Urbanism and Planning The City Reader
Part 1 The Evolution of Cities
The Urbanization of the Human Population
Scientific American (1965)
Kingsley Davis (1908-1996)
He concludes that, historically, urbanization is primarily caused by rural-urban
migration, not because of other possible factors such as differential birth and
mortality rates.
During the medieval urbanization the proportion of the population that was urban
opposed to rural changed very slowly. Davis concludes that because of the
Industrial Revolution (1800) in combination with rapid population growth and
rural-urban shifts, the proportion of the population living in the city and absolute
city size changed very quickly.
Davis argues that the urbanization follows a S-curve pre-industrial cities grow
very slowly, they grow very hard when they industrialize and then keep around
the same growing speed.
He says that there will be an end to urbanization.
The new digital communication will lead to the world as a single global city
(Saskia Sassen) or a global city network (Peter. J Taylor).
The Urban Revolution
Town Planning Review (1950)
V. Gordon Childe (1892-1957)
Three age system Stone age
Bronze age
Iron age
He replaced it by fundamental shifts in cultural development: Paelolithic
Neolithic
Neolithic Urban
Urban Industrial
He thought that the city was a result of the revolution above that initiated a new
economic stage in the evolution of society.
Most recent archaeologists excavating older, smaller, less culturally advanced
settlements than the Mesopotamian cities Childe studied argue that these
settlements were advanced enough to qualify as true cities.
The Polis
From: The Greeks (1951)
H.D.F. Kitto (1897-1982)
According to Kitto the city made a monumental contribution to human culture.
What the Greeks achieved in philosophy, literature, drama, poetry, art etc. has
exercised a big influence on Western civilization.
, Urbanism and Planning The City Reader
Polis the classical Greek polis came of age in the fifth century BCE. The
physical form of the polis stressed public space.
The polis did not support development of every resident: women and slaves were
not citizens and did not participate in much of the life of the polis.
Athens and the other Greek poleis were astonishingly democratic compared to
any other urban civilization.
The polis represents a form of community. It was a living community; almost an
extended family. Their public life was essentially communistic. The poleis were
also self-sufficient.
Why did the polis arose in Greece? And why did not such towns form larger units?
Historical argument: The living in small communities is the way the Greek
preferred to live.
Geographical argument: the mountainous terrain required little, separate
city-states. Greece had physical barriers, like the mountains, which made
transport of goods difficult.
Economic argument: the poleis were reasonably self-sufficient, there was
no great economic interdependence. There was not enough counteraction
between the different poleis.
The Great Towns
From: The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844
(1845)
Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)
By the 1840s, the Industrial Revolution had transformed conditions in many
English cities, for example in Manchester, which Engels had observed in detail.
He observed and analysed the urban poor in the city Manchester. He constructed
his arguments by merely walking around the city and reporting what he sees. Of
particular interest was the observation he made about public health
consequences (in terms of air and water pollution) of unrestrained overbuilding.
Engels responded on the spatial arrangements of the spatial segregation of
urban-industrialism: The main thoroughfares mask the horrors that lie beyond
from the eyes of the factory owners and the middle-class managers who
commute into the city from outlying suburbs.
Engels draws a connection between the physical decrepitude of the urban
infrastructure and the alienation and despair of the urban poor.
Evolution and Transformation: The American Industrial
Metropolis, 1840-1940
Sam Bass Warner (1889–1979)
The United States became a world power and its cities were regarded as the
paradigm examples of advanced ‘modern’ urbanism. It was a period of rapid
transformation, both socially and technologically.
Warner summarizes the broad range of areas in which the very terms of urban
life changed during the century after the onset of the Industrial Revolution.
Part 1 The Evolution of Cities
The Urbanization of the Human Population
Scientific American (1965)
Kingsley Davis (1908-1996)
He concludes that, historically, urbanization is primarily caused by rural-urban
migration, not because of other possible factors such as differential birth and
mortality rates.
During the medieval urbanization the proportion of the population that was urban
opposed to rural changed very slowly. Davis concludes that because of the
Industrial Revolution (1800) in combination with rapid population growth and
rural-urban shifts, the proportion of the population living in the city and absolute
city size changed very quickly.
Davis argues that the urbanization follows a S-curve pre-industrial cities grow
very slowly, they grow very hard when they industrialize and then keep around
the same growing speed.
He says that there will be an end to urbanization.
The new digital communication will lead to the world as a single global city
(Saskia Sassen) or a global city network (Peter. J Taylor).
The Urban Revolution
Town Planning Review (1950)
V. Gordon Childe (1892-1957)
Three age system Stone age
Bronze age
Iron age
He replaced it by fundamental shifts in cultural development: Paelolithic
Neolithic
Neolithic Urban
Urban Industrial
He thought that the city was a result of the revolution above that initiated a new
economic stage in the evolution of society.
Most recent archaeologists excavating older, smaller, less culturally advanced
settlements than the Mesopotamian cities Childe studied argue that these
settlements were advanced enough to qualify as true cities.
The Polis
From: The Greeks (1951)
H.D.F. Kitto (1897-1982)
According to Kitto the city made a monumental contribution to human culture.
What the Greeks achieved in philosophy, literature, drama, poetry, art etc. has
exercised a big influence on Western civilization.
, Urbanism and Planning The City Reader
Polis the classical Greek polis came of age in the fifth century BCE. The
physical form of the polis stressed public space.
The polis did not support development of every resident: women and slaves were
not citizens and did not participate in much of the life of the polis.
Athens and the other Greek poleis were astonishingly democratic compared to
any other urban civilization.
The polis represents a form of community. It was a living community; almost an
extended family. Their public life was essentially communistic. The poleis were
also self-sufficient.
Why did the polis arose in Greece? And why did not such towns form larger units?
Historical argument: The living in small communities is the way the Greek
preferred to live.
Geographical argument: the mountainous terrain required little, separate
city-states. Greece had physical barriers, like the mountains, which made
transport of goods difficult.
Economic argument: the poleis were reasonably self-sufficient, there was
no great economic interdependence. There was not enough counteraction
between the different poleis.
The Great Towns
From: The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844
(1845)
Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)
By the 1840s, the Industrial Revolution had transformed conditions in many
English cities, for example in Manchester, which Engels had observed in detail.
He observed and analysed the urban poor in the city Manchester. He constructed
his arguments by merely walking around the city and reporting what he sees. Of
particular interest was the observation he made about public health
consequences (in terms of air and water pollution) of unrestrained overbuilding.
Engels responded on the spatial arrangements of the spatial segregation of
urban-industrialism: The main thoroughfares mask the horrors that lie beyond
from the eyes of the factory owners and the middle-class managers who
commute into the city from outlying suburbs.
Engels draws a connection between the physical decrepitude of the urban
infrastructure and the alienation and despair of the urban poor.
Evolution and Transformation: The American Industrial
Metropolis, 1840-1940
Sam Bass Warner (1889–1979)
The United States became a world power and its cities were regarded as the
paradigm examples of advanced ‘modern’ urbanism. It was a period of rapid
transformation, both socially and technologically.
Warner summarizes the broad range of areas in which the very terms of urban
life changed during the century after the onset of the Industrial Revolution.
