Throughout the semester Professor Beck covered an array of topics that dealt with the history and evolution of urban space in a sociological perspective. One of the first topics that was covered in class was the topic of human ecology. Human ecology is the study of human relations in their natural, social and built environments. Human ecology has particular relevance to this course because urban space has been a part of human life since the day humans started to roam the earth.
The city has been evolving for the better since the times of widespread disease and famine that once hit “urbanized cities” during the industrial revolution. During the 1800’s diseases like typhoid, cholera and tuberculosis impacted people in a way where it was expected
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The shift from rural life to metropolitan life leaves a person being bombarded with new external and internal stimuli; since there is a constant shift in the city a person develops a “protective organ” or a buffer to protect him or herself from the constant changing city life. The concept of the protective buffer is incased in a cold-mindset where the person refers to reason and logic instead of concern for emotional significance; this is where the blasé outlook comes from because a person develops an apathetic outlook on their environment. The numbing to the metropolitan environment leaves the person incapable to react to such stimuli and that leaves them without the required energy to try to form close relationships with others like in a rural community. Simmel states that the economy of money created a mental dullness to people because they develop relationships on the value of money. The blasé outlook is illustrated in the text by explaining how the uniqueness and incomparability is lost because it is looked at the monetary value instead of a personal one where the commodity has deeper meaning, like in a simple economy. The blasé attitude is also affiliated with the wealthy because the activities they partake in, items they purchase and people they surround themselves with devalues their personality. The personality the wealthy form is surrounded by a quantity of expensive belongings in an expensive lifestyle. Saying this Simmel was not complaining or condoning the blasé outlook but trying to understand it because he understood that environments shape the social structure of human
The book, The Ghost Map, tells the story of the cholera outbreak that took place in England during the medieval era. During this time, London became popular, causing it to become one of the most populous urban cities in England. However, it suffered from overcrowding, a large lower class, and little health regulations. As a result, living conditions and water supply were not the cleanest, and many died from the disease cholera. Though this epidemic led to many deaths/illnesses during it’s time, it has proven to be helpful and important to public health today. Some public health advancements that have occurred as a result include healthier, cleaner, and longer lives lived.
Pamela K. Gilbert, “’Scarcely to be Described’: Urban Extremes as Real Spaces and Mythic Places in the London Cholera Epidemic of 1854,” Nineteenth Century Studies 14 (2000): 149-72.
During the last half of the 1800’s and the early part of the 1900’s urban population in western Europe made enormous increases. During this period France’s overall population living in cities increased twenty percent, and in Germany the increase was almost thirty percent. This great flow of people into cities created many problems in resource demands and patterns of urban life. These demands created a revolution in sanitation and medicine. Part of this revolution was the redesigning of cities. G.E. Baron Von Haussmann was the genius behind the new plans for the city of Paris.
By the 1840’s high rates of disease were ascribed to the housing many of New York’s poverty-stricken immigrants lived in. Fear spread that while disease was rooted in the polluted living conditions of New York’s poorer communities, disease could easily spread to the more well off citizens too. Public health officials realized that the city’s soiled streets and polluted sewers were a health risk to all New Yorkers. In the mid-nineteenth century, New York possessed a primitive sewage system. Poorly planned sewers spanned the city, but most citizens’ homes did not connect to these pipes. Instead, most New Yorkers relied on outdoor outhouses and privies. Because of the high levels of unmanaged waste, epidemics of infectious diseases were commonplace in New York. The city battled outbreaks of smallpox, typhoid, malaria, yellow fever, cholera, and tuberculosis. In 1849, a rash of cholera struck the city, killing more than five thousand people. A wave of typhoid in the mid-1860’s resulted in a similar amount of deaths. Port cities and transportation hubs, like New York, were especially prone to outbursts of infectious diseases because of the high volume of travelers that passed through the city. Americans realized that they were contracting and dying from infectious diseases at an alarming rate, but weren’t entirely sure of why or how. (Web, par. 17,
Throughout the nineteenth century, German sociologist Georg Simmel argues his social theory of sociability and its ability to transcend upon inner barriers between people as a consequence of the tumult within the metropolitan life. He effectively explores the depth of sociability and its pose as a form of classical leisure
With urban population growth, both ecological and industrial consequences directly affect those in poverty and the urban poor. Slums usually develop in the worst types of terrain, and lead to flooding, landslides, and fires that destroy thousands of people’s homes. Yet population growth and the amounts of waste created by urban civilizations are also pushed on the hidden faces and locations of those on the outskirts of the cities. “If natural hazards are magnified by urban poverty, new and entirely artificial hazards are created by poverty’s interactions with toxic industries, anarchic traffic, and collapsing infrastructures” (Davis 128).
American towns industrialized all throughout the nineteenth century, irresistible ailments developed as a genuine danger. The presentation of new workers and the development of vast urban zones permitted already confined sicknesses to spread rapidly and contaminate larger populations. As industrialization occurred, towns developed into cities, and people relocated to them. The expanded interest for shoddy lodging by urban vagrants prompted ineffectively assembled homes that poorly accommodated individual cleanliness. Outside laborers in the nineteenth century frequently lived in cramped dwellings that consistently lacked fundamental comforts, for example, running water, ventilation, and toilets. These conditions were perfect for the spread
Gentrification is the keystone for the progression of the basic standards of living in urban environments. A prerequisite for the advancement of urban areas is an improvement of housing, dining, and general social services. One of the most revered and illustrious examples of gentrification in an urban setting is New York City. New York City’s gentrification projects are seen as a model for gentrification for not only America, but also the rest of the world. Gentrification in an urban setting is much more complex and has deeper ramifications than seen at face value. With changes in housing, modifications to the quality of life in the surrounding area must be considered as well. Constant lifestyle changes in a community can push out life-time
Discoveries in mmedicine and the environment improved nutrition as well as reduced unsanitary urban environments which carried diseases, poor water quality, and unproper removals of sewage. Urbanization is the term used to described the boom in population during this time in urban areas. Sanitary reforms stepped up during this time and developed ways to sanitize the most filthy parts of Europe.
Tony Hiss Author of The Experience of Place brings to our attention that as humans “We react, consciously or unconsciously, to the places where we live and work, in ways we scarcely notice or that are only now becoming known to us…In short, the places where we spend our time affect the people we are and can become.” Place defines characteristics in both human and extended moral communities. Place is not necessarily specific to gender, race, generation or specie. This understanding and recognition of place is fundamental when thinking about institutionalizing ecological and social responsibility.
Growing up in the Bay Area next to San Francisco ha slead me to become fascinated by the complexity of the cities of the world and how they affect so many people. I love the idea that these cities were all planned and thought up of by individuals working together for a larger goal. The planning of cities affects all its inhabitants in ways that they probably do not even realize which makes these plans and the planning process even more compelling. I am also interested in what makes cities unique. Cities are all made up of roughly the same things: blocks, big buildings, parks, cars, and people. Even though the basic elements of cities are the same they all still have there own unique character. I think one of the most distinguishing factors of cities is how they were designed to accommodate certain needs of their inhabitants outside of where they live or work. Cities can easily be overwhelming or a harsh place to live, which is why certain areas need to be set aside to offer some kind of escape. In addition to being a place to withdraw, parks and recreational areas can be a distinguishing characteristic of a city. In San Francisco, the Golden Gate Park, Union square, the Presidio, the wharfs and many other areas set it apart from all of the other cities of the United States and the world. How the planners of San Francisco thought about the areas that the inhabitants needed outside of work and home helps give it its individuality as a major city. Just like how someone must plan all cities, people planned all the parks and recreational areas of cities that have such a widespread effect. By looking at Fredrick Law Olmsted and the Urban Design and Social Context approach he represents, one can learn more about landscape architecture in...
Finally, this paper will explore the “end product” that exists today through the works of the various authors outlined in this course and explain how Los Angeles has survived many decades of evolution, breaking new grounds and serving as the catalyst for an urban metropolis.
The burdensome excellence of living in a city: A review of Georg Simmel’s “The Metropolis and the Mental Life”
The number of facilities suggests that the city had to take measures to contain the outbreaks as soon as possible but there were still challenges that undermined their efforts. These facilities were unlike the sanatoriums that were described before. The study made note that such
With more needs for nature experience and sustainable development in urban areas, increasing importance has been attached to urban open spaces since they play a crucial role to support the ecology system and form a natural network in the cities (Chiesura, 2004; Tzoulas et al., 2007). Urban open spaces include plazas, parks, campus, greenways and other green spaces. They serve as islands of nature, enriching urban landscapes, adjusting the microclimate, promoting biodiversity and providing habitats for other species (Chiesura, 2004; Do, Kim, Kim, & Joo, 2014; Morimoto, 2011). Apart from these benefits, they also show a great impact on urban dwellers’ health, since open spaces offer places for outdoor activities and opportunities for contact with nature (Chiesura, 2004). Tyrväinen et al. (2014) indicated that even short-term visits to urban green spaces have positive psychological and physiological effects on perceived stress relief. People were attracted to urban open spaces for physical activities, social interactions, and a relief from daily life, which benefit their mental and physical health (Thwaites, Helleur, & Simkins, 2005). A large epidemiological study in Britain looked at mortality and morbidity among three income levels in relation to urban residents’ access to green open space (Mitchell & Popham,