This document provides an overview of key concepts related to urbanization and the global urban system. It discusses topics like urban expansion, gateway cities, central place theory, primacy, megacities, deindustrialization, and the relationship between cities and climate change. The document uses figures and diagrams to illustrate urbanization trends and patterns within and between urban places over time. It also provides examples and prompts for readers to apply their knowledge.

1. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
Chapter 11:
Urbanization
and the Global
Urban System
Chapter 11 Lecture
Katie Pratt
Macalester College
© 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.

2. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
Figure: Chapter 11 Opener - Downtown Singapore.
Key Concepts
• Urbanization
• Urban expansion
• Gateway and shock
cities
• Central place theory
• Primacy and
centrality
• Overurbanization
• Megacities
• Deindustrialization
• Cities and climate
change

3. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
Urbanization
• Concerned with
the similarities and
differences among
and within urban
places
• Urbanization
• Urban system
• Urban form
• Urban ecology
• Urbanism
Figure 11.1 The Spanish urban system.
Figure 11.2 Earth at night, Asia.

4. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
Urbanization (cont’d)
• Agglomeration index
• Doubling time
• Function of urban
settlements:
– Mobilizing function
– Decision-making
capacity
– Generative functions
– Transformative
capacity Figure 11.3 Goths in Bolkow, Poland.
Apply your knowledge: Provide examples of how the transformative capacity
of urban settlements can be liberating for some people.

5. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Prosperity of Cities
• Conditions:
– Infrastructure and amenities
– Social services
– Environmental quality
– Equity and social inclusion
– Income and employment that afford adequate living
standards
Figure 11.A Prosperity index.

6. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
Foundations of the Global Urban System
Figure 11.4 The most
important cities in
1000 c.E.

7. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
Cities and Economic Development
• “Buzz” of cities: economic development occurs
because of clustering of a large number of people in
a small area
Figure 11.C Morning commuters in a
Tokyo subway.
Figure 11.D Connectivity.

8. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
Foundations (cont’d)
• European urban
expansion
• Feudalism
• Colonialism
• Gateway cities
Figure 11.5 Towns and cities of Europe, ca. 1350.

9. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
Foundations
Figure 11.6 Gateway cities in the
evolving world-system periphery.

10. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
Foundations (cont’d)
Apply your knowledge: Use the Internet to check on the early histories of
gateway cities in North America, noting their principal imports and exports.
Compare your knowledge of the big cities along the East Coast against the
peaks and fall of certain types of transportation, agricultural products, and
industries like cotton, steel, and shipmaking.

11. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
Foundations (cont’d)
• Industrialization and urbanization
– Shock city
– Manchester
• Colonial cities
Figure 11.7 Manchester in the nineteenth-century world economy.

12. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Urbanization Process

13. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Urbanization Process (cont’d)

14. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Urbanization Process (cont’d)

15. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
Foundations (cont’d)
• Transportation networks
Figure 11.8 Canal systems.
Figure 11.9 New Orleans riverboats.
Figure 11.10 Railroad yards, Chicago.
Apply your knowledge: How have the transportation technologies affected the
history of the town or city in which you live?

16. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
Primacy and Centrality
• Central place / Central
place theory
• Functional differences
• Rank-size rule
• Primacy
– Primate cities
• Centrality
• Global cities
Figure 11.11 The rank-size distribution of cities,
1950–2005.

17. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
Figure 11.12 Examples of
urban centrality.
Primacy and Centrality (cont’d)

18. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
World Urbanization Today
Figure 11.13 Percentage of population living in urban settlements, 2009.
• World cities
• Megacities
• Meta-cities

19. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
World Urbanization Today (cont’d)
Figure 11.14 Rates of growth in urbanization, 2000−2010.

20. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
World Urbanization Today (cont’d)
• World Cities
– Agglomeration effects
– Diverse rolls
– Functional characteristics
Figure 11.15 London’s pivotal role in global finance has changed the city’s skyline.

21. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
The World City Network
Figure 11.16 Top 25 cities in the global cities index 2010.

22. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
World Urbanization Today (cont’d)
• Mega cities
– In peripheral regions
demographic growth has
preceded economic
development
– Overurbanization
– “Uncontrolled
urbanization”
Figure 11.17 The urbanization process in
the world’s peripheral regions.
Figure 11.18
Jakarta.

23. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
World Urbanization Today (cont’d)
Figure 11.19 Sao Paulo.
Apply your knowledge: Think of two megacities. List two ways a megacity
differs from a world city. Is either (or both) of your megacities a former colonial
city? How might that history have contributed to the current status of being a
megacity?

24. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
Mature Metropolises
• Deindustrialization
• Agglomeration
diseconomics
• Decentralization of jobs
and people
• Counterurbanization
• Reurbanization
• Migration
• Regeneration
– Brownfield sites
– Public–private partnership
Figure 11.20 London Olympic Park.
Apply your knowledge: Identify a town or city that has experienced
counterurbanization or reurbanization, and the factors that contributed to
this change.

25. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Pearl River Delta
Figure 11.E An extended metropolitan region.
Figure 11.G Guangzhou, China.
Figure 11.F City of Hong Kong.

26. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
Cities and Climate Change
Figure 11.21 World urban population
and recorded natural and technological
disasters, 1950–2007. Table 11.1 Greenhouse gas emissions
per ton of CO2 equivalent.

27. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
Cities and Climate Change (cont’d)
Figure 11.22 The global urban system in relation to current climate-related hazards.

28. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
Cities and Climate Change (cont’d)
• Gender and vulnerability
Figure 11.23 Sea-level rise and storm surge.

29. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
Cities and Climate Change (cont’d)
• Green cities
Figure 11.24 Copenhagen, Denmark. Figure 11.25 Curitiba, Brazil.
Apply your knowledge: What are some of the “green” strategies devised in
different cities around the world to combat the effects of climate change?

30. © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
Future Geographies
Apply your knowledge: Look at one peripheral or semiperipheral country
that is rapidly urbanizing. What industries have prompted some of the rural
to urban migration? Are they local businesses, multinational corporations, or
a combination?
Figure 11.26
Megacity growth.