Socio-economic status, family history, stage of life.
Places we live and visit.
How we move around.
Daily schedules and rhythms.
Where and how we socialize.
Barriers and challenges.
How do Geographers Understand Cities?
Early Models (Big Theories):
Christaller’s central place theory (geographer – 1933).
Range – the maximum distance a consumer will travel for a particular good or services.
Threshold – the smallest number of consumers required to profitably supply a certain good or service.
Burgess – concentric zone model (sociologist - 1925).
In cities, groups compete for space and resources.
Results in a sorting of social groups along economic lines so that communities occupy distinctive zones.
Hoyt’s sector model (economist - 1939).
Places greater emphasis on the role of transportation.
Industrial sectors develop along river or rail routes.
High income residential sectors also grow in proximity to fastest transportation routes.
Adams – changes in transport influence urban form (geographer – 1970s).
Related stages in the development of transportation to changes in the residential structure of cities.
Limitations and Critiques of Early Models
Assumptions – flat land, equal distribution of resources, no river or coastline.
Based on studies of North American cities.
Soviet-era cities – large residential housing estates, limited retail and commercial land use, large public plazas and parks.
European cities often have medieval characteristics – city wall, historic core – church, marketplace, dense concentrations of buildings, irregular street patterns, low central city skyline.
Feminist Geography's Influence
Women and Geography study group (1985).
Drew attention to the effect of urban spatial structure on women, women’s employment, access to facilities.
Urban spatial structure – separation of home and work.
Division of labor (home – feminine – unpaid; work – male – waged).
Focus on smaller, day-to-day elements: shopping routines, household rhythms, life of public places, networks of friendships.
Everyday Life
Academic attention on the lived experience of being in a city.
Opens up the diversity of human experience (women's, children's, LGBTQ+, informal sector, socio-economic groups, ethnic groups).
Definition: The ordinary and regular practices that people engage in day in and day out.
Cities by Amin and Thrift
Cities as forces with complex networks.
Emphasis on: Infrastructural, administrative, relationships, and non-human elements.