Students:
I apologize for not posting my Weber comments until the last minute, I think they would have been helpful for your assignment. As a result, here are my comments on Weeks 7-9.
You're on your own for Week 10--I know that many of you are already familiar with New
Urbanism, so you shouldn't need my help.
WEEK 7Remember that this week’s readings focus on the relationship between cities and CAPITALISM, or larger economic structures.
UllmanVocab: areal does not mean “not real,” but is an adjective meaning, “of or relating to or involving an area”
I
A nice overview of the work that has come before him, and why it’s unsatisfying for the question he wants to answer.
II
Keep in mind Ullman is both relating, and critiquing, Christaller’s theory about the distribution and location of cities.
For those who have taken USP1 or 2, much of the discussion about cites and their surroundings should be review—despite the fancy graphs—because this section emphasizes the relationship between city and “tributary area” or hinterland.
• What is the relationship posed by this theory?
o Where ‘should’ cities be placed in a productive area according to the theory?
o How far apart should cities be?
o What kinds of cities does the theory recognize, and how are their locations theorized?
• What assumptions about land does this theory make? How does it presume the economy works?
• Can you think of cities that do & do not meet these assumptions? Where does the author suggest this theory is accurate to actual urban locations? Why might this be true for THOSE places?
III
How is ‘centrality’ measured by Christaller? What alternatives does Ullman suggest, and what might you suggest for today’s cities?
IV
Ponder the types of “modifiers” that Ullman makes to central place theory.
For example, with the example of Latin American “Sunday towns,” I’m sure many of you are familiar with the story of Junipero Serra and the California missions. Why are they where they are, and what explains their distance from one another?
Ullman further recognizes that the theory is static and has to reflect changing empirical reality like the development of road systems. What other features of contemporary society [technological, economic etc] would you suggest affects where cities are?
V
Ullman suggests the theory does apply to the “non-industrial” areas of the U.S., and points toward Iowa as an example. California’s version of Iowa, I suppose, is the Central Valley. Would you say it works there? I encourage you to consult google maps or some other data and see if the theory seems to fit.
David Harvey, The Right to the CityDavid Harvey is one of the most original and influential social scientists of the past 50 years. In addition, he’s not just an ivory tower thinker but someone who cares deeply about the real world.
Even if you don’t care about that, I hope you enjoy this video of David Harvey’s recent appearance on Democracy Now! He addresses many questions about our current crisis, and offers an overview of his argument in The Right to the City.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkTMO93Jyp0&feature=player_embeddedYou can find the rest of the interview here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ9dpuyx3Ps&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq6S-RCwg80&feature=player_embedded
But don’t think that watching an interview gets you off the hook for reading what might be your favorite essay of the quarter! For those of you who took USP2 with Prof. Pezzoli, you might remember the argument that city-regions could be the scale for a new form of citizenship. Here Harvey takes up a similar argument, suggesting that instead of the rights under capitalism—private property and profit—we extend the notion of human rights to democratize our cities.
You might also remember Molotch and Weber’s arguments when you read Harvey, to think about whom cities have historically served.
Spend some time with the first few pages, and ponder Harvey’s point that “The right to the city…is a right to change ourselves by changing the city” (23).
Harvey analyzes the formation and growth of cities [the process of urbanization] as tied to the creation and reinvestment of surplus [for our purposes profit]—which precedes, but becomes intertwined with the capitalist process. This is why he considers cities a “class phenomenon” (24).
Most of the introductory section is devoted to the incessant dynamism necessary for capitalism, that profits must endlessly be reinvested and any barriers to this cycle be overcome. Take the time to understand his arguments, as they are key to setting up his main point that “urbanization has played a particularly active role, alongside such phenomena as military expenditures, in absorbing the surplus product that capitalists perpetually produce in their search for profits” (25). This means he sees the process of urbanization as aiding capitalism itself.
Urban revolutions
Given that we’re in a capitalist crisis, and we’re considering remaking our cities—the ‘green revolution’—consider his analysis of 1850s Paris and the postwar U.S. under Robert Moses.
--What do these examples say about why, and how, cities get built and rebuilt?
--Pay attention to his analysis of scale, in particular how each crisis involved a larger scale than previously conceived.
--Also keep in mind that each crisis is resolved through new debt and financing techniques that never work forever but end in collapse.
Girding the globe
For those of you looking for answers to our current capitalist crisis, pay close attention to Harvey’s analysis. We just lived through a period in which urbanization, especially the home ownership, was a means of capitalist expansion. But this, like all other periods of capitalist growth, ended in crisis.
Property and pacification
Again, take a second to think through his comment that urban lifestyles, and the city itself, have become commodities—things that are bought and sold for profit. Many of you may recognize the urban features of division he describes on (32)—many are certainly in La Jolla! Consider the possibilities for a democratized city under these conditions, as Harvey says are much less likely, but much more important.
Dispossessions
Keep in mind the central point here, that because the “economic necessity”—i.e. capitalist crisis—eternally occurs, so too does the process of urban reorganization. And, because this is a class project, urbanization happens at the expense of those most marginalized. Of course, urbanization preceded capitalism, but it takes a certain form, operates by the logic of “accumulation by dispossession,” under the capitalist mode of development. Here Harvey is arguing that dispossession of the poor—literally kicking them out either through eminent domain or by pricing them out of areas—is tantamount to the absorption of surplus, or the ability to realize higher profits on the same land. This is how urbanization aids capitalism.
Formulating demands
I hope you have enjoyed the piece up to this far, as it is a clear-eyed examination of many recent urban & economic situations with which you may be already familiar. Now, similar to Molotch’s conclusion, consider the prospects for movements which might challenge the capitalist process of urbanization.
Spend some time with his closing point that focusing on the right to the city matters “precisely because it focuses on the question of who commands the necessary connection between urbanization and surplus production and use” (40).
**This is the crux of his argument about rethinking the rights to the city**
p.s. for all of you pissed about 165$ million in AIG bailout bonuses, keep in mind the figure for 2007—a banner year for capitalist failure--$32 BILLION.
WEEK 8 GLOBAL CITIESFor those of you who took USP2, when Prof. Pezzoli would say things like certain cities have “command and control capabilities” over the world economy, he was referring to the arguments made by people like Friedmann and Sassen.
Friedmann, The World City HypothesisSpend some time slowly reading and re-reading the first page and a quarter. Among other things, you’ll note that
• He indicates that Zorbaugh and others’ view of cities as social ecologies has been thoroughly repudiated—cities do not grow ‘naturally’
• He intends this article NOT as a theory
o world cities are not all in the same, but have similar economic roles
o these roles relate to what he calls the “new international division of labor”—What do you think he means by this term?
o in particular, world cities perform key functions in managing the contradictions between a ‘global’ economy and national/territorial states
1. What does Friedman say determines structural changes in cities? How does he define a city?
i. VOCAB articulation = “to join”
2. What criteria does Friedman use to create a hierarchy of cities? Does the map based on his hierarchy seem true today?
3. What are the main industries in world cities [remember this is 1986], and what kinds of labor forces exist in such places? How do more peripheral cities differ?
4. .
5. How does Friedmann explain migration and immigration both in terms of why and where to people move?
6. Again this should be familiar to USP2 vets, but take a second to think through Friedman’s point about multiple, simultaneous, scales of inequality. How does he pose the relationship between class and spatial polarization? How does class polarization differ in core and peripheral areas, and in what ways are they similar? Finally, how does he explain the process of social polarization? Spend some time with Figure 2 to appreciate his argument here.
7. What are the economic costs, and social consequences, of the growth of world cities? Do you see parallels to Harvey’s argument here?
Overall, the goal here is to understand the patterns Friedmann sees. These economic/social/political patterns are the basis upon which he suggests the world city concept. Remember he doesn’t think all world cities are the same, that they are one thing, but that they have important features in common. Know these and you get his point.
p.s. for those of you who are interested in USP grad programs, I think Friedmann—who advised Prof. Pezzoli—is still at UCLA. People say he’s quite nice in person.
Saskia SassenWe’re reading Sassen’s remarks regarding a revised edition of her book “The Global City.” So pay attention to the final paragraph of these introductory comments so that you know what she’s up to, and what perceptions she’s arguing against.
A New Conceptual…
This section is crucial to understand her argument:
• What trends does she say are significant, and motivate her study?
• What does she say is new about the world, and what is not new?
• What does she mean by “re-scaling”?
• Why did she use the term ‘global city’?
The Global City Model
Spend some time with these 7 hypotheses, and think about them in terms of empirical trends in the real world that motivate her theorizing about the emergence and importance of ‘global cities.’
• Keep in mind that some of these empirical trends are seemingly contradictory. Number 1, for example, discusses how firms have greater need for centralized coordination because their operations are increasingly geographically dispersed.
• Follow her hypotheses along, and get an understanding of what kinds of activities characterize contermporary firms, what challenges and economic pressures they face, and how this dictates where they locate?
o For example, think about her arguments regarding the location and even importance of corporate headquarters vs. their specialized service outsourcers. Where do these organizations locate, and why? What connections between cities does she see and why?
• (xxii) Again pay close attention here as Sassen lays out the point of her argument, and what she’s arguing against. In particular, what does she think is new about globalization vs. what’s not, and what does she mean by “the need to produce” global control capabilities? These are essential to her point.
The Global City Model
I think you need to pay close attention to the beginning of this section, and can skim the rest (354-ff).
Make sure you read (346-53) closely, focusing in particular on how she distinguishes herself from Friedmann’s “world city” hypothesis.
• What’s the difference between a global city and world city (349)? Which concept, and the meaning its author gives to each, do you think explains more about the world?
• What similarities are there between the processes of social and spatial inequality seen by Friedmann and Sassen (361-2)?
WEEK 9
Iris Marion YoungFeel free to start with the very last paragraph of the essay to get a quick understanding of her point. She’s going to critique the value/norm/ideal of community, and argue for a different standpoint, or perspective, from which to think about how we’d like cities to be. In particular, she’s going to explore the potential of difference, something she feels has much to offer cities but is erased in conceptions of community.
This is also a long piece, and all we have for the week, so I suggest breaking your reading of it into 2 sessions at minimum. This article has a lot to offer, so give it the time it deserves.
Pay close attention to the quote from Jane Jacobs! Reflect on the meaning of her statement, and remember it as you go through the essay.
Right away also notice that Young is making an argument about why theory is important, what it allows us to do.
Then look for the substance of her position:
• Why does she critique the ideal of community?
• What does she offer instead?
o Take a moment to think about the vision she offers—even if you yourself value community, try to imagine effective city life without it.
o Keep an eye out for the new concepts she tells us she’s going to introduce.
The Opposition…
Here Young is setting up two positions, liberals who praise individualism, and critics who praise community. You don’t have to know both of these positions thoroughly, but make sure you understand her point at the end that people having this argument presume that it is a two-sided debate, with no other alternatives.
• What does she mean that “indidivualism and community have a common logic underlying their polarity, which makes it possibly for them to define each other negatively” (228-9)
The Rousseauist…
Though her language can get pretty heady at times, keep in mind her basic point here. What is the dream, the goal of people who theorize about the benefits of community?
VOCAB shared subjectivity = fancy way of saying people share a point of view, or see the world the same way. Same goes for “mutual intersubjective transcendance,” which for us means multiple people reaching a shared world view/point of view.
Keep in mind her final point as well: the dream of community has “serious political consequences” (232).
Privileging…
What vision of politics does the ideal of community posit (232-3)? What kind of interactions and political process does it praise?
Why does she argue this vision “avoids politics” (233-4)?
• What is the “important political question” (234)? This is key to the alternative to community she’s going to build in the essay…
Undesirable…
What is the central consequence of the community ideal?
What is the process by which Young suggests commmuity has such consequences (234-5)?
What space does Young allow for the positive benefits of building community, and what limits does she suggest are important (236)?
City Life as Normative…
This is a very important section. You should be well-familiar with her review of how all too often authors are nostalgic for Gemeinschaft even though it’s totally unrealistic for most of humanity that lives in big cities. This is why Young insists we have to start with a realistic portrayal of modern urban existence if we are to have effective theories about it.
• How does Young define “city life” (237)?
o How does this differ from traditional visions of community?
• What virtues does city life offer (238-40)? Do you agree with these, see others?
o Pay close attention to her vision of politics. Strive to understand her goal that differences are “unassimilated”—how does that differ from “transcending them,” often the goal of community?
Social Injustice
Young recognizes that among the virtues of contemporary city life there are horrific inequalities, injustices.
What are the three processes she identifies as generating these issues?
How do these compare to arguments made by Molotch, Harvey, or Friedmann/Sassen?
Empowerment without Autonomy
Follow Young closely here: she agrees with others that democratizing decisions is good, but argues against the ideal of “small autonomous local communities” (248)? Why?
How does she define empowerment, and how does it produce a different vision from autonomy (251-5)?
• What are the roles of regions in her analysis, and why does she argue for regional governance?