Urban geography examines cities and how they change over time. It analyzes the internal structure of cities and relationships between cities. There are four traditions in urban geography: physical, human-environmental, regional, and spatial. In recent decades, trends include the rise of global cities, feminist perspectives, studying urban culture, and using GIS technology. The Chicago School emphasized systems of cities while the Los Angeles School stressed how hinterlands influence cities. New Urbanism promotes sustainable, pedestrian-oriented development.

1. Urban Geography
Su-Yeul Chung
1. An Introduction to the Changing
Field of Urban Geography
1. Introduction
2. The Field of Urban Geography
3. The Four Traditions, 1900-1970
4. Geographic Information Science and Urban
Geography
5. Substantive Trends in Urban Geography
6. The Chicago and Los Angeles Schools of
Urban Geography
7. The New Urbanism
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2. 1. Introduction
↑ Importance of cities
 3.4 bil urban pop out of 6.6 bil world pop
 with large variation: MDCs urbanization is much
higher than LDCs
 Small # of cities hold
large % of
national pop.
 Fast ↑ in size
and function
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3. 2. The Field of Urban Geography
Urban Geography: a subfield of physical or human
geography?
 Ways of studying cities
(1) Stressing relation among a system or group of
cities at the regional, national, international level
(2) Highlighting internal locational arrangements
of humans, activities, and institutions within
cities
Also, (a) studying cities in different regions of the
world
(b) Examining particular topical issues
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4. 2. The Field of Urban Geography
Part II: Metropolitan systems
Part III: Economic landscape
of the city
Part IV: Social ditto
Part V: Political ditto
Part VI: Cities around the
world
2. The Field of Urban Geography
Also, studying spatial interaction at the intra-urban
and inter-urban scales
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5. 3. Origin and Evolution of Urban Geography
Urban Geography(UG) has developed through 20C
In US Geography,
In 1900: main issue is physical geography
1st half of 20C: ↑ # of UG studies
Late 1940s: UG course was first taught in colleges
21C: UG group becomes 2nd largest group next to
GIS group
4. Four traditions, 1900-1970
(1) Physical geography tradition
(2) Human-environmental tradition
(3) Regional tradition
(4) Spatial tradition
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6. 4.1. Physical Tradition
• Dominant in 1st half of 20C
• Applied to UG:
- high-income residence in areas of high elevation
with a view
- Manhattan skyscrapers supported by strong
bedrock
- Impacts of natural hazards
- urban heat islands
• Impacts of physical environment on human
activities in cities
4.2. Human-Environment Tradition
• Environmental determinism: physical env. „determines
or controls‟ the development of human civilization
- civilizations flourish in area with variable climates rather than
monotonous
- Mountainous env. discourages growth of a city
• Possibilism: Physical env. set limits or possibilities for
human activities, but human behaviors are expressed
thr. cultural traditions that create a given way of life.
- humans survive in N. Siberia
- high-elevation city such as Zürich still grows
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7. 4.3. The Regional Tradition
• Grows 1920~60
• Typically focused
on a single city
as a case study
• Descriptive rather
than analytical
• Relies on field
survey and
interview
4.4. Spatial Tradition
• Gradually replaced regional tradition during late 50s
• Theory, hypotheses, quantitative methods, math model
building  location theory (location of cities)
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8. 4.4. Spatial Tradition
(1) Precursors of Spatial Analysis in UG (~‟50s)
- Only small # of studies
- Platt(„28) microgeography of Ellison Bay, WI studied its linkage
with other places
- Jefferson(„39) Law of the Primate City
- Harris and Ullman(„45) Multi-nuclei model
(2) European Influences on SA in UG
- Christaller(„33) Central Place Theory
- Lösch(„38) „Economics of Location‟
- Weber(„29) Industrial location
- Hägerstrand(„53) „Innovation Diffusion as a Spatial Process‟
- Haggett(„66) „Locational Analysis in Human Geography‟
4.4. Spatial Tradition
(3) Extradisciplinary Influences on SA in UG
- Statistical and Math Modelling was introduced
- Taaffe(‟74): Hypothesizing, Testing,
Generalization, Theorizing
- Using computer to handle
large spatial data (Graphics)
- Isard formed „Regional Science
Association‟ in 1954
(4) Critiques of SA in UG
- Ironically, critiques from
mid-1960s
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9. 4.4. Spatial Tradition
1) Behavioral UG
- Wolpert, Golledge, Brown, Rushton
- Focus: individual‟s spatial decision making process
- Emphases: person‟ attitude and expectations of place
2) Marxist Interpretations
- „Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography‟ from 1969
- Focus: Capitalist production and labor relations that causes
urban inequity, poverty, discrimination, underdevelopment
- e.g. cheap shipment of strawberries from Cal. to NY vs. low-paid
migrant pickers in Cal.
- Peet: socio-economic problems with spatial magnifications
- Harvey : conflict b/w capitalists and workers
4.4. Spatial Tradition
3) Humanistic UG
- Yi-Fu Tuan(‟76): feelings and ideas about space and place
- Topophilia: attitudes, perceptions and values toward landscape
- Walk downtown and feel and smell it
4) Social Theory (late 70s and 80s)
- Critical political perspective, human emancipation
- Socially constructed human reality rather than spatial attribute
- e.g. Social and power relation rather than distance in explaining
migration
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10. 4.4. Spatial Tradition
5) Postmodernism
- Dear(„88) and Soja(„89)
- Rejects modernity (logic, reason, and science since 18C
Enlightenment)
- Postmodern perspective 
- Los Angeles School‟s
Postmodern Urbanism
“global-local connection, a
social polarization, and urban
process in which hinterland
organizes the center”
5. GIS and UG (from‟80s in AAG and College)
- Evolved from cartography, remote sensing, satellite
image processing and geodata coding
- [Def] “a system of hardware, software, and procedures
designed to support the capture, management,
manipulation, analysis, modeling, and display of
spatially referenced data for solving complex planning
and management problem”
- Geographic data
Geographic space: point, line, and area
Geographic scale
- Used for analyses, research, and planning
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11. - GIS allows us to
consider
all thing together
6. Substantive Trends in UG
- Five major trends and themes
(1) Urbanization and Global Cities
Urbanization means percentage of urban pop to total pop
also, process from agrarian to (post)industrial economies
In 1800, only 4%
By 2006, 54 %
 Migration and Natural Increase
Also, city size gets larger
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12. 6. Substantive Trends in UG
(1) Urbanization and Global Cities
- ↑ # of studies about Global Cities whose
functions extend throughout capitalist
World
e.g. “Minneapolis-St Paul in the Global
Economy”
- Diff from megacities that simply have
> 8mil pop)
- Megacities in LDCs: ↑ #, fast growing
- Megacities in MDCs: slow growing
6. Substantive Trends in UG
(2) Feminist UG (from late „70s)
- Hanson & Hanson(’80) : lower mobility of female workers than
male workers
- Thanks to ↑ # of female geographers
- Urban inequity across gender: social exclusion of women
- Influenced by Marxism and Social Theory: “ Gender is not a
given of biology but is socially constructed and determined”
(3) Urban Culture Geography
- Traditionally, cultural geography studies rural area (farms, fences,
barn styles, food habits, and place names)
- But, „New Cultural Geography‟ studies urban culture stressing
symbolic nature of landscapes (how it is constructed,
reconstructed and deconstructed)
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13. 6. Substantive Trends in UG
(4) Urban Historical Geography
- Studies cities of the past in two ways
(1) A city or cities at a point of time e.g. Boston in 1850
(2) A city or cities throughout a given time period
(5) Locational Analysis in UG
- Where are things? Why it is so?
- Abstracting space into (1) nodes (2) networks (3) movements (4)
hierarchies, (5) surfaces  generalization
- Abstract spatial concepts: (1) distance: physical, cost, time
(2) direction: orientation, movement bias
(3) diffusion: spread across space
(4) position: location of an object in space (x,y coordinate)
6. Substantive Trends in UG
(5) Locational Analysis in UG (continued)
- Through 3 Ds, we derive
(1) Accessibility: proximity: nearness or isolation in space
(2) Connectivity: level of connection among places, usually based
on network
- Through 3 Ds and position, we derive
(1) Site: characteristics of physical location of a city
e.g. city on coast, on a river, or at mt. range
(2) Situation: location of a city with respect to other cities
e.g. Chicago at the junction of rail roads
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14. 7. Chicago and LA Schools of UG
(1) The Chicago School of UG
- Berry at U of Chicago; Harris and Mayer; Taaffe
- Major theme: systems of cities, commercial land uses, central
place theory, residential pattern, racial composition
(2) Los Angeles School of UG
- Postmodern thinking: hinterlands organize the CBD and entire
metropolitan area
- Advocates pluralism
8. New Urbanism (1980s~)
- A complex planning paradigm and social movement in planning,
residential development, and government housing
- Utopia: sustainable, family-oriented, livable places
- Pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use, accessible, and open space,
high-density land use
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