S05 GEOG301i Examination
1 Study Guide
Spring Semester 2005
Mon March 14 19:00 - 21
LA4-102
Instructor: Dr. Dmitrii Sidorov
NEW: The examination will be for 2 hours; take as much time as
you need, but no more than 120 minutes. This a closed textbook examination:
only scantron and pencil/pen are allowed. No need for the blue books.
The list of essay questions is now finalized (question #11 has been dropped,
as we agreed).
The segment of the study guide related to our last lecture (on urban geography)
is now complete and the whole study guide is finalized.
Use the study guide as a minimal check list. Ideally, you need to know everything
from the textbook, it is not the most difficult one. For the essay
questions, the best strategy is to do your home work and practice answering
the questions. Read the questions very carefully. Be precise:
if the essay question is about, say, processes, do answer about processes
not something else. Avoid stating the obvious/rhetorical/common-sensual:
your answers should reflect your understanding of the material and analysis
of the arguments.
Good luck!
Please bring scantron form #882E
Examination 1 consists of short essay
types of questions and True-False/Multiple Choice questions.
The points on all tests will be
distributed as follows
(total 100):
True-False/Multiple Choice/Short
Answer on Reading/Lecture Material
50
Short essays on Reading/Lecture
Material
50
The Origins and Development of the World's Cities
Division
of labor, hierarchical power structure, its geography in the traditional city.
The early urban cores:
where/when. Order (earlier/later
etc.)
Why? Theories of urban origins.
Jericho, Catal Huyuk.
The first urban revolution. Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus Valley,
China, the Americas, Teotihuacan, Mohenjo Daro, Harappa, Arian invasion.
Urban development: Europe. Periods (for each, characteristic features
and functions, major city). Athens, Rome, Carcassonne, Hanseatic towns, Venice, London, Paris, Vatican,
Versailles – where are/were they located/roughly period when were most important
(classical Antiquity, urban decline, late Medieval/Renaissance/trading,
Baroque, industrial/modern, postmodern/postindustrial). Agora, forum, boulevards,
grand palaces, formal parks. Roman planning: basic features. Urban decline:
why? The late Medieval city: major features. The Baroque city. The
second urban revolution. The Industrial Revolution: when/where/essence/urban
implications. Deindustrialization, post-industrial cities.
Slide show: Rothenburg (Germany), Krakow (Poland) -- Lisbon (Portugal)+Madrid
(Spain)+Paris (France) -- Edinburgh+Belfast (UK) -- Berlin, London, Paris,
Prague.
Film: The City (esp. ancient Athens and Rome).
Film: London (the role of the Thames; the Roman city; the history
of environmental challenges and innovative solutions; Docklands).
The Development of North American Cities
Terms and definitions: urban growth vs. urbanism vs. urbanization; urbanization
S-curve (why?);
Current level of urbanization: world/US-Canada. The first urbanized nation.
Most/least urbanized regions of the world, most rapidly urbanizing now,
regions with largest cities now (e.g., sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America,
Europe etc.)
Defining the urban: criteria (e.g., size, econimic base etc.). Urbanized
areas in the US: Metropolitan area, consolidated metropolitan area, central
city vs. suburbs). Mega-city, megalopolis, world city, global city.
The primate city.
Rustbelt vs. Sunbelt cities.
Dacha
Films: Boston; Ethnic Mosaic (relative location, CBD, empowerment
zone); Chicago: Farming on the Edge (suburban sprawl, edge cities,
farmland loss).
Cities and Suburbs of the Twenty-First Century
Sprawl (everything -- meaning, forms, problems, solutions).
The edge city: meaning, characteristics and commonalities, types, variations
Gated communities: meaning, basic characteristics in the US, types.
CIDs
Portland
Films: Road to the Future (segment on Tysons Corner and Los Angeles);
Understanding Urban Sprawl (Why suburbs? Social, economic, environmental
cost of suburbs. LA, airplane suburbs, Vancouver, Mexico City [e.g.,
floating gardens, "Montezuma's revenge"], Portland).
Urban Sociology: The Classical Statements
The Demographic Transition theory: basic logic/stages
Ferdinand Tonnies vs. Emile Durkheim, gemeinschaft vs. gesellschaft, mechanical
solidarity vs. organic solidarity.
Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Marxism's vision of historic periods, social
structure of capitalist society. Communism.
Russian early revolutionary urban visions: urbanists vs. disurbanists, the
linear city. Microrayon as a unit of planning.
George Simmel vs. Max Weber. The mental life of the metropolis (symbolic
stimulation, rationalization of time, specialization, importance of money
etc.). Comparative study of cities, urban communities, vision of urbanism
Urban sociology:
American vs.
European approaches. Robert Park & the Chicago School. Urban
ecology. Louis Wirth & urban theory. Criticism of Wirth's
theory.
Social Psychology: The Urban Experience
Kevin Lynch: the image of the city. Common elements of images: edges,
districts, paths, nodes, landmarks
The city as gesellschaft and gemeinschaft: meaning, examples,
reassessment.
The texture of the city.
Stereotypical impressions of major American cities. Importance
of reputation, attempts to change textual image.
Humanizing the city
Film: Designing for Disaster (criticism of the contemporary American
urban design)
Geography and Spatial Perspectives: Making Sense
of Space
The location of cities:
Houston, Miami, Montreal,
Salt Lake City, Washington, D.C.
Why cities are where they are? Seven factors
The shape of the city: the radiocentric city, the gridiron city. City
growth. City shape and quality of life.
The Chicago school of urban ecology. The ecological theory of urban
development. The five main zones. The sector theory. The multiple
nuclei theory. For each theory, name of the author(s) and year. The
synthesis theory.
The Los Angeles school and postmodernism. Four new "ecologies" (surfurbia,
the foothills, the plains of Id, autopia).
What is urban geography?
Approaches in urban geography: Descriptive (environmentalism, determinists
vs. possibilists, regional studies), Positivism (spatial analysis, behavioralism),
Critical tradition (Marxism, humanism, feminism), Postmodernism
For the major approaches (Descriptive, Positivism, Critical
tradition, Postmodernism) -- their inner logic (basically,
what sets of issues/questions they study, chronological order, emergence
as a reaction to deficiences of previous approaches). For minor approaches
discussed (determinism vs. possibilism, spatial analysis, behavioralism,
Marxism, humanism, feminism, postmodernism) -- similar to major approaches
but also maybe examples of research and key names (if available)
Frank Gehry's architecture:
basic characteristics, connection to LA and one of the urban geography traditions.
Last moment addition to
the section on North America (above): Economic activities (Primary, secondary,
tertiary, quarternary): their essence/examples/changing importance through
time/relative importance in developed-developing countries
Short essay
questions:
The list below has 10 short essay questions. The
actual test will have only 6 of the 10 questions (5 required + 1 extra question
of your choice).
1. Where,
when and why did the earliest (pre-European) cities appear?
2. Compare and contrast the early Mesopotamian cities and the early Egyptian
cities.
3. The
textbook provides the following chronological periods for London: 55B.C.-1066AD;
1066-1550; 1550-1800; 1800-1900; 1900 to present. Briefly describe these
periods paying particular attention to problems and specifically geographical
factors in the city's evolution.
4. Explain
differences between the following terms: urbanization, urbanism, and urban
growth; primate city, world city, and mega-city. Explain the S-shape
of urbanization curve.
5. The textbook provides the following historical periods for the development
of North American cities: 1600-1800; 1800-1870; 1870-1950; 1950 to the present.
For each period, highlight the major socio-economic processes which
were shaping the cities.
6. Briefly highlight New York's major transformations and problems in the
following periods: before 1800, 1800 - 1870, 1870 - 1950, after 1950.
7. Name and briefly characterize problems of and solutions to sprawl. If
appropriate, use Portland and Tyson's Corner as examples.
8. Briefly characterize similarities and then differences between urban
ideas of any three of the following sociologists: Marx, Durkheim, Tonnies,
Simmel, and Weber.
9. Summarise criticisms of early urban theory.
10. Characterize similarities and differences between the following approaches
in urban geography: positivism and postmodernism.