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Urban studies

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Urban studies is a field within the social sciences that researches the history and current developments of urban areas. Researchers in this field have focused on researching how cities have grown and how they continuously change for the future. Events and relationships are analyzed with the city as the center of study, which cover broad academic areas of interest. This field can inform the development of urban planning policies that will shape how cities will develop in the future. The field originated primarily from the United Kingdom and the United States, and has spread to research how international cities apply this research.

History

The study of cities has changed dramatically from the 1800s over time, with new frames of analysis being applied to the development of urban areas. Urban history plays an important role in this field of study because it reveals the how cities have developed previously.[1]

Overall, three different themes[2]: 7  have influenced how researchers have and will continue to study urban areas:

  1. Spatial structures: Reflects how how the city is physically organized
  2. Processes that support spatial structure: Question how the city's structure operates
  3. Normative Analysis: Construct opinions supported by facts to promote better urban planning methods

Scholars have also researched how cities outside of the United Kingdom and the United States have developed, but only to a limited degree. Urban history previously focused mostly on how European and American cities developed over time, instead of focusing on how non-European cities developed.[3] Additional geographic areas researched in this field include South Africa,[4] Australia,[5] Latin America, and India.[1]

Racial history in the United States

The racial segregation of urban residents in the United States has played an important role in developing this field. One program founded to research African-American urban residents, the Harvard-MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies, was founded in 1959 to study residential segregation and to support affected communities.[6] More recently, studies related to race and urban life started to focus on ethnographic methods to study how individuals lived in relation to the city and their respective systems as a whole.[2]

Areas of research

This field is transdisciplinary because it uses theories from a variety of academic fields and places them within an urban context.[7] A wide variety of academic fields refer to the urban environment as a location studied, such as Environmental Studies, Economics, Geography, Public Health, and Sociology.[1] However, scholars in this field research how specific elements contribute to how the city operates, such as how housing[8] and transportation[9] will change. In addition, researchers also study how residents interact within the city, such as how race[10] and gender[11] differences lead to social inequalities in urban areas.

Criticism

In the United States, race has heavily impacted where African-Americans live. Black Power movements, particularly the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, have criticized how the Harvard-MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies researched the African-American urban population but did not understand the community's needs.[6]

Researchers also struggle with how terms are created and used both inside and outside the field. Researchers even struggle how to define basic terms precisely, such as how a city is defined, due to how the roles of cities change.[12] Researchers must be careful in how they describe urban areas, as their work can be manipulated as positive elements for city boosters wanting to promote a specific city.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c Harris, Richard; Smith, Michael E. (2011). "THE HISTORY IN URBAN STUDIES: A COMMENT". Journal of Urban Affairs. 33 (1): 99–105. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9906.2010.00547.x. Retrieved April 24, 2017.
  2. ^ a b Paddison, Ronan (2001). "Studying Cities". In Paddison, Ronan (ed.). Handbook of Urban Studies. London; Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. pp. 177–193. ISBN 9780803976955.
  3. ^ Doyle, Barry M. (2009). "A decade of urban history: Ashgate's Historical Urban Studies series". Urban History. 36 (3): 498–512. doi:10.1017/S0963926809990149. Retrieved April 24, 2017.
  4. ^ Parnell, Susan (1997). "South African Cities: Perspectives from the Ivory Tower of Urban Studies". Urban Studies. 34 (5–6): 891–906. doi:10.1080/0042098975871. Retrieved April 29, 2017.
  5. ^ Huxley, Margo; Loughlin, J. Brian (1985). "The New Urban Studies Literature: A Review with Special Reference to Australia". Progress in Planning. 24: 163–245. doi:10.1016/0305-9006(85)90004-2. Retrieved April 29, 2017.
  6. ^ a b Geary, Daniel (2015). "Chapter 4: The Death of White Sociology". The Moynihan Report and its Legacy. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 110–138. ISBN 9780812247312.
  7. ^ Ramadier, Thierry (2004). "Transdisciplinarity and its challenges: the case of urban studies". Journal of Urban Affairs. 33 (1): 99–105. doi:10.1016/j.futures.2003.10.009. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  8. ^ Forrest, Ray; Williams, Peter (2001). "Housing in the Twentieth Century". In Paddison, Ronan (ed.). Handbook of Urban Studies. London; Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. pp. 88–101. ISBN 9780803976955.
  9. ^ Hart, Tom (2001). "Transport and the City". In Paddison, Ronan (ed.). Handbook of Urban Studies. London; Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. pp. 102–123. ISBN 9780803976955.
  10. ^ Darden, Joe T. (2001). "Race Relations in the City". In Paddison, Ronan (ed.). Handbook of Urban Studies. London; Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. pp. 177–193. ISBN 9780803976955.
  11. ^ McDowell, Linda M. (2001). "Women, Men, Cities". In Paddison, Ronan (ed.). Handbook of Urban Studies. London; Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. pp. 206–219. ISBN 9780803976955.
  12. ^ Frey, William H.; Zimmer, Zachary (2001). "Defining the City". In Paddison, Ronan (ed.). Handbook of Urban Studies. London; Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. ISBN 9780803976955.
  13. ^ Brenner, Neil (2003). "Stereotypes, Archetypes, and Prototypes: Three Uses of Superlatives in Contemporary Urban Studies". City & Community. 2 (3): 205–216. doi:10.1111/1540-6040.00051. Retrieved April 24, 2017.
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