Introduction: Capitalism and Urban Development Essay

Submitted By HixIm-Jazzy
Words: 1153
Pages: 5
Open Document
Chapter 1







Recent millennium was a major watershed in the evolution of human settlement, for it marked the period when the location of the world’s people became more urban than rural
More than 6 billion inhabitants of the globe now live in towns and cities rather than villages and hamlets
No longer are towns and cities exceptional settlement forms in predominately rural societies --- the world is an urban place







Cities are economic and social systems of space. They are a product of deep-seated and persistent processes, which enable and encourage people to amass in large numbers in small areas
The urban world is distinctive in socioeconomic as well as in spatial terms
Patterns of demand converge as consumerism absorbs ever more of the world’s population







Irrespective of continent or country, many urban residents live their lives in broadly similar ways, with common concerns over home, children, school, and work
Although towns and cities have existed for over eight millennia, the wholesale transition to urban location and urban living is very recent in origin
Many highly successful urban civilizations existed in the past, but their impacts were both limited and localized







In 1700, fewer than 2 per cent of the world’s population lived in urban places and these were concentrated in a small number of city states Major and rapid changes began in Britain in the late 18th Century in response to industrial capitalism By the beginning of the 20th Century about 15 percent of the world’s population was living in urban places



The adoption of a world perspective on cities and urban society is a recent development, which was foreshadowed nearly 100 years ago in the formative work of Adna Ferin Weber
(1899) on the Growth of Cities in the Nineteenth
Century


The urban world Weber analyzed consisted of 50 countries in which there was significant urban development 



Within urbanized countries, statistics on employment patterns, family structures and demography pointed to the existence of pronounced urban-rural contrasts
Cities were places with particular socioeconomic characteristics that sustained and perpetuated distinctive patterns of social and economic behavior





The world economy is capitalist in formation in that is it based upon principles of private rather than state ownership of the means of production and seeks to generate profits through the manipulation of land, labor, finance, and entrepreneurship
The world economy is distinguished by the ways in which it is organized and operates.
Structure and function are key defining features, rather than the worldwide scale of supply and demand, and of production and consumption 







The world economy is dominated by powerful transnational corporations (TNCs) and is regulated through global institutions TNCs are large complex companies that make and sell many products in many countries around the world.
TNCs dominate and control production and consumption in key economic sectors
They have disproportionate influence over supplies of raw materials and manufacturing capacity, and determine/direct patterns of spending through advertising and promotional activities TNCs are supported by banking and investment houses that manage and manipulate global finance, and a range of organizations that provide producer services in the form of management consultancy and legal, personnel, and marketing advice on an international basis







The world economy is organized around and through cities. Implicit in the global approach is the view that cities must increasingly be seen as interacting and interrelated elements within an urban hierarchy that underpins and makes possible processes of capitalist accumulation and reproduction
The accumulation of wealth through
Show More

Related Documents: Introduction: Capitalism and Urban Development Essay

Pros And Cons Of Industrialization After The Civil War

Industrialization after the Civil War I. Introduction Industrialization in America can be traced years before the civil war. During the early nineteenth century, for instance, America was an agrarian society but the migration and settlement witnessed in the west brought transformation to the agrarian society. As from 1820, for instance emergence of steamboats, canals and railroads enabled easier trade to the urban market in the north. A shift from artisan shop to small factories was also witnessed…

Words 867 - Pages 4

Systems, Society and Sustainability Essay

CIVIL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND GEOMATIC ENGINEERING Systems, Society and Sustainability The global challenge of sustainable development requires solutions and mindsets that bridge traditional divisions between nature and culture, and the technical and social sciences. Sustainable development requires that engineers and other professionals are able to include social and ecological considerations alongside technical and economic requirements in managing projects and infrastructure. This course outlines…

Words 3727 - Pages 15

Essay Gender Inequality

08M Professor: Dr.Casey Gender Inequality and Developmental Programs in Developing Countries A continued injustice against women in developing countries occurs despite the efforts made to enact social and economic change. Although international development purports to assist women living in developing countries with a form of empowerment through social and economic change, the opposite is true. In actuality, the influence of neo-liberal policies can have the inadvertent perpetuation of patriarchal…

Words 1803 - Pages 8

Essay about Take Home Final

rise in the development of nation-states due to the increase in central control in many regions. Many European nations were united under the Holy Roman Empire until 1556 when Charles V abdicated the throne and divided his empire amongst his brothers. Although Europe was divided nation-states in general were gaining power, which in turn allowed the rulers and monarchs to gain power and influence as well. The Protestant Reformation, which occurred in the early 1500s, also set the development of nation-states…

Words 6161 - Pages 25

Marxism and Communism Christian Communism Essay

Introduction Communism is a social structure in which classes are abolished and property is commonly controlled, as well as a political philosophy and social movement that advocates and aims to create such a society.Karl Marx, the father of communist thought, posited that communism would be the final stage in society, which would be achieved through a proletarian revolution and only possible after a socialist stage develops the productive forces, leading to a superabundance of goods and services…

Words 4976 - Pages 20

Essay on Culture of Poverty

WORKING PAPER SERIES Theories of Poverty and Anti-Poverty Programs in Community Development Ted K. Bradshaw RPRC Working Paper No. 06-05 February, 2006 Rural Poverty Research Center http://www.rprconline.org/ Introduction Community development has a variety of strategies available to meet the needs of those persons and groups who are less advantaged, usually in poverty. Community developers help all communities, but their passion lies disproportionately with people who do not have adequate…

Words 5574 - Pages 23

Modern Study notes Essay

! Modern History ! ! ! Definitions ! • Autocracy: government in which one person has uncontrolled or unlimited authority over others; the government or power of an absolute monarch.! • Capitalism: an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.! • Communism: a system of social organisation…

Words 3416 - Pages 14

The 1920's: A Brief Film Analysis

images of gangsters emerged in the 1900s as a result of concerns over industrialisation and urbanisation in American life. The late 1920’s brought in a new vision of the gangster as a social climber who was now part of the emerging urban middle-class. Characterised by capitalism, consumerism, and a common work ethic, the modern gangster became a symbol of consumption culture of the 1920’s. No longer a social outcast, the gangster became a central figure of the new urbanism and modernity itself. The depiction…

Words 1583 - Pages 7

Janette Thomas Greenwood's Bittersweet Legacy

as they struggled with the growth after Reconstruction and the accompanying problems of urbanization. A few of the issues that directly affected women were overcrowding in the cities, lack of services for the poor, and alcoholism. It was these urban problems that brought them together and would eventually lead the women of the New South to form organizations in an effort to reform the problems that they were confronted with. Along with these newfound problems of urbanization, women of the New…

Words 2018 - Pages 9

Gilded Age Essay

Warner criticized in The Gilded Age, drawing attention to the artificial standards of taste attributed to the growing American bourgeoisie. As individual income levels increased due to such factors as improved communications resulting from the introduction of the telephone, technological innovations such as electricity, and rapid transportation via the new transcontinental railroads, many individuals—the “new rich”—could afford to indulge in finer clothing (which had become cheaper and more accessible)…

Words 1118 - Pages 5