ESG-4102: Urban Geography and Planning

Lecture 01: Introduction

A H M Nahid
Assistant Professor
Department of Development Studies
Islamic University, Kushtia

Lecture by A H M Nahid
 Contents

• Definition of Urban Geography

• Defining the Urban
• The Nature and Scope of Urban
Geography
• The Development of Urban
Geography
• Level of Analysis in Urban
Geography
• Why study Urban Geography?
Definition of Urban Geography
• Urban geography is the subdiscipline of geography that studies urban places with
reference to their geographical environment.
• It studies urban centres in the context of geographical factors: economic (what-how-
where), socio-cultural (attitudes, norms, values), and political (what, how, who).
• ‘Urban geography is the study of the actual town itself.’ – D. Stamp.
• 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.
 Defining the Urban
• In approaching the concept of urban, it is useful to draw a
distinction between the question of what is an urban place, and
what is urban.
• The distinction between the urban as a physical entity and the
urban as a quality helps us to understand the complexity of urban
life and illuminates different approaches to the study of cities.
• Urban as an entity: Four principal methods are employed to
identify urban places – population size, economic base,
administrative criteria, and functional definitions.
 Defining the Urban (Cont.)
• Urban as a quality: In contrast to definitions of the city as a physical entity,
the concept of the urban as a quality is related more to the meaning of
urban places and the effect of the urban milieu on people’s lifestyles (and
vice versa). Clearly, although cities exist as physical objects, it is by no means
certain that they are perceived by their inhabitants in the same way that
they are objectively structured. It is reasonable to think of a city as having
both an objective physical structure and a subjective or cognitive structure.
• Urban geographers and others have sought to identify urban meaning
through two main approaches – cognitive mapping (mental mapping for
better understanding and improving life) and urbanism as a way of life
(distinct life-style).
 Nature and Scope of
Urban Geography
• Urban geography seeks to explain the
distribution of towns and cities and the socio-
spatial similarities and contrasts that exist
between and within them.
• There are two basic approaches to urban
geography:
1. The first refers to the spatial distribution
of towns and cities and the linkages
between them: the study of systems of
cities.
2. The second refers to the internal
structure of urban places: the study of the
city as a system.
• In essence, urban geography may be defined as
the study of cities as systems within a system of
cities.
 The Development of
Urban Geography

• Environmentalism: Explores the relationship

between people and environment.
Although the notion of environmental
determinism is now discredited, the influence of
environmental factors on residential location can
be seen in the problems of building in hazardous
zones, and in the effects of architectural design
on social behaviour.
 The Development of
Urban Geography
(Cont.)

• Positivism: Positivism is characterised by

adherence to the ‘scientific method’ of
investigation based on hypothesis testing,
statistical inference and theory construction.
Uses statistical analysis of objective social,
economic and demographic data (e.g. via
factorial ecology) to reveal areas in the city that
display similar residential characteristics.
 The Development of
Urban Geography
(Cont.)
• Behaviouralism: Seeks to overcome the
shortcomings of spatial analysis by highlighting
the role of cognitive processes and decision-
making in mediating the relationship between
the urban environment and people’s spatial
behaviour.
Addresses the key question of why people
and households relocate by examining the
motives and strategies underlying the intra-urban
migration of different social groups.
 The Development of
Urban Geography
(Cont.)

• Humanism: Views the individual as a

purposeful agent of change in the city rather
than a passive respondent to external stimuli.
Explains how different individuals and social
groups interact with their perceived
environments, as in the differential use of public
and private spaces within a city or residential
neighbourhood.
 The Development of
Urban Geography
(Cont.)
• Structuralism: Means that explanations for
observed phenomena cannot be found through
empirical study of the phenomena alone but
must be sought by examination of prevailing
social, economic and political structures.
Examines the ways in which political and
economic forces and actors (e.g. financial
institutions, property speculators and estate
agents) influence the residential structure of a
city through their activities in urban land and
housing markets.
 The Development of
Urban Geography
(Cont.)
• Managerialism: Focuses attention on the
power of urban managers—professionals and
bureaucrats—to influence the socio-spatial
structure of cities through their control of, for
example, access to public housing, or the
allocation of mortgage finance.
Illustrates how urban residential structure is
affected by the ability of professional and
bureaucratic gatekeepers to control access to
resources, such as social housing or mortgage
finance.
 The Development of
Urban Geography
(Cont.)
• Postmodernism:
• Characterised by the rejection of grand theory and an
emphasis on human difference. This distances
postmodernism from both positivism, with its search for
general laws and models, and structuralism, with its base in
grand theory relating to the capitalist mode of production.
• In terms of the social geography of the city, the most
important contribution of a postmodern perspective is how
its focus on difference, uniqueness and individuality
sensitises us to the needs and situations of all members of
a society.
Explores the place of different social groups in the
residential mosaic of the city by focusing on the particular
lifestyles and residential experiences of various populations,
such as ethnic minorities, affluent groups, gays, the elderly,
disabled, and the poor.
 The Development of
Urban Geography
(Cont.)

• Moral Philosophy: Involves critical evaluation

of actual situations against normative
conditions as defined by ethical principles.
Critically evaluates the ethical underpinnings
of issues such as homelessness or the incidence
of slums and squatter settlements.
 The Development of
Urban Geography
(Cont.)
• In search of common ground: Each of the major
philosophical perspectives considered can claim to
illuminate some part of the complex dynamics and
structure of the city. But no single approach provides
a full explanation of urban phenomena. The
question of whether an accommodation is possible
among the different approaches has been polarized
between those who accept a pluralist stance
—‘agreeing to differ’ on the grounds that there is no
single way to gain knowledge—and those who insist
on the need to make a unitary choice of theoretical
framework due to the perceived superiority of a
particular theory of knowledge. Others have sought
to combine approaches in different ways.
 Level of Analysis in
Urban Geography

1. The Neighbourhood
2. The City
3. The Region
4. The National System of Cities
5. The World System of Cities
Brainstorming
Why do we need
to study urban
geography?
 References

• Pacione, M. (2005). Urban Geography:

A Global Perspective. Taylor & Francis.
Ch. 1 & 2.
• L. N. Verma. (2006). Urban Geography.
Rawat Publications. Ch. 1 & 2.