Urban places now accomodate over half the world's population. Furthermore, any attempts to make the human population more sustainable in its use of resources will require the management of urban places to change. 

The socio-economic structures of cities tend to both reflect inequality and create it through the various geographical processes. 

This topic investigates; World Cities - the command and control nodes in the globalised economy. Megacities - The dense urban centres that have rapidly accommodated much of the population growth and rural-urban migration of the 20th and early 21st century. Lastly, we investigate how cities and suburbs change due to the forces of urban dynamics.
The video lecture above provides an excellent introduction to the Urban Places topic. 

Syllabus Headings

World Cities 
  • The nature, character and spatial distribution of world cities 
  • The role of world cities as powerful centres of economic and cultural authority 
  • The operation of global networks 
  • The relationships of dominance and dependence between world cities and other urban centres and the changing role of regional centres and the demise of the small town. 

Megacities 
  • The nature, character and spatial distribution of mega cities in the developing world 
  • The challenges of living in mega cities such as housing, traffic infrastructure, water and power supplies, sanitation services, employment, and other social and health issues 
  • The responses to these challenges such as self-help projects, community self government, cooperation from NGOs, urban protest and the operations of informal economies. ​

Urban dynamics
  • The urban dynamics of change: ​suburbanisation, exurbanisation, counterurbanisation, decentralisation, consolidation, urban decay, urban renewal, urban village, spatial exclusion
  • A case study of the results of the urban dynamics in a large city selected from the developed world including its
          – social structure and spatial patterns of advantage and disadvantage, wealth and poverty, ethnicity
          – changing economic character, nature and location of residential land, commercial and industrial development
          – culture of place as expressed in the architecture, streetscape, heritage architecture, noise, colour, street life, energy, vitality              and lifestyles
          – growth, development, future trends and ecological sustainability
  • A case study showing one of the urban dynamics listed above, operating in a country town or suburb. 

 
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Practice Extended Response Questions

  1. "Examine the role of world cities and the operation of these cities within global networks."
  2. "How effective are the responses to the challenges of living in a mega city in the developing world?"
  3. "Explain the relationships between the urban dynamics and the changing economic character of a large city in the developed world."
  4. Critically analyse ONE urban dynamic of change operating in a country town OR suburb. 
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