HGEO 100 Chapter 10: Urban Form and the Social Geography of the City

Central Business District (CBD)

the social, cultural, commercial, and political center of the city; usually characterized by high-rise office and residential towers, key municipal government buildings, and civic amenities

Class

a large group of people of similar social status or income (and often culture); commonly used forms, upper class, middle class, and working class

Urban Structure

the arrangement of land use in cities; related to urban morphology

Neighborhoods

a part of a city that displays some internal homogeneity regarding type of housing; may be characterized by a relatively uniform income level and/or ethnic identity and usually reflects certian shared social values

Redlining

a spatially discriminatory practice, favoured by financial institutions, that identified parts of the city regarded as high risk in terms loans for property purchase and home improvement; areas affected were typically outlined red on maps (denying capital in these areas)

Residential Mobility

the individual or family desicion to relocate their place of residence, usually in the context of an urban area

Filtering

the process whereby housing units transition from being occupied by members of one income group to members of a different income group over time

Downward filtering

part of the filtering process whereby homes built for middle-or upper clas income groups gradually become less expensive as they age or degrade through neglect, as the neighborhood becomes less desirable, and as residents with greater purchasing power move toward trendier, nwer homes in more desirable neighborhoods (ex; housing abandonment in deindustrialised cities like Detriot)

Upward Filtering

part of the filtering process whereby relatively inexpensive homes, often occupied by rentersbecome alued by middle-to high income groups as an investment; an aggregate, the process is usually referred to as gentrification

Gentrification

a process of neighborhood social change resulting ifrom the in-movement of higher income groups

Segregation

the spatial seperation of population subgroups within the wider urban population

Charter population

the dominant or majority cultrual grouo in an urban area, the host communitp

Minority populations

a population subgroup that is seen, or that views itself, as somehow different from the general (charter population); this difference is normally expressed by ethnicity, language religion, nationality, sexual orientation, lifestyle, or even income (as in the case of people experiencing homelessness or the extremely wealthy).

Congregation

the residential clustering of specific populations minority groups); usually as a metter of preferance or choice, a form of segregation

Involuntary Segragation

the residential clustering of specific populations (minority groups), usually as a result of discrimination, a form of segregation

Visible Minorities

a member of a minority group whose minority status is based wholly on the colour of their skin; the Canadian government recgonizes anyone who is neither white nor Indigenous as a visible minority

Cultural Minorities

a member of a minority group whose minority status is based on factors other than skin colour, such as language, religion, lifestyle, ethnic origin, etc.

Suburbanization

a process through which land on the periphery of an urban area (the rural-urban fringe) becomes urbanized over time, as ppl and businesses move there, the process of suburban development

Conurbations

a continuusly built-up area formed by the coalescing of several expanding cities that were originally seperate

Edge Cities

the centre of office and retail activites located on the edge of a large urban centre

Producer Services

Activites that offer a wide range of services to nultinational and other corporations that need to respond quickly to changing circumstances, including banking, insurance, marketing, accountancy, advertising, legal matters, consultancy, and innovation services; in recent years, the fastest growing sector of national economies in most of the more devloped world

Gated Communities

A high-status residential subdivision or community with access limited to residents and other authorized people such as domestic workers, tradespeople, and visitors; often surrounded by a perimeter well, fence, or buffer zone such as a golf course.

The Cycle of Poverty

the idea that poverty and deprivation are transmitted intergenerationally, reflecting home background and spatial variance in opportunities

Homelessness

the circumstance of being without a permanent dwelling, such as housing or an apartment

Mobility

the ability to get from one location to another

Back-office activities

repetitive office activities, usually clerical in nature and performed using telecommunications, that can be located anywhere in or out of the city, including relatively low-rent areas

Front-office activities

skilled occupations requiring an educated, well-paid workforce; because image and face-to-face contact with others is important, these activities favour prestige locations in office buildings in city centres

Urban Planning

the political and technical process concerned with the development, design, and use of land within the built environment; typically involves the organization of different land uses, the planning of current and future transportation and social services, and improving the built, economic, social, and natural environments of communities; sometimes referred to as city planning, town planning, or regional planning

Green City

a planned settlement designed to combine the advantages of urban and rural living; an urban centre emphasizing spaciousness and quality of life

Green Belt

a planned area of open, partially rural land surrounding an urban area; an area where urban development is restricted

Zoning

legal restrictions on land use that determine what types of urban activity (residential, commercial, industrial, and so on) and building form are allowed to take place on particular parcels of land, to make sure incompitable land uses aren’t put next to each other (ex; residential and industrial)

Informal Settlements

a concentration of temporary dwellings, neither owned nor rented, at the city’s periphery; related to rural-to-urban migration, especially in less developed countries; sometimes referred to as a squatter settlement or shanty town

Slum

a heavily populated informal settlement, usually located within the urban core and characterized by poverty, substandard housing, crime, and a lack of sanitation, water, electricity, or other basic services; common in less developed world cities in the 19th and early 20th centuries

Informal Sector

a part of the national economy involved in productive paid labour but without any formal recognition, government control, or renumeration