Chapter 20 Communities and Urbanisation 1 Communities Communities

Chapter 20 Communities and Urbanisation 1

Communities • Communities may be formally defined as a spatial or political unit of social organisation that gives people a sense of belonging. • Pre-industrial city: generally had only a few thousand people living within its borders and was characterised by a relatively closed class system and limited mobility. • Industrial city: was not only more populous than its pre-industrial predecessors; it was also based on very different principles of social organisation. 2

• Post-industrial city is a city in which global finance and the electronic flow of information dominate the economy. • Urbanism (都市性): a relatively large and permanent settlement leads a distinctive patterns of behaviour. • Megalopolis (大都會區): a densely populated area containing two or more cities and their surrounding suburbs. (e. g. , 500 miles corridor stretching from Boston south to Washington DC, including New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, accounted for 1/6 of the US population). 3

Comparing Types of Cities 4

• Human ecology (人類生態學): an area of study concerned with the interrelationships between people and their spatial setting and physical environment. • Urban ecology (都市生態學): an area of study that focuses on the interrelationships between people and their environment in urban areas. (functionalist view) 5

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Comparing Approaches to Urbanization 7

Urban life is noteworthy for its diversity, so it would be a serious mistake to see all city residents as being alike. Five types of people found in our Cities (Gans 1991): 1. Cosmopolites (世界主義者): writers, artists and scholars 2. Unmarried and childless people: active nightlife and varied recreational opportunities 3. Ethnic villagers: immigrant groups 4. The deprived: very poor people and families 5. The trapped: who wish to leave urban centers but cannot because of their limited economic resources and prospects. 8

• Suburb: the term generally refers to any community near a large city– or, as a Census Bureau would say, any territory within a metropolitan area that is not included in the central city. • Zoning laws: legal provisions stipulating land use and architectural design of housing, often employed as a means of keeping racial minorities and low income people out of suburban areas. 9