landmarks — reference points that stand out because
of shape, height, color, or historic importance
Themes in cityscape study
 Lynch saw some parts of the cities were more legible
than others
– Legibility comes when urban landscape offers clear
pathways, nodes, district, edges, and landmarks
– Less legible parts of the city do not offer such precise
landscape
 Lynch found some cities more legible than others
– Jersey City is a city of low legibility
 Wedged between New York City and Newark
 Fragmented by railroads and highways
– Residents’ mental maps of Jersey City have large blank
areas
Themes in cityscape study

 Distinct ethnic, gender, and age variables to

mental maps of cities
– Often influence everyday behavior
– Women feel more vulnerable to crime, especially
rape
– Women will tend to avoid certain areas of a city at
night
The new urban landscape

 Shopping malls
– Most are not designed to be seen from the outside
– Retail districts of the 18O0s~and early 1900s cities had
grand architectural displays along the major boulevards
– Malls are often located near an off ramp of a major freeway
– Close to middle and upper-class residential neighborhoods
The new urban landscape

 Shopping malls
– Characteristic form of malls of the 1960s
 Simple, linear form, with department stores at each end
functioning as anchors
 Usually had 20 to 30 smaller shops connecting the two ends
– In the 1970s and 1980s, larger malls had a more complex
form
– Example: Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota
– Malls today are often several stories tall and may have 5 or
6 anchor stores, and up to 400 smaller shops
The new urban landscape

 Office parks
– Office buildings no longer need to be located in
the center city
 Development of communication technologies
 Major interstates connect metropolitan areas
 Cheaper rent in suburban locations
 Convenience of easy-access parking and privacy of a
separate location
– Being constructed throughout suburban America
The new urban landscape

 Office parks
– Next slide shows location of office parks in
metropolitan Atlanta
– Many are occupied by regional and national
headquarters of large corporations or local sales
and professional offices
– Many offices will locate together and rent or buy
space from a land development company to take
advantage of economies of scale
The new urban landscape

 Office parks
– The use of the term park points to conscious anti-
urban imagery
 Tend to be horizontal in shape — three to six stories tall
 Many are surrounded by a well-landscaped outdoor
space
 Human-made lakes and waterfalls, jogging paths,
fitness trails, and picnic tables
The new urban landscape

 Office parks
– Do remove workers from social diversity of an
urban location
– Many office parks are located along what have
been called high-tech corridors — areas along
limited-access highways
– This new type of commercial landscape is
gradually replacing downtowns as the workplace
for most Americans
The new urban landscape

 Master-planned communities
– Many newer residential developments on
suburban fringes are planned and built as
complete neighborhoods by private development
companies
 Include architecturally compatible housing
 Have a variety of recreational facilities
 Exploit various land-use restrictions and zoning
regulations to maintain control over land values
The new urban landscape

 Master-planned communities
– Example of Weston in south Florida
 Covers approximately ten thousand acres
 Land use is completely regulated within gated area and
also along the road system connecting Weston to the
interstate
 Shrubbery is planted to shield residents from roadway
view
 Signs are uniform in style
The new urban landscape

 Festival settings
– Often gentrification efforts focus on a multiuse
redevelopment scheme built around a particular setting,
often one with historical association
– Waterfronts are commonly chosen as focal points
– Complexes integrate retailing, office, and entertainment
activities
– Knox suggests these developments are “distinctive as new
landscape elements merely because of their scale and their
consequent ability to stage — or merely to be — the
spectacular”
Festival Marketplace: Hong Kong
Festival Marketplace: Hong Kong

 Festival settings, both

outdoors and indoors, are
used to attract customers.
There is typically one or
more themes with
flamboyant flags, signs,
music and entertainment.
Retail establishments
include trendy shops,
restaurants, and
entertainment facilities.
Festival Marketplace: Hong Kong

 This is one of the

several ultra-modern,
enclosed malls in Hong
Kong. The theme here
is the Dragon Boat
Festival, held annually
in the lunar calendar’s
fifth month. This view
is from an open, tiered
restaurant.
The new urban landscape

 Festival settings
– Some festival settings serve as sites for concerts,
ethnic festivals, and street performances
 Also focal points for more informal human interactions
usually associated with urban life
 In this sense do perform a vital function in the attempt to
revitalize downtowns
– Massive displays of wealth and consumption
often stand in contrast to neighboring areas that
have received little benefit from these projects
The new urban landscape
 “Militarized” space
– Meaning the increasing use of space to set up defenses
against elements of the city considered undesirable
– Includes landscaping development that range from:
 Lack of street furniture to stop homeless living on the streets
 Gated and guarded residential communities
 Complete segregation of classes and races’ within the city
– As Davis says, “cities of all sizes are rushing to apply and
profit from a formula that links together clustered
development, social homogeneity, and a perception of
security”
– Has taken on epic proportions as many big American cities
become “militarized” spaces
The new urban landscape

 Decline of public space

– Related to the increase in “militarized” space
– Change in shopping patterns from downtown to
shopping malls
– Many city governments have joined with
developers to built enclosed walkways above or
below city streets
 Provides climate-controlled conditions
 Provides pedestrians with a “safe” environment to avoid
possible confrontations on the street
The new urban landscape

 Decline of public space

– Related to the increase in “militarized” space
– Change in shopping patterns from downtown to shopping
malls
– Many city governments have joined with developers to built
enclosed walkways above or below city streets
 Provides climate-controlled conditions
 Provides pedestrians with a “safe” environment to avoid
possible confrontations on the street
– Some scholars suggest the Internet is a new forum for
social and political interaction
A New Landmark:
London, England
A New Landmark:
London, England

 This is the high-tech,

engineering style
(1986) of Lloyd’s of
London Insurance
building. Designed by
Richard Rogers, co-
designer of the
Pompidou Center in
Paris, it stands as a
challenge to those in
love with the past.
A New Landmark:
London, England

 It stimulates controversy and

has become a landmark
enhancing the legibility of
the city. Not only is it made
of reflective materials and
the glass atrium suspended
on central pillars, but much
of what is traditionally inside,
such as stairways, elevators
and lavatories, is now on the
outside. It is a building with
its guts exposed. The black
structure is Barclay’s Bank.