L15: Contemporary Approaches to Investigating Cities

Question 1

issues in new global cities

Answer 1

• rapid urban growth
• housing shortages
• insufficient infrastructure
• air and water pollution
• food security
• manufacturing
• changing identities
• transnational trade/globalization

Question 2

What do we call the non-west? What is implied/problematic about these terms?

Answer 2

Call it: third world, developing world, global south
- implicit ranking
- inaccurate, as some countries lay in geographic regions associated with other group
- implies a linear trajectory, with a start and an end
- hard to draw line
New term: Emerging economy

Question 3

How do we approach the study of cities and contemporary urban change in the Global South

Answer 3

Important to be critical about applying western models, concepts, and theories about cities. Some work, others do not. The west doesn’t need to be the focus all the time.

Question 4

Critical urban geography
(EXAM)

Answer 4

• a critique of existing social relations and a search for emancipatory alternatives
  3 main processes:
• Proposes new concepts of how social processes and relationships operate and change within the city
• developing research that is socially relevant and politically engaged
• uses the lives of urban residents and marginalized social groups to shape our understanding of the urban sphere