Geography 3 Weeks 3-6 Written Activity

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ED103 GEOGRAPHY 3 (URBAN)

WEEK 3 & 6 WRITTEN ACTIVITY
Name: JUN MARK B. YABO Year Level: BSED-III
1. Describe the effects of having diversity in cities.

Cities are becoming more diverse. This increasing diversity, associated with migration, different
lifestyles within and between groups, and spatial segregation in terms of ethnicity and socio-
economic variables, leads to diverse and usually unequal opportunities for different groups of
urban residents. Within cities, quite a number of neighbourhoods also show a large diversity,
often accompanied by large differences in lifestyles and socioeconomic inequality. Within such
neighbourhoods residents may live spatially mixed or more separated. Diversity within cities and
neighbourhoods can create problems, such as feelings of discomfort, clashing values and norms,
conflicts in or over public space, racism and even open conflicts on the streets. Diverse cities and
neighbourhoods can however also create opportunities for their residents: the presence of
different people in a relatively small area creates possibilities for new social contacts, social
cohesion, innovative practices of solidarity in diversity, and social mobility. Whether diversity
has positive or negative effects depends partly on policies and local initiatives that stimulate
social contacts and collaboration between the different groups present in the area.
2. Explain the development of city life.

Early cities developed in a number of regions, from Mesopotamia to Asia to the Americas. The
very first cities were founded in Mesopotamia after the Neolithic Revolution, around 7500 BCE.
Mesopotamian cities included Eridu, Uruk, and Ur. Early cities also arose in the Indus Valley and
ancient China. Among the early Old World cities, one of the largest was Mohenjo-daro, located
in the Indus Valley (present-day Pakistan); it existed from about 2600 BCE, and had a population
of 50,000 or more. In the ancient Americas, the earliest cities were built in the Andes and
Mesoamerica, and flourished between the 30th century BCE and the 18th century BCE.
Ancient cities were notable for their geographical diversity, as well as their diversity in form and
function. Theories that attempt to explain ancient urbanism by a single factor, such as economic
benefit, fail to capture the range of variation documented by archaeologists. Excavations at early
urban sites show that some cities were sparsely populated political capitals, others were trade
centers, and still other cities had a primarily religious focus. Some cities had large dense
populations, whereas others carried out urban activities in the realms of politics or religion
without having large associated populations. Some ancient cities grew to be powerful capital
cities and centers of commerce and industry, situated at the centers of growing ancient empires.
Examples include Alexandria and Antioch of the Hellenistic civilization, Carthage, and ancient
Rome and its eastern successor, Constantinople (later Istanbul).
3. Identify the different events and incidents that altered cities.
Why did cities form in the first place? There is insufficient evidence to assert what conditions
gave rise to the first cities, but some theorists have speculated on what they consider pre-
conditions and basic mechanisms that could explain the rise of cities. Agriculture is believed to
be a pre-requisite for cities, which help preserve surplus production and create economies of
scale. The conventional view holds that cities first formed after the Neolithic Revolution, with the
spread of agriculture. The advent of farming encouraged hunter-gatherers to abandon nomadic
lifestyles and settle near others who lived by agricultural production. Agriculture yielded more
food, which made denser human populations possible, thereby supporting city development.
Farming led to dense, settled populations, and food surpluses that required storage and could
facilitate trade. These conditions seem to be important prerequisites for city life. Many theorists
hypothesize that agriculture preceded the development of cities and led to their growth.
4. Define urban poverty and disorder.
Unlike rural poverty, urban poverty is complex and multidimensional—extending beyond the
deficiency of income or consumption, where its many dimensions relate to the vulnerability of the
poor on account of their inadequate access to land and housing, physical infrastructure and
services, economic and livelihood sources, health and education facilities, social security
networks, and voice and empowerment.
In most of developing Asia, urbanization has been accompanied by slums and shelter deprivation,
informality, worsening of the living conditions, and increasing risks due to climate change and
exclusionary urban forms. According to the UN-HABITAT, Asia has 60% of the world’s total
slum population, and many more live in slum-like conditions in areas that are officially
designated as nonslums. Working poverty and informality are high in Asian cities and towns.
Recent years have witnessed, almost universally, increasing urban inequalities and stagnating
consumption shares of lower-percentile households, with Hong Kong, China registering one of
the highest Gini-coefficients observed in any other part of the developing and developed world.
5. Discuss the heterogeneity of cities.

Heterogeneity can also be seen in urban landscapes through the process of zoning. Zoning is the
process of dividing land in a municipality into zones in which certain land uses are permitted or
prohibited (Lamar, 2015). The standard categories of zoning in urban areas are residential, mixed
residential-commercial, commercial, and industrial. If one considers the city and surrounding
area, a few more zone categories could be included: agricultural, rural residential and national
forest
6. Define and responding to urban dis(order)

The concepts of order and disorder applied to urban and territorial issues involve complex
definitions. Why do cities, in spite of the effort made to give them order, even though from time to
time this order has been codified in different ways, end up being untidy? In the context in which
the two concepts will be used in this paper it is not possible to imagine them as alternatives, but
they are taken as dialectically constituting territorial reality. “Order” and “disorder” oppose each
other but do not clash with each other. In the hectic organisation of urban and territorial reality
one stimulates the other and each, in opposing, determines change. The inclination towards order
(or tendency towards order) tends, on the one hand, to “repair” the disorder but, on the other,
brings out the conditions for disorder to show itself again and materialise with its problems but
with the vitality implicit in change. Change brings disorder but public commitment through
institutions cannot but aspire to recover a level of order, hopefully, more advanced. Order and
disorder are closely linked with each other, one producing the other in a circular process. The
urban, precisely because of its constituent construction (social, productive and economic
variability; clash between powers and options of models of society) cannot be stable, but the
continuous recovery of “order” responds not only to functional needs, but also to ethical options:
we should not consider all urban “order” as positive, compared with negative disorder; there are
experiences of oppressive and coercive urban order. It is always disorder that determines better
levels and quality of order. Though it may be the dynamic factor of every urban condition, we
must remember that it always requires new order from which to start out again. Disorder,
however it is identified, constitutes a permanent fact, inherent in the urban condition; it is neither
the result of wrong planning (sometimes also this), nor of a perverse will, but rather of the
dynamic mechanisms of the city itself.

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LEYTE COLLEGES

Towards relevant education for all

ED103 GEOGRAPHY 3 (URBAN)

1. Describe the effects of having diversity in cities.

2. Explain the development of city life.

4. Define urban poverty and disorder.

5. Discuss the heterogeneity of cities.

6. Define and responding to urban dis(order)

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