Chapter 4: Urban Systems in Transition

The changes that have occurred to the U.S. and European urban systems as a result of the transition to an advanced form of capitalism that is increasingly global in its scope.

For the United States, 3 epochs are identified:

1. spanning (1945-1972), corresponded with a period of postwar economic recovery and growth
2. between (1972-1983) was a brief but important period that corresponded with a phase of economic crisis and reorganization
3. since 1983, the U.S. urban system has been experiencing yet another phase of change, dominated this time by the effects of high-tech economic development and new telecommunications technologies

The reorganization of U.S. business following World War 2 that led to the regional decentralization of the economy also made for certain amount of metropolitan consolidation that promoted the growth of regional business centers like Houston.



The pattern of Control Centers- cities with a high proportion of corporate headquarters- changed to reflect the growth of cities like Atlanta, Houston, New York, and Detroit.

• How did the economic crisis between 1972 and 1983 affect the US urban system?

By the late 1970s productivity had fallen to less than 1 percent annual growth. At the end of the 1970s the average U.S. family only had 7 percent more real purchasing power than it had had a decade before. Between 1970 and 1983 the average weekly wages of U.S. workers fell, in real terms, from $375 to $365.

Most Americans even in the year 2007 are living pay check to pay check. I think that so ridiculous because we are the richest country and we have some much poor people around.

Chapter 3: The foundation of the American Urban System

The evolution of U.S. urban system through five distinctive epochs that together established the foundations for the contemporary urban system. In Knox, this set of urban settlements is both the product of and continuing framework for, processes of economic, technological, demographic, political and social change.
* New patterns of settlement
* New kinds of towns and cities
* New patterns of trade and migration between towns and cities

5 epoch of Urban Development:

1. the frontier urbanization around which the U.S economy was organized until independent nation hood
2. a period of merchant trading, or mercantilism, during with there emerged a more extensive system of local marketing and service centers (central places).
3. characterized by an expansion and realignment of the urban system in response to early industrialization, the mechanization of agriculture and immigration
4. industrialization on the effects of principles of industrial location on the development and adaptation of the urban system
5. corresponds with the emergence of Fordism and mass- produced automobiles, trucks, and aircraft which significantly changed the spatial organization of the urban system

• How did creative destruction manifest itself on the urban landscape?

As soon as the differential is large enough, some disinvestment will take place within core cities, leading to deindustrialization there; meanwhile the capital is invested in the new ventures that are located elsewhere.

Chapter 2: The Origins and Growth of Cities

This chapter follows the evolution of cities from their origins about 5,500 years ago through the Industrial Revolution that began in the English Midlands in the mid 1700s. As describe in Knox, Urban System is a complete set of urban settlements of different sizes that exists within a given territory

• Territorial limits set the bonds of an urban system
• Cities and urban life are recent features in the long span of Human existence
  
• Theories of urban origins come together to offer the reasons for why cities originated.
• Mesopotamia, Egypt, The Indus Valley, Northern China and Mesoamerica provide the earliest evidence for urbanization and urban civilization
• Evidence- street patterns, religious precincts, and different neighborhoods.

Urbanization spreads out from the 5 regions of urban origin so that by 1000 A.D. successive generations of city-based empires. The regional specializations and long-distance trading patterns emerge that provided the foundations for a new phase of urbanization based on merchant capitalism.


What role has empire and military power played in forming urban systems?

1. The need for people to gather together for protection inside the safety of military defenses.

   "warfare may often have made a significant contribution to the intensification of urban developments by including a concentration of settlement for purposes of defense and by stimulating craft specialization."--Wheatley

My Urbanization Blog

Hey Everyone, My blog is up and I'll be posting my thoughts about the chapters soon. I'm looking forward to using this "blog". its my first time ever using a blog.