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This document discusses the scope and definitions of urban geography. It notes that over 50% of the world's population now lives in urban areas, projected to rise to over 60% by 2050. Urban geography studies the origins, growth, and development of cities in relation to their geographical surroundings. There are various definitions of what constitutes an "urban place" across countries and scholars. The scope of urban geography includes the physical structure and development of cities as well as the processes that influence urban areas and their surrounding regions.

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Roxanne Mendez
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66 views

Lesson 1ppt

This document discusses the scope and definitions of urban geography. It notes that over 50% of the world's population now lives in urban areas, projected to rise to over 60% by 2050. Urban geography studies the origins, growth, and development of cities in relation to their geographical surroundings. There are various definitions of what constitutes an "urban place" across countries and scholars. The scope of urban geography includes the physical structure and development of cities as well as the processes that influence urban areas and their surrounding regions.

Uploaded by

Roxanne Mendez
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Thinking about Cities

Relationally
 In 2007, the world reached an urban milestone when the
percentage of people living in cities exceeded 50 percent
for the first time in history.
 By 2010, the world’s urban population approached nearly
3.5 billion, and it is projected to rise to nearly 6.3 billion
by 2050.
 To put these figures into historical perspective, in 1950
less than 30 percent of the world’s population was
urbanized.
 The study of urban geography can help us
a. have a better appreciation of the economics of what goes
on within cities and recognize the interdependencies
involved in local, national, and international economic
development in an increasingly globalized world.
 b. It can provide us with a framework for conceptualizing
urbanism in conjunction with an appreciation of history
and the relationships among art, culture, and society
 c. It can illuminate the interplay of science and technology
with social and economic change; reveal important
dimensions related to race, gender, and sexuality; identify
important issues concerning social inequality, urban
segregation, and gentrification; raise concerns about urban
environmental quality; and point to important lessons for
urban governance and policy.
Nature and Scope of Urban Geography:

 Urban geography is the study of urban places with reference to their


geographical environment. Broadly speaking, the subject matter
includes origin of towns, their growth and devel­opment, their
functions in and around their surroundings.
 The subject of urban geography has gradually taken a special place
among the various branches of geography in the period after the
Second World War in various foreign and Indian universities and
colleges. With the increase of population globally, towns and cities
have become magnets of economic, social and political processes.
Meaning of an Urban Place:

In everyday life we are aware that difference between rural and urban depends upon their nature of work – the former being
engaged in agricultural operations and the latter in non-agricultural activities.
 But it is a difficult task to transform the above stated
meaning between the two different natures of settlements
into precise and scholarly terms. This is because of the
fact that ‘an urban place’ has been defined differ­ently by
different scholars and agencies
 UNO defines a permanent settlement with a minimum
population of 20,000 as an urban place. But several
countries have their own minimum such as Botswana
(5,000), Ethiopia (2,000), Argentina (2,000), Israel
(2,000), Czechoslo­vakia (5,000), Iceland (200), Norway
(200), Portugal (10,000), Japan (50,000), Australia
(1,000), India (5,000), etc.
 But, the UN Demographic Year Book concludes: “There is
no point in the continuum from large agglomerations to
small clusters or scattered dwellings where urbanity
disappears and rurality begins the division between urban
and rural popula­tions is necessarily arbitrary.” A review of
the problems of rural and urban centres as revealed by the
Census Reports of various countries identifies a few bases
for reckoning a place as urban.
These are:
 (1) A place designated by administrative status;
 (2) A minimum population;
 (3) A minimum population density;
 (4) A concept of contiguity to include or exclude
under suburban area or loosely scattered
settlement;
 (5) A proportion engaged in non-agricultural
occupations; and
 (6) A functional character
Scope of Urban Studies and Definitions:
 Urban geography studies urban centre in the context of
geographical factors. The factors operate spatially to explain
processes – economic, socio-cultural and also political. But the
subject of urban geography has its limited scope in the sense that it
deals with these processes in relation to only one phenomenon, i.e.,
town or city. Some of the general principles on which a town is
based form the subject-matter.
 Commonly, it includes in the very beginning, consideration about
the origin of an urban place. The genesis about a town is invariably
related to its history. Who is behind its origin? What is that which
makes a town to take its root where it is, and why it is there? Town
site or the ground on which it is sited has some specific and
geographic attributes. This need explanation to bring forth
personality of a town.
 Another point which has been emphasized by D. Stamp to cover the scope of urban
geography is the study of the actual town itself, i.e., town as an entity. He further has added
that influence of the town on its surrounding area too forms a signif­icant aspect of the
study. This means that ‘townscape’ and also hinterland including ‘umland’ are vital issues
for studying urban geography.
One of the pioneer scholars in urban studies in India,
R.L. Singh has stressed on three broad categories
under the scope, viz.
 (a) The physical structure of the city,
 (b) The stage of its historical development, and
 (c) The process influencing the structure.
 Dickinson defines urban geography as the study of
a city commanding the surrounding region. He
describes the city as a king among the surrounding
towns. His trait for cities of all ages has been
institutional supremacy for their surrounding
territory.
Bases and Concepts:

 Cooley, in his treatise on transportation, made it


clear – “why is a town there, where it is?” He has
pointed out the geographical qualities which
govern the site of a town is ‘binary’. On the one
hand, it is bountiful with respect to its resources
and facilities of production, while on the other, it is
equipped with transportational facilities.
Site-Situation Concept:

 Taylor’s various classes and types of cities are the


product of their natural site like hills; ;mountain-
corridors; passes; plateaux; eroded domes; river-
estuaries, and roadsteads; rivers, falls, meanders,
terraces, deltas, fans, valleys, islands; lakes, etc.
All of these are ‘controlled’ primarily by the
topography of sites.
Concept of Radicalism:

 An important aspect of the urban world is the concept of


‘total change’ brought into play by development of
metropolises. This has changed totally the consumers’
ideas. These ranged from the relative deprivation of
immobile residents of small-country towns who are
isolated from standard urban services which are
concentrated at only big cities.

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