Urban Ethnography

Kornblum W 1974 Blue Collar Community. University of Wirth L 1928 The Ghetto. University of Chicago Press, Chicago Press, Chicago Chicago Ladner J A (ed.) 1998 The Death of White Sociology: Essays on Zorbaugh H W 1929 Gold Coast and Slum: A Sociological Study Race and Culture, 2nd edn. Black Classic Press, Baltimore, of Chicago’s Near North Side. University of Chicago Press, MD Chicago Lidz V 1977 The sense of identity in Jewish-Christian families. Zukin S 1991 The hollow center: US in the global era. Qualitatie Sociology 14(1) In: Wolfe A (ed.) America at Century’s End. University of Liebow E 1967 Tally’s Corner: A Study of Negro Streetcorner California Press, Berkeley, CA, pp. 245–61 Men. Little, Brown, Boston, MA Lofland L 1998 The Public Realm: Exploring the ’s Quin- E. Anderson tessential Social Territory (Communication and Social Order). Aldine de Gruyter, New York, NY Lynd R S, Lynd H M 1929 Middletown: A Study in American Culture. Harcourt Brace, New York [reprinted 1956] Matza D 1969 Becoming Deiant. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ Nyden P, Figert A, Shibley M, Burrows D (eds.) 1997 Building Urban Community: in Action. Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks, CA For the first time in human history, the majority of the Park R E 1918 The city: Suggestions for the investigation of world’s population lives in cities. Metropolitan areas human behavior in the urban environment, reprint 1967. In: will soon become the immediate sphere of human The City. University of Chicago Press. Chicago Park R E, Burgess E W, McKenzie R D 1928 The City. existence and experiences, and this sphere is changing University of Chicago Press, Chicago [reprinted 1967] rapidly. The megacities of low-income countries are Portes A, Rumbaut R G 1996 Immigrant America: A Portrait. subject to stark urban population growth and as a University of California Press, Berkeley, CA result are increasingly difficult to command and to Rainwater L 1968 Behind Ghetto Walls: Black Families in a control. Urban\metropolitan areas of the highly Federal Slum. Aldine, Chicago industrialized nations are likewise undergoing a his- Rohner R P (ed.) 1969 The Ethnography of Franz Boas. torical change: in the light of global trends in eco- University of Chicago Press, Chicago nomics, society, and politics, they are facing challenges Sassen S 1991 The : New York, London, Tokyo. which require new and extensive economic and local Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ policies in order to meet increasing intra-urban com- Sassen S 2000 Cities in a World Economy, 2nd edn. Pine Forge petition for investments and taxpayers. Press, Thousand Oaks, CA Theoretically informed social science research is Shaw C R 1938 The Jack-roller: A Delinquent Boy’s Own Story. University of Chicago Press, Chicago [reprinted 1966] absolutely necessary to monitor trends of urban Short J F, Strodtbeck F L 1965 Group Process and Gang development, to provide basic information for the Delinquency. University of Chicago Press, Chicago optimization of local strengths, to design urban Suttles G D 1968 The Social Order of the Slum. University of development concepts which adequately provide for Chicago Press, Chicago local needs and demands, and for Suttles G D 1972 The Social Construction of Communities. which equally respects collective decisions, increased University of Chicago Press, Chicago competition, modern urban structures, and the in- Thrasher F M 1927 The Gang: A Study of 1,313 Gangs in dividual ‘feeling’ of the city. Social science research Chicago. University of Chicago Press, Chicago defines and analyzes control factors of urban de- Tsai G 1998 Middle class Taiwanese immigrants’ adaptation to velopment, brings to light basic data and information American society: Interactive effects of gender, culture, race, about urban structures, and processes, perceptions and class. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of and the attractiveness of the cities. This is where urban Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA Thomas W I, Znaniecki F 1918 The Polish Peasant in Europe and geography has an important role to play. America. G. Badger, Boston Wacquant L J D 2000 A fleshpeddler at work: Power, pain, and profit in the prizefighting economy. Theory and Society 27: 1–42 1. Urban Geography: Tasks and Approaches of a Warner W L, Lunt P S 1941 The Social Life of a Modern Social Science Discipline Community. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT Washington R L 1990 Brown racism and the formation of a world system of racial stratification. International Journal of 1.1 The Scope of Urban Geography Politics, Culture, and Society 4 (2): 209–27 Whyte W F 1943 Street Corner Society: The Social Structure of Urban geography is a specialized discipline within an Italian Slum. University of Chicago Press, Chicago . It deals with the analysis, ex- [reprinted 1993] planation, and prognosis of urban forms, urban social Wilson 1987 The Truly Disadantaged: The Inner City, The fabric, and economic structures and functions. Urban Underclass, and Public Policy. University of Chicago Press, geography addresses research questions from eco- Chicago nomic, political, social, and ecosystem geography in

16008 Urban Geography their urban contexts at various scales. The scientific uncover the power structures and the functioning of results of urban research increasingly serve as a basis urban regimes. According to this school of thought, for decisions on public investment, allocation of urban form and the ‘turning of skylines and CBD’s is resources, and socioeconomic and urban development a means of accumulating capital at the cost of other planning. Urban research can be broken down into urban sub-areas, a process accompanied by policies of interurban (system of cities) and intra-urban analyses, neglect and disinvestment. Social and welfare dispari- which address the processes going on within cities (see ties as are manifest in differing morphologies across Cities, Internal Organization of ). urban space have thus become another major area of urban research.

1.2 Conceptual Approaches and Types of Research Areas in Urban Geography 1.2.2 Urban function and urban social structure. Analysis of urban land use development, urban A large number of conceptual approaches are utilized functions, and specializations: specialized economic in urban geography. Each addresses different types of activities seek locations with the greatest competitive research questions that may contribute to the under- advantage. This approach helps to understand urban standing of the complexity and complementarity of land use development and to determine those land factors influencing the urban system. The approaches use patterns that most competitively provide basic pertain to urban form and , the support for the city. The internal structures of spec- urban social fabric and economic structures, urban ialized urban functions (wholesale, retail, service development, and urban policy. activity, etc.) within the city and their market orie- ntation, i.e., urban locations that are best suited to meet the city’s needs, are points of focus. On the 1.2.1 Urban form and urban morphology. This micro scale of the city, the analysis of central business approach deals with the analysis of the built environ- districts and neighborhood business\convenience ment. The changing urban morphology, including centers have received priority. On the meso and historic\heritage preservation, the creative reuse of macro scales of urban systems analysis, the degree of landmark buildings, the architectural and techno- specialization in and between cities is considered the logical upgrading of dilapidated buildings and urban base for identifying a city’s market potentials, stre- revitalization, have gained importance in recent ngths, and niches within a regional or national hier- years. These measures can improve a city’s attract- archy of cities. iveness for investors and high-income earners, hence Empirical examination of factors organizing space the city’s fiscal base, by increasing the emotional and and megalopolitan structure deals with the intellectual attachment of the target population to as a changing configuration and the processes by the city. which metropolitan areas grow and expand beyond Whereas revitalization has been shown to increase their rigid corporate limits. Studies of metropolitan the attractiveness of the townscape and urban image, patterning examine the functional differentiation of this form of urban redevelopment is not without social , the interrelation of the city and its sur- costs. Gentrification and urban sub-area revitaliza- rounding area through economic linkages and tion, incumbent upgrading, and the dislocation\dis- commuting, and the way metropolitan communities placement of the lower-income population are all reorganize themselves into supra-metropolitan areas. interrelated. The study of changes in urban form and The development of megalopoles, the increasing func- the and the effects on local popu- tional specialization of metropolitan centers and lation groups and businesses is but one aspect of communities, and their growing interdependency are understanding urban decline or urban fortunes, social key research issues. restructuring, and population and neighborhood Urban and the factorial of change. cities, social status differentiation, and segregation: In European countries, urban morphology is of urban areas are highly differentiated complex systems particular relevance in historic cities, for example, in (see also Cities, Internal Organization of in this cities built during the medieval period. Here, the volume). These approaches deal with urban sub-areas, knowledge of the historic urban structure and design urban subpopulations, social and economic chara- aids in finding and identifying historic sites that have cteristics of urban neighborhoods, the social patt- either been buried by construction activities of later erning of local residents by race, ethnicity, and class, centuries, or that need to be preserved and protected and the behavior of subpopulations as a function of from contemporary rezoning and\or construction their social group, race, and class, or as mediated by activity. the characteristics of the neighborhood, urban sub- Urban form and urban morphology have also been area, and the urban system. taken up by Neo-Marxian\Neo-Marxist urban geog- Urban sub-area characteristics and urban social raphers. The regulationist school, for example, tries to and spatial differentiation are commonly analyzed

16009 Urban Geography using factorial ecology. This term refers to various collective spatial behavior of social groups and the statistical approaches using factor analytic methods. spatial geometries of social group behavior are focused Small area analyses with a limited set of variables upon. Decisions regarding distances between shopping grounded in are common. Factor analy- centers and other central urban functions, for example, sis, on the other hand, depends on a large number of make use of empirical findings of collective spatial variables that are then reduced in an exploratory way behaviors (see Behaioral Geography; Urban Actiity to essential of a particular phenomenon of Patterns). urban sub-areas or urban space. It determines urban Personal mental\cognitive pictures of space are also sub-areas according to common social characteristics referred to as images. The analysis of these images or in terms of households or individuals with common focuses on the subjective evaluation of urban space by characteristics. residents, visitors, business people, and potential The urban ecologist or social does not investors. Perceptual geographic urban analysis up- focus on spatial differentiation per se. Rather, social holds the theory that spatial behavior, like intra-urban and spatial patterns are regarded as the manifestation migration or shopping and recreational activity, is of a social process. Indeed, the urban social geog- often limited to a closed field of perception and rapher or urban ecologist studies such patterns with a reference, and it is affected by personal spatial evalu- view to uncovering the social, political, economic, or ation. The overall image of a city from the point of cultural processes that may be responsible for these view of a commercial interest is affected by the ‘soft’ patterns. Residential segregation of different social locational factors (e.g., amenities, attractiveness of the status groups, for example, occurs in many different urban environment, social and demographic processes cultural settings and reveals the most residentially in the city, or business climate). Image analysis can segregated social groups, for example, as those at the contribute significantly towards finding reasons for top and at the bottom of the social status hierarchy. In the exodus of population, companies, and enterprises, increasingly multicultural societies, patterns of differ- or disinvestment. Moreover, measures for the im- entiation among social groups and neighborhoods provement of a negative city image or for instigating and their particular spatial geometry are becoming a desired development can be recommended (see Spatial growing problem. Factorial ecological investigations Cognition). that use a variety of computational techniques help identify the differences between social, demographic, and economic characteristics in urban space. They 1.2.3 Urban deelopment. The analysis of urban help to monitor processes of social distance as reflected development as related to historical, political, and in the degree of physical distance and residential geographic peculiarities: this approach deals in partic- separation. ular with the development dynamics of the city and Perception of the urban environment: this approach the determinants of that development. Different sees age and social status-related perceptions of the historical–political systems of society, socioeconomic urban environment, personal activity radius, and factors and urban politics (see Sect. 1.2.4) fall into spatial behavior as related variables. Individual per- this category. Urban development analysis takes the ceptions of reality affect spatial behavior, be it shop- positive consequences (e.g., concentration of social ping trips or intra-urban migration. For example, and economic performance, importance as center of characteristics of the automobile society, such as the innovation\innovation hub) and negative conse- monotonous urban landscape, can negatively affect an quences of development (e.g., environmental problems individual’s identification with the physical urban or urban blight) into consideration. This approach environment and may induce him\her to move, thus can offer important impulses for the political, econ- contributing to the erosion of a city’s tax base and omic, and social components of urban development concomitant inner city decline. planning. Differing social and age groups, for example, the Urban , intercultural compari- elderly, the youth, the poor, have distinct ranges of son of cities and : this approach places the activities and different patterns of spatial behavior in historical and cultural context of cities in the fore- urban space. Market research utilizes the results of ground. Processes of and the current studies on the perception of the urban environment physical urban structures of cities, including the inner and spatial behavior. At the micro scale of individual differentiation, are assumed to be products of a series urban geography, studies concentrate on activities of sociopolitical systems. In cultural genetic urban that a person does regularly and urban places that are geography, persistent historical urban structures are visited regularly, i.e., daily or weekly, as they form the identified according to the appropriate historical social basis of the personal contact field and average in- system and cultural sphere of influence. The under- formation field. These may be analyzed using the standing of current structures and processes that have methods of and indicate an indivi- evolved through construction, reproduction, renova- dual’s capabilities to overcome distance by means of tions, and rebuilding during several cycles of social mobility and communication. At the macro scale, the change, is easier if seen in the context of the past.

16010 Urban Geography

However, society changes faster than physical urban velopment is of interest to urban . Their structures. Thus, the reflection of changes in society in main interest is what happens in cities when federal old buildings and in the urban fabric, as well as the policies change. For several years now, one of the intercultural comparisons in society in old buildings more noticeable national trends has been the shifting and in the urban fabric, as well as the intercultural of financial responsibility away from the federal comparisons of these generation influences are government toward state and local governments. This amongst the most interesting topics of research in trend has been observed particularly in the US and cultural genetic urban geography. Western European federal systems. Known as ‘de- volution,’ it has led scientists and observers to believe that social problems may worsen if the federal\ 1.2.4 Urban policy. Globalization and urban policy: national role of counterbalancing unfavorable social cities are social systems in space and as systems they and economic developments is restricted. To place react to any changes that result from both local and theoretical concerns and real world developments supralocal or global developments. Such supralocal under a policy of devolution into proper perspective, it trends include: is important to look at the actual situation and local Increasing competition between metropolitan areas responses. Federal\national policies may at first due to globalization of the economy and international glance adversely affect inner city and other poverty competition. areas, but one must also look at local policies and Deregulation, separation of social politics from responses to federal\national policy in order to get a trade and industrial politics, leading to a decline of the more balanced view of long-term adjustments and welfare and possible intensification of social problems. trends in societal development. Economic and political integration, political change Policy-oriented urban geography deals with urban and crises that initiate migration flows. These result in problems, such as social and economic disparities, increasing polarization of society and affect the per- caused by policies at various levels. In research on ceived quality of the urban environment. attempts at restoring run-down inner city neighbor- Change of societal values and pluralism of life hoods in the US, one can find many examples of styles. These encourage urban exodus and the con- innovative community concern expressed by both the centration of marginal groups in the inner city. public and private sectors with the potential to Global economic restructuring, the increased com- counterbalance public sector devolvement to some petition between cities, and the decline of the welfare extent. European nations, amongst others, have de- state force cities to pursue entrepreneurial urban veloped interesting local policy mechanisms to deal development strategies. These may include economic with the ills and imbalances of society manifest in incentives, the promotion of investments or megapro- urban areas. Policy-oriented urban geography thus jects to increase urban attractiveness, and the decision studies and uncovers the problems and potentials of to promote growth rather than redistributive urban local planning responses to current problems of development. Also, new entrepreneurial public– urbanism and federal and state polices. private partnerships or rigid urban regimes that place a great emphasis on private sector planning have 2. The Operational Methods of Urban Geography emerged. Urban regimes follow different approaches to de- It is clear, then, that the differing conceptual ap- velopment; some implicitly exclude or include social proaches largely focus on two types of research issues: policies as part of their overall strategy, with different those related to urban space and urban sub-area levels of impact on long-term development processes. characteristics, the basic dimensions of city patterning, On the micro scale of the individual city, the analysis and the determinants and processes behind changing of the interrelationships between urban policy, urban structural characteristics of urban space over time. development, urban sub-area development, and The attributes may refer to physical, social, economic, the changing geometries of segregation helps to or demographic phenomena and their differentiation understand how and why planning may become un- (their concentration, densities, distribution, growth) intentionally a determinant of social and spatial in urban space; polarization. Given the adoption of Western urban those related to people in urban space, i.e., in- policy and planning models in other countries, it is dividual and collective spatial behavior (for example important to understand the social, spatial, and shopping trips, commuting, daily activity ranges), economic implications of each type of policy for urban moreover, perceptions, images of urban space, and development as such and in different cultural planning. settings. Concomitantly, there are two major methodological Government devolution, the state and local re- approaches: those of empirical regional\urban sub- sponse: on the macro scale of the national analysis, and those of empirical social science, systems, the relationship between national\federal here in particular the survey methods. These metho- urban policy and local policy and local urban de- dologies are, of course, not mutually exclusive, but

16011 Urban Geography rather, complementary. Each sheds light on issues that and differentiate one urban sub-area from another in would otherwise be impenetrable. Not only urban terms of social science variables. Underlying the geography but also urban research in general makes concept of urban social areas is the assumption that use of these methodological approaches. societal processes reflect natural processes in that they have a competitive dimension that can lead to proces- ses of selection. Social structures and social change in 2.1 Methods of Empirical Regional\Urban Sub-area space are seen as the result of mutual adaptation of Analysis: ‘Urban Social Monitoring’ competing species. According to R. E. Park (1936), Social and societal developments have their real world socio-ecological studies deal with processes that either manifestations in urban space, and social and econ- uphold an existing social balance or that disturb the omic developments in urban areas are reflected in the existing order in order to reach a new, relatively stable structural characteristics of urban sub-areas. Urban existence. One specific type of factorial ecology is geography is well suited to examine attributes and social area analysis. Social area analysis is based on developments of structural characteristics by means of the theory of Shevky and Bell who understood urban analytical techniques. These analyze the areal struc- social space as being primarily characterized by social ture of urban communities in terms of attributes. rank, urbanism, and ethnicity. As such it only works Empirical urban research is both regional research with a limited set of input variables. Cluster analyses specifically in urban areas and social or socio-spatial subsequently performed on factor analyzed urban research. The methods correspond to those found in sub-areas can help identify groups of sub-areas with in so far as they are utilized for common patterns of variability. delineation and observation of structural change of (c) In order to understand the determinants of and agglomerations, city centers\cores, urban expansions, processes responsible for such patterns, one may and suburban areas. Within the city itself, the research combine descriptive and analytical statistical tech- units are districts and neighborhoods as well as other niques. Factor scores from factorial analyses may, for ‘official’ spatial units of division, be they for planning, example, be used as input data in multiple regression political, or statistical purposes (e.g., planning units), analyses that relate these aggregate characteristics to school and electoral districts, street rows and blocks. explanatory variables. Urban sub-areas may be of any scale: census tracts are Social monitoring of urban sub-area characteristics commonly used as statistical reference areas. Micro over time enables a scientifically sound evaluation of scale urban social geography also makes use of block the current structural change: urban geography falls level data to characterize the increasing differentiation back on existing statistical data collected by public of urban social milieus. and private institutions or public welfare organiza- The methods of empirical urban sub-area analysis tions. As the data reflects institutional norms and allow for urban social monitoring. This refers to the goals, urban geography has no influence on either the inventory, documentation and analysis of detailed exact questions, the survey method, or the aggregation socioeconomic structural patterns and processes of and systematization of the indicators. Consequently, change. Complex spatial processes are broken down theoretically informed urban research is limited by the into individual components. quality of these (secondary) data sources. However, Statistical techniques aim to characterize and the quality of official data banks and the methodology analyze urban space, urban sub-areas, and urban of secondary research in the field of spatial and structural developments comprehensively. Three ap- thematic aggregation of data are improving continu- proaches are important: ally. (a) For descriptive purposes, methods include computer-assisted and the refined carto- 2.2 Surey Methods—Empirical Social Science graphic and analytic methods enabled by Geographic Research Information Systems (GIS). These may produce uni- dimensional or multidimensional maps of social, Urban space is not only an attribute of space but also demographic, or other phenomena as differentiated in an area of activity. In order to analyze activity urban space. GIS, of course, is also suited for the systems\patterns of individuals or households, as well establishment of a long-term statistical cartographic as preferences, felt needs, perceived quality of the database, which can be periodically updated. Such a urban environment, locational\residential behavior, database would simplify thematic longitudinal onsite or general spatial behavior in a specific urban context, analysis of the target urban with regard to the urban geographer has to use survey methods. social, economic, and demographic processes and Empirical social science research collects social data forecasts. by means of survey methods, experiments, ‘pure’ (b) In a more exploratory sense, factorial ecological observation, or ‘participative’ observation. In human investigations use a number of multivariate descriptive geography, empirical social science research is applied statistical techniques (the methods of factor analysis) to identify and investigate areas of perception and to identify the essential dimensions that characterize activity, as well as opinions and attitudes to values and

16012 Urban Geography norms in society, as these form the framework of areas, the methodical–methodological approach of spatial behavior. Survey research methods in social dealing with different issues is basically the same. geography concentrate on the interrelationship\corre- Geographic scale, spatial delineation, and weighing of lation between spaces and social group behavioral indices are the main differences. Between factorial patterns, designation and appraisal, group perception, ecology and survey methods, only the data sources and evaluation of spaces. and the scale of the evaluation differ. Even though the The advantages of incorporating surveys into the goals may vary, the basic principle of preparing and initial stages of research are that important issues can evaluating official or specifically collected social data be identified at an early stage, and the survey allows from survey research in a descriptive and\or quan- for a differentiation and consolidation of research titative analytical manner stays the same. aspects. At the same time, preparation of standardized methods for covering the chosen topic continues unhindered or alternative and appropriate research 3. Outstanding Features of Urban Geography methods (i.e., not from within empirical social science research) may be sought. Generally, the social surveys The standing of urban geography within the social of empirical social science research open the door to a sciences in general draws essentially on two things that greater spectrum of human geographic research issues the other disciplines dealing with urbanism do not than would be possible with official statistics. share to the same extent. Research questions of urban geography thus deal with different sets of issues: either the physical attributes of spaces or the  indicators of their functional interconnection; or 3.1 The Combination of Cogniti e and Methodical immaterial aspects (spatial perception or space- Capabilities related activity); or (a) Empirically and theoretically informed research both; or from an integrational\holistic perspective. those aspects of spatial change that result from the (b) Relevance to society. interaction between immaterial and physical elements (c) Diversity of urban research topics in social, (e.g., the physical results of political visions for the economic and environmental fields, amongst others. urban area and the consequent measures, or socio- The range of urban research topics includes, for spatial disparities caused by power relations in so- example: ciety). (i) problems of increasing social differentiation in The selected database depends on the research urban sub-areas and the development of an urban question. Studies of objective reality (e.g., socio- underclass, urban ethnic-cultural and lifestyle milieus, geographic structural analysis) use data that reflect long-term urban unemployment, the welfare poor, the numerically definable spatial characteristics (as op- working poor; posed to subjectively perceived spatial attributes). This (ii) population change (socio-demographic, socio- data is mostly found in official statistical material, economic and socio-cultural), infrastructural, and published and unpublished, the basis of which is policy adjustments; extensive censuses (e.g., of population) or surveys (iii) housing and urban labor market developments; (e.g., of enterprises). Personal, small-scale, and tail- (iv) urban environmental quality and urban sub- ored surveys are necessary if the time lapse between areas, questions of ; official censuses is too great or if certain details are (v) functional interrelatedness of cities and their missing (e.g., in order to incorporate structural, socio- suburban areas; spatial, and economic aspects, entrepreneur surveys or (vi) the territoriality of each context, the unique and mappings of building conditions in different neighbor- unrepeatable set of social and economic relations, hoods, of spatial use, or overall inner city differentia- local networks in urban areas and development; the tion may be necessary). However, if the research focus territorial embeddedness of global impacts; lies in the perceived surface and activity area of (vii) local policy responses to supralocal trends; individuals and groups, then interviews are necessary (viii) entrepreneurial urban policy and micro-scale if spatially related behavior, behavioral background, urban social development; and possible consequences of behavioral patterns are (ix) cross-cultural urban development; and to be dealt with. (x) urban systems development. Methodological procedures in urban geography stand out for their broad range. Some procedures overlap, thus hindering the exclusivity of subfield 3.2 The Specific Methodological Competence and methodology. For this reason, it is not possible to refer Diersity of Analytical Responses to a particular methodology for , social geography or, for that matter, urban geography. (a) Empirical research: primary survey methods, However, within human geographic research of urban such as monitoring, mapping, or field surveys;

16013 Urban Geography

(b) statistics: the scientific approach for drawing Globalization: Geographical Aspects; Migration, conclusions about research questions\hypotheses by Economics of; Spatial Cognition; Urban Activity means of processing spatial primary data and official- Patterns; ; Urban Growth statistical secondary data; Models; ; Urban Poverty in Neigh- (c) cartography: tool for working with and present- borhoods; Urban Sprawl; : Overview; ing spatially located and differentiated phenomena; Urban System in Geography (d) : interpretation of aerial photos and satellite photos as a further important source of information; and (e) utilization of geographic information systems (GIS) to present and analyze data and developments in space. Bibliography Bingham R D, Bowen W M, Amara Y A 1997 Beyond 4. Conclusions Edge Cities. Garland Reference Library of Social Science Vol. 1180. Garland, New York Global economic restructuring, political change, gov- Bridge G, Watson S (eds.) 2000 A Companion to the City. ernment devolution, and social restructuring alter Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, UK urban and regional fortunes and give rise to new socio- Cadwallader M (ed.) 1996 Urban Geography: An Analytical spatial patterns of development. Fragmentation, Approach. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ polarization, and new local spatial identities form new Carter H (ed.) 1995 The Study of Urban Geography. Arnold, urban realities. Formerly prosperous cities may lose London their comparative locational advantage. In order to Dear M J (ed.) 1999 The Postmodern Urban Condition. retain competitiveness and build up local (endogen- Blackwell, Oxford, UK ous) potentials, or to govern uncontrollable cities, new Drakakis-Smith D W (ed.) 2000 Third World Cities, 2nd edn. Routledge, London models, modes, and mechanisms of planning are being Fincher R, Jacobs J M (eds.)1998 Cities of Difference. Guilford developed. In cities of the Western world, public– Press, New York private partnerships—coalitions of major local  \ Gugler J (ed.) 1997 Cities in the De eloping World: Issues, Theory economic and political players—have been outlining and Policy. Oxford University Press, New York developing and implementing grand visions of devel- Hall T (ed.) 1998 Urban Geography. Routledge, New York opment. Megacities of low-income countries have yet Hall T, Hubbard P (eds.) 1998 The Entrepreneurial City: to cope with the more basic infrastructural needs of of Politics, Regime and Representation. John their populations. Wiley & Son, Chichester, UK Thus increasingly, in cities worldwide, both urban Hayden D (ed.) 1995 The Power of Place: Urban Landscape as planning and the prevailing urban regime, its orien- Public History. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA tation, and complex interaction with the regional, Herbert D T, Thomas C J (eds.) 1997 Cities in Space: City as national, or supranational economic and political Place. Fulton, London systems, have a significant effect on the development Knox P L (ed.) 1994 Urbanization: an Introduction to Urban of a city. In order to deal with contemporary urbanism, Geography. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ decision makers will need to rethink urban processes, Knox P L, Pinch S (eds.) 2000 Urban Social Geography: An structures, and policies. What is needed is an under- Introduction. Prentice Hall, Harlow, UK standing of the city from a systems perspective. This Le Gates R T, Stout F (eds.) 2000 The City Reader. Routledge, views urban developments, form, and social and London economic structure as interrelated with the systems of Lyon L 1999 The Community in Urban Society. Waveland Press, Prospect Heights, IL society, economy, and politics. It also understands the \ Massey D, Allen J, Pile S (eds.) 2000 City Words (Understanding city as an organism entity with enormous local capa- Cities). Routledge, London cities and strengths that might successfully counteract Miles M, Borden I, Hall T (eds.) 2000 The City Cultures Reader. the local or regional effects of globalization or other Routledge, London supralocal forces. Paddison R (ed.) 1999 Handbook of Urban Studies. Sage, London Urban geography is a systems-oriented social sci- Pile S, Brook C, Mooney G (eds.) 2000 Unruly Cities? Order\ ence discipline with great relevance to interdisciplinary Disorder (Understanding Cities). Routledge, London solutions of problems of urbanism and urban areas. Potter R B, Lloyd-Evans S (eds.) 1998 The City in the Deeloping The systems perspective, the skills required, and the World. Longman, Harlow, UK variety of research questions and applied research in Pugh C (ed.) 2000 Sustainable Cities in Deeloping Countries. urban geography make this discipline preeminently Earthscan, Sterling, VA suited to understand and deal with problems of Roberts G K, Steadman P (eds.) 1999 American Cities and contemporary urbanism. Technology: Wilderness to Wired City (The Cities and Tech- nology Series). Routledge, London See also: ; Cities, Internal Short J R 1996 The Urban Order: An Introduction to Cities, Organization of; Development and Urbanization; Culture and Power. Blackwell, Cambridge, MA

16014 Urban Goernment: Europe

Soja E W (ed.) 1996 Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and played a key role in providing basic utilities and Other Real-and-imagined Places. Blackwell, Cambridge, MA services such as water, sewage, street lighting, and, Yeates M (ed.) 1997 The North American City. Longman, New later, gas and electricity, firemen, and , not to York mention slaughterhouses. This development was di- verse, fragmented, contested between a conservative R. Schneider-Sliwa petty bourgeoisie and the municipal socialism move- Copyright # 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. ment, and more consistent in the North of Europe All rights reserved. than in the South. Most local government in Europe gained legal recognition in the second part of the Urban Government: Europe nineteenth century. Gradually, a professional local bureaucracy emerged to deal with those developments. Urban governments are defined first as political arena The rise of urban government was not just a local or and instrument for enhancing democracy, partici- national phenomenon. Exchanges of experiences of pation, and steering local societies and second in terms ideas, for instance in planning and social housing, of services provision and public policy. They are back were crucial. on the political agenda of Europe, not as the old Later, in most of the post-1945 period, the category medieval city, but as more autonomous political ‘European urban government’ did not make much authorities within a European governance in the sense, and was not an issue. Within the social demo- making. Urban governments usually are related to the cratic compromise of most European states, the role of urban government was understood within the center- nation–state in terms of democratization and legitima- ! tion of forms of territorial management. periphery paradigm (Meny and Wright 1985), that is, in national terms and as part of local government. Urban governments differed in Europe because each 1. Urban Goernment and the making of the country had a different constitutional setting, different Nation–State in Europe rules, different public finances systems, different pol- itical systems and traditions, and different organiza- Weber famously emphasized what he saw as the tions to provide services. Sometimes, variations within distinctive characteristics of European societies, that a country were also important (Germany or Italy). is, the medieval occidental city defined in terms of Urban governments were understood either as a ‘sworn confraternisation’ based upon a fortress, a functional entity to deliver services, in particular market, bourgeois associations, specific rules in terms welfare services (hence the long-lasting debate on size of land ownership and tax, and sometimes courts and and amalgamation), or as a political unit. In their armies (Weber 1978). The importance of the urban classic comparative research, Goldsmith and Page government was stressed as the city developed upon (1987) have suggested that local government auton- the movement of medieval ‘communalisation’ (i.e., omy in Europe should be analyzed in terms of communes being formed through acquiring a charter). autonomy through two major criteria which encom- Cities became institutionalized associations, auton- pass or are closely related to other dimensions: legal omous and autocephalous, active territorial corpor- status and political status). ation characterized by autonomy and capacity for That analysis clearly stressed the differences be- action towards the outside (the lord, the prince, the tween the welfarist northern European urban govern- state, the emperor, rival cities) and led by urban ments and the more political (sometimes clientelistic) officials. Medieval urban governments developed southern European urban governments. democratic institutions, and commerce left its mark through the edification of monuments symbolizing this power: squares, town halls, belfries or bell-towers. In due course, ‘voracious states’ consolidated with 2. A New Pattern of Constraints and or against ‘obstructing cities’ (Tilly and Blockmans Opportunities for European Urban Goernments 1994). The making of the modern state and the coming age of the second (industrial capitalism) marked the These classic distinctions are now under question end of the golden age and autonomy of occidental because a common set of pressures and oppor- cities. tunities (Europe, fragmentation, state reorganization, Later, in industrial cities, for instance in the UK but economic restructuring, social tensions) tends to blur also in Germany, France, and Scandinavia, the scope the frontiers between existing national models of of social problems became such that elites in urban urban governments and to reinforce differences within government pioneered policy programs in housing, nation–states. Several pressures for changes are put planning, basic elements of welfare, education (De forward. Swaan 1988) and hygienist concerns led to the ‘Hauss- Urban governments were contested in the 1970s and manisation’ movement of city rebuilding, that is, the 1980s by urban social movements. The bureaucrati- emergence of local public goods. Urban governments zation, hierarchies, urban regeneration projects, com-

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International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences ISBN: 0-08-043076-7