UNST 220 Understanding Communities

Dr. Martha J. Bianco

Module I Lecture Guide

Part I

Polis, Metropolis, Megalopolis:

From Urban Specks to Global Cities

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I. Introduction

II. What is a City?


Image from 1926 film Metropolis, set in year 2000	Image from 1982 film Blade Runner (Tyrell Corporation), set in 2019	Image from 1995 television series Star Trek Deep Space 9 (Bajor, United Federation of Planets) set in 2370

III. Cognitive Map

IV. The Study of the City

A. Urban studies

B. Different paradigms for different disciplines

V. Theories of Urbanization: Where and When Was the First City?

Map of Ancient Civilizations

A. The Childe Thesis

1. V. Gordon Childe (1892-1957) was an Australian archaeologist who studied the rise of civilization.

a. the agricultural revolution

b. the urban revolution

mastery over nature agriculture surplus development of city

2. P

O

E

T

3. Cities of the Fertile Crescent

Map of the Fertile Crescent

Factors Making Them Cities, According to Childe:

a. size & density

b. diversity & specialization

c. monuments & ruling class

d. trade

e. science & art

f. writing


Cuneiform process: Writing on soft clay tablet with a reed pen	Progression from pictograph to cuneiform	Clay tablet with cuneiform	Sketched copy of same tablet	Click to see closeup of a tablet

B. Other Early Cities

1. Jericho

2. Old Jericho

3. Çatal Hüyük / Çatalhöyük

4. Tell Hamoukar


Tell Lidar (photo)	Tell Megiddo (model)	Tell Megiddo (color reconstruction)

C. Jane Jacobs' Trade / “New Obsidian” Theory

desire to carry on trade city settlement agriculture

D. Lewis Mumford and the Sacred Meanings Thesis

desire to have fixed holy landmarks city settlement agriculture, trade, diversification, science etc.

VI. CLASSIFYING CITIES

A. Gideon Sjoberg’s Classification of Cities

1. Preindustrial City

2. The Industrial City

VII. Concepts of Community

Ferdinand Tönnies, German sociologist born in 1855, began teaching at a German university in 1881 and in 1987 developed the concepts of Gemeinschaft (community) and Gesellschaft (society).

A. Gemeinschaft

B. Gesellschaft

Characteristic

Gemeinschaft

Gesellschaft

spatial

· walking city with primitive modes of transport

· central places (plazas, parks, etc.)

· monuments, religious buildings, market centers

· more advanced transportation and communication l

· central business district with distinct personality as center of business and government

· urban density offset by suburban sprawl

· factory smokestacks

economic

· nonmarket economy of barter and exchange

· agriculture dominates

· self-sustenance rather than large-scale production and surplus

· cottage industries

· simple division of labor

· wealth measured in land or animals, but no “market” value (no real estate value)

· market economy emphasizing cash

· manufacturing dominates

· heavy surplus and regional, national, and international trade

· separation of work and home

· large factories, with assembly-line production

· complex division of labor

· wealth measured in capital: money and/or the means of production, including land, machines, labor

social & cultural

· emphasis on kinship ties

· strong extended families

· close ties to neighbors

· sense of community based on family and neighborhood

· face-to-face communications dominate

· primary groups (family, neighbors) dominate over secondary groups (e.g., fellow workers)

· ethnic similarities and cohesion

· similarity of culture, beliefs, religion, language (homogeneity)

· religious and sacred explanations for phenomena

· emphasis on the individual

· immediate family unit more important than extended family

· few ties to neighbors

· lack of sense of community

· mass communications (e.g., TV) dominate

· secondary groups dominate

· ethnic differences and discrimination present

· differences of culture, beliefs, religion, language (heterogeneity)

· alienation and anomie

· scientific, secular explanations for phenomena

political

· traditional authority based on elders, priests, etc.

· little bureaucracy or technocratic expertise

· informal sanctions and contracts

· repressive, strict law

· advancement based on family ties and background

· legal/rational authority based on legal precedence, formal rules, etc.

· extensive bureaucracy and reliance on experts

· power elites, including businesses and politicians

· restitutive law (fines, etc.)

· formal contracts

· advancement based on merit and training

C. Techno$chaft

VIII. A TOUR OF WORLD CITIES

Virtual Tour of Ancient Cultures

A. THE RIVER’S EDGE: The Role of the River in Ancient Cities

1. Cities of the Fertile Crescent: Rivers Forming the Cradle of Civilization


Map of Ur	Color reconstruction of Ur	Ziggurat	American soldiers on ziggurat in Ur (Iraqi War 2004)	American soldiers on ziggurat in Ur	Artist’s reconstruction of dwelling in Ur

2. The World of the Nile: A Civilization Devoted to the Gods


Map of Akhetaten (1349 BC)	Main city of Akhetaten	Black & white reconstruction

Color reconstruction of Akhetaten	Aerial view of Akhetaten	Pharaoh Aketaten and Nerftiti worship Aten

Workers’ settlement	Worker’s flat	Noble’s residence

3. Around the Huang Ho River: A Rigidly Stratified Society

Plan of capital city of Ch’ang, from 7^th Century

B. THE FORTIFIED EDGE

1. Dwellings as Protection in Çatal Hüyük


Early wall painting from Çatal Hüyük	Black & white reconstruction of Çatal Hüyük	Color reconstruction

Çatal Hüyük from above, showing laddered entrances into dwellings	Individual dwelling	“Suburbs” of Çatal Hüyük

C. MULTIPLE EDGES

1. City within a City: The Greek Polis

a. acropolis

b. agora


Map of ancient Greece	Acropolis of Priene	Schematic of Athenian acropolis and agora

Schematic of Athenian agora	Map of Athenian agora with acropolis in background	Model of Athenian agora

Model of Athenian acropolis and agora	Black & white reconstruction of agora	Color reconstruction of agora

2. The Fortified City: Protecting the Medieval Economy

a. burgs (boroughs)

b. organic towns


11^th century French village	century French village	Dunkirk, 1650 century16^th

Faubourg Saint Germain, 1615	Palais Cardinal, 1634, with “suburban” activity outside walls	River activity in shanty town suburb with Notre Dame in distance, 1695

Click on this 1572 map of Paris by François Belleforest to view parts of the city and environs in detail.

D. BEYOND THE EDGE

1. Ancient Suburbs

2. Medieval Faubergs

E. CITIES WITHOUT EDGE: American Settlement Patterns

1. Key Factors Affecting American Settlement Patterns

a. natural resources

b. values and beliefs

freedom

individuality

mastery over nature and over other peoples

capitalist economy

emphasis on economic growth

social valuation of space

egalitarianism

right to privacy

expansionism

2. How These Factors Have Affected American Settlement Patterns

3. The Edge City

a. more than 5 million square feet of office space

b. at least 600,000 square feet of retail space

c. more jobs than homes

d. “has it all”

e. did not look anything like a city 30 years prior

Click to see an animation of Tyson’s Corner, Virginia, as it develops from 1937 to 1990

Click on each photo individually to view it without animation.

Washington Square, Progress, Beaverton-Tigard Area, Oregon, before and after construction of square in 1974.

Additional Reading:

Fraim, John. “Cultural Places.” Symbolism of Place. (2001). <http://www.symbolism.org/writing/books/sp/3/home.html>.

Garreau, Joel. “Edgier Cities.” Wired 3:12 (1995) <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.12/edgier.cities.html>

Geddes, Robert. “Metropolis Unbound: The Sprawling American City and the Search for Alternatives.” The American Prospect 8:35 (1997) <http://www.prospect.org/print/V8/35/geddes-r.html>.

Mitchell, John G. “Urban Sprawl.” National Geographic Magazine Online (2001). <http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/data/2001/07/01/html/ft_20010701.3.html>

Putman, Robert D. “The Strange Disappearance of America.” The American Prospect 7:24 (1996) <http://www.prospect.org/print/V7/24/putnam-r.html>.

Tönnies, Ferdinand. Community and Society: Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft. Reprinted in and translated by Charles P. Loomis, 223-231, Michigan State University Press. 1957. In Marcello Truzzi. Sociology: The Classic Statements, 145-154. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971. < http://www2.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/courses/GEMEIN.HTML>.

Online Experiences

Schneider, Bernd. “Galleries – Planets and Cities.” Ex Astris Scientia: Bernd Schneider’s Star Trek Site. <http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/gallery/planets1.htm>.

“Blade Runner: The Replicant Site.” <http://www.blade-runner.it/>.

“SurrealPlaces 3D Image Galleries.” <http://www.surrealplaces.com/>.

Take a virtual trip of ancient civilizations, at “Virtual Trip: Introduction to Ancient Culture.” <http://www.taisei-kodaitoshi.com/civil_e/civilization.html>.

Explore ziggurats, tombs, and palaces and play ancient board games and take other “challenges” at the British Museum’s website: Mesopotamia: The British Museum. <http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/>.

Explore the highly detailed interactive map of 16^th century medieval Paris, by François de Belleforest (1572), at <http://www.paris.org/Maps/Map2>.

“Virtual World: The New Suburb?” NationalGeographic.com. 2001. <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/earthpulse/sprawl/index_flash.html>.

“Tour.” Congress for the New Urbanism <http://www.cnu.org/about/index.cfm?formaction=tour&CFID=8133658&CFTOKEN=1187455>

“Suburban Sprawl Slideshow.” Christian Science Monitor. <http://www.csmonitor.com/slideshows/durableSlideshows/suburbanSprawl/slide1.html>.

“Contested Narrative: The Contest over Who and What to Believe.” Globalization Research Center. 2002. <http://www.earthwindow.com/grc2/narrative>.

“The Venus Project: A Redesign of the Future.” <http://www.thevenusproject.com/>.

2004-2005