Urban Theory, Growth Machines, Modernism, and Gendered Space Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key epistemological, spatial, socio-political, modernist, and feminist urban theories from the lecture materials.

Theory

A structured, rational, evidence-based, and falsifiable explanation of why or how a phenomenon occurs, which can be modified or overturned as new evidence emerges.

Nomothetic Approach

An approach to theorizing that seeks to identify general patterns, universal laws, or regularities across phenomena.

Ideographic Approach

An approach to theorizing that focuses on unique phenomena, detailed individual cases, or deviations from general patterns.

Chicago School of Human Ecology

A school of urban sociology founded at the University of Chicago by scholars such as Ernest Watson Burgess, Robert E. Park, and Roderick D. McKenzie that applied biological and ecological concepts like adaptation, invasion, and succession to study urban social structures.

Concentric Zone Model

A descriptive urban spatial model developed by Ernest Watson Burgess in 1925 illustrating cities expanding outward from a Central Business District (CBD) in five concentric rings through processes of invasion and succession.

Invasion and Succession

Socio-ecological processes borrowed from plant ecology wherein a new demographic or land-use group enters an existing urban zone (invasion) and gradually replaces the established population (succession).

Sector Theory

An urban land-use model proposed by Homer Hoyt in 1939 proposing that cities grow outward from the Central Business District in wedge-shaped sectors along major transportation corridors and infrastructural lines based on residential rents and property values.

Multiple Nuclei Model

An activity-based urban spatial model formulated by Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman in 1945 proposing that modern cities develop around several distinct centers of economic activity rather than a single central core.

Growth Machine Theory

A political economy framework introduced by Harvey Molotch in 1976 asserting that the primary driving force behind urban politics and development is the shared desire for economic growth among coalitions of land-based elites and local institutions.

Local Growth Coalitions

Alliances of stakeholders—including land-based elites, real estate developers, local government officials, and financial institutions—who unite to push forward policies and developments that drive local economic expansion.

Los Angeles School of Urbanism

A postmodern school of urban theory developed in the 1980s by scholars including Michael J. Dear, Steven Flusty, Mike Davis, and Edward Soja that views metropolises as polycentric, fragmented, non-linear, and structured by global economic forces where the periphery organizes the center.

Keno Capitalism

A postmodern model of urban space formulated by Michael J. Dear using a random board game metaphor to explain how global capital investments create fragmented, unpredictable grid-like developments across the urban periphery.

Gendered Space

A concept analyzed by Daphne Spain demonstrating that spatial layout and built environments are socially constructed to reflect and reinforce traditional gender roles and power inequalities between men and women.

Municipal Housekeeping

Civic activism by early 20th-century women's organizations that extended domestic caretaking into the public domain by campaigning for public baths, clean milk, prenatal care, kindergartens, and improved garbage collection.

Dual-Income No Kids (DINKS)

A demographic group of childless couples with two incomes who often possess discretionary capital to purchase and rehabilitate older housing in marginal urban neighborhoods, contributing to gentrification.

Social Darwinism

A late 19th-century ideology that applied biological evolutionary concepts like survival of the fittest to human social groups and ethnicities, opposing social welfare policies for disadvantaged populations.

Burgess (1925)

A population-based model viewing cities as ecosystems where the CBD organizes surrounding zones through processes of invasion, succession, adaptation, and predictable urban growth.

Hoyt (1939)

Based on residential location, rents and proporty values › The Central Business District (CBD) organises the periphery through invasion and succession › Star-shaped developments along infrastructural lines › Ribbon development along commercial streets › Industry located along railroads and rivers › The concentric zone model underneath

Harris & Ullman (1945)

Activity based › The Central Business District (CBD) organises the periphery through invasion and succession… › ...but now there are also external forces › Multiple nuclei model › Economic dynamics › Land-use patterns › Special purpose districts › Clusters of activity › Decentralised form › Concentric zone model is almost gone

Harvey Molotch

An urban sociologist known for his work on the growth machine theory, which argues that local economic elites play a crucial role in shaping urban development and land use through political and economic processes.

Conflicts of interests

that arise when different stakeholders, such as developers, residents, and local governments, have competing goals regarding land use and urban planning, leading to tensions in urban development.

Daphne Spain

A prominent urban sociologist who explored the concepts of gendered space and the implications of gender on urban planning and social dynamics.

Urban Theory

The study of models explaining how cities develop, focusing on socio-cultural, socio-demographic, political, and gender perspectives, both within and between cities.