Urban Growth and Attitudes to Cities

Hello.

My name is Heather Barrett,

and I'm a principal lecturer in human geography at the

University of Worcester.

I'm also the co author of a Routledge textbook on urban

geography, and I specialize in urban geography and

planning.

This lecture will examine, urban social and cultural

change, in the UK.

Firstly, we'll look at urban growth, in the UK from the

nineteenth century to the present and how that,

precipitated particular attitudes to the growth of

cities both positive and negative.

Secondly we'll look at urban social structure and how this

is shaped by people's access to housing.

Next, we'll look at, the city as an unequal place and

ideas about inequality and social exclusion in cities.

Fourthly, we'll look at some of the uneven impacts of the process

of gentrification, which has impacted on cities,

from the latter half of the twentieth century onwards.

Then finally, we'll look at the culture of cities and how this is

important and how cities see themselves and promote

themselves in increasingly globalized world.

So firstly, looking at, urban growth and attitudes to cities.

So urbanization is the process of urban growth

and people moving from, into towns and cities

principally from sort of rural, rural areas.

So people migrated, moved from the countryside into cities.

The UK was one of the first countries to urbanize in the

nineteenth century and it became predominantly urban,

so over fifty percent of the population living in cities in

the middle of the nineteenth century.

By the turn of the nineteenth, twentieth century,

nineteen hundred,

around seventy seven percent of the population lived,

lived in cities in urban areas in the UK.

Since the latter part of the twentieth century,

the population has stabilized.

So the urban system as we know it today was largely

established by the beginning of the twentieth century.

This growth of cities, so again, growth of big cities

like London, which dominates,

the UK but also the big industrial cities of the

Midlands and the North,

precipitated particular attitudes and concerns about about cities.

So cities were growing rapidly and also populations of society

were seen to be changing.

So more and more people moving into urban areas.

And again, society was soon to change,

and old orders were breaking down.

And certainly for many early sociologists, they were,

interested in understanding these kind of changing

social and cultural attitudes associated with urbanisation,

urban change, industrialisation, and the

development of modern

societies.

Again, this growth, so people were being drawn into

cities, by perceived opportunities,

but also there were lots of kind of negative,

arguments as well in terms of some of the concerns and

problems about cities.

So there are, as a pro and anti,

urban arguments to about life in cities.

And and this is called life in cities is known as urbanisms or

urban ways of life.

What goes alongside thinking about urbanization as a process

of growth.

In terms of pro urbanism arguments and ideas, the city

is seen as a place of opportunity.

There are job opportunities.

It is diverse. It is culturally vibrant.

There are sort of opportunities in terms of services,

education, seem to be emancipatory.

You can have the kind of lifestyle you want.

These are all the things that pull people into cities,

and this is very much what fuels rural to urban migration.

So these are what are called pull factors

associated to these positive pro urban ideas.

Again, often these pro urban ideas are seen in opposition to what's

going on in rural areas and ideas about the rural.

And there are a lot of push factors again in the nineteenth

century in terms of,

limited agricultural employment due to technological changes,

stifling communities, and also the lack of kind of services.

So people migrated drawn by these kind of

pro urban ideas.

But also, as I said,

lots of problems associated with large scale migration into cities,

lots and lots of people moving into areas with little thought

and planning about kind of how these people would live,

problems not us not having enough housing

concentrated together,

and there were concerns about the the growing kind of social

and health ills of the city.

So cities were seen as, concentrations

of poor conditions, poor housing, disease,

crime, disorder, riots.

Many social commentators were very concerned.

So this was a time of much turmoil and change in the UK and in Europe.

And so cities were seen as a problem.

These are all the kind of negative or anti urban

arguments about cities.

So people began to, if they could and they were wealthy enough,

begin to try and move away from the problems

concentrated in the center of cities,

increasingly move out to the suburbs,

often in search of things they felt they'd lost in kind of an

ideal of the rural, being open and clean and healthy.

So people going out to these suburbs kind of process of suburbanization,

again, fueled by developments in transportation technology.

So, for example, the development of the underground and the metro

system in London fueled the the expansion of suburbs as people

sought to move away from the center of the city to live in a

pleasant environment,

but to be close enough to to work still in the city.

And again, developing on from that, we've

had, say, a move out of larger cities away to smaller

cities or counter urbanization.

Again, trying to seek these these benefits of away from the ills of the city,

benefits the rules away from the problems of the city.

Again, these ideas of moving out have got pros and cons.

So, again, people have more space, better lifestyle,

but it does create urban sprawl.

And so this fueled some ideas for more management and control

of cities throughout the twentieth century,

in terms of, emerging planning ideas,

green belts to stop the sprawl of cities outwards uncontrollably.

So these pro and anti urban arguments have kind of drawn

people to cities for the the benefits, but also, as I say,

repelled people away from cities through suburbanization.

So rural urban rural to urban migration is a key process,

certainly in the nineteenth century for UK cities.

But also there's been,

lots of in migration from around the world that has

impacted upon the social, mix within within UK cities.

And again, we can see cities. Cities have always been global.

They've always been connected.

But certainly, in the latter part of the twentieth century,

the increasing globalization,

we see cities becoming increasingly global,

people migrating in from all parts of the world,

particularly, former British colonies into UK cities.

So we see cities as places of flows into people around the world.

And this is what the the geographer Doreen Massey

described as having a global sense of place for urban areas,

that they are connected globally.

So certainly in the latter part of the twentieth century,

we see the increasing,

cultural and ethnic diversity of cities as people migrated in

from different parts of the world.

Particularly, again, into places like London and some of

our larger, industrial cities.

Birmingham is a good example of a, what we might call a super diverse city.

So it's had flows of migration.

And again in the latter part of the twentieth century lots of

migrants from the Caribbean,

from Asia, particularly India, Pakistan,

Bangladesh moving into the city.

It's created this super diverse city where so called ethnic

minority groups now outnumber white groups in terms of the

percentage of population, in Birmingham.

So it's certainly,

benefited from this kind of migration to make it a

culturally mixed and diverse.

And, again, these,

people from around the world were attracted to those

positives about the city, the opportunities,

that will be presented in terms of jobs, employments,

cultural mixing.

So cities, as I say, have kind of these pro

arguments that say have continually attracted

populations to move in to cities, but also, say,

these negative arguments that have fueled some people to want

to move away from cities.