ecological approach

Robert Park

focuses on relationships between living things and their environment

competition for resources

cooperation among people

population movement

1. invasion - pioneers move in, fear and conflict among current residents

2. recession - old population leaves, takes resources, area deteriorates

3. reorganization and succession - transfer of institutions

4. invasion - cycle is repeated

Park and Burgess (1924)

Zone I - Central Business District

Zone II - zone in transition, basically crappy

Zone III - zone of workingmen's homes, a little nicer

Zone IV - residential zone, middle class

Zone V - commuter's zone, suburbs, satellite cities

Hoyt (1939)

sectors are pie shaped, not ring shaped

side by side, different sizes

Harris and Ullman (1945)

no single center

activities have certain requirements

activities benefit from/repel one another

zoning: rules about land

infrastructure: public expenditures (school, police, fire dept., etc.)

federal gov't: housing market/subsidies for home financing

urban renewal: redeveloping inner-city land for new use

local gov't supports development -->

migration to city -->

demand for services/money for business -->

back to beginning

Dear, Davis, Soja

periphery organizes the center

corporate dominated, global capitalism

fragmented (growing gap between powerful and powerless)

multicultural (edge cities, dreamscapes, fortified cities)

1. indicator of life chances and inequality

2. link between social structure and way of life

3. spatial distance reflects social distance

4. program/policy implications

De Jure Segregation

(Plessy v. Ferguson,

Brown v. Board of Education)

racial segregation enforced by laws

Plessy v. Ferguson - separate but equal

Brown v. Board - separate is inherently unequal

Gary, IN

Detroit, MI

Milwaukee, WI

dimensions of segregation

(5)

1. evenness - distribution of subject population

2. exposure - potential contact

3. concentration - the relative amount of physical space occupied

4. centralization - the degree to which a group is located near the center of an urban area

5. clustering - the degree to which minority groups live disproportionately in contiguous areas

1. Blacks prefer to live in black neighborhoods

2. Whites prefer to live in white neighborhoods

3. Racial turnover (white flight)

4. Discrimination

the problem is the class system

solution: education, family support programs, universal health care, job information centers

not race based

problem is racial discrimination

solution: tougher penalties for discrimination charges, integration maintenance programs ("reverse steering"), scattered-site public housing

not class based

adaptation that allows spread of resources (babysitting, money lending, etc.)

- social capital (trust, relationships)

- can make mobility, marriage difficult

masculine/feminine space

masculine - work/public life

feminine - home/private life

immigrant groups concentrated in a distinct spatial location where the workforce is comprised of immigrants (employers and employees)

ex. Chinatown, Little Italy

Gordon's Assimilation Theory (1964)

7 steps

- cultural assimilation

- structural assimilation: entrance into institutions

- marital assimilation

- identificational assimilation

- attitude receptional assimilation: absence of prejudice

- behavior receptional assimilation: absence of discrimination

- civic assimilation: totally accepted

- segregated enclave is obstacle to assimilation

- temporary

- absorption of dominant culture = spatial integration

- ethnic solidarity

- social capital, mobilized resources

- economic opportunities

- physical and psychological discrimination

- selective acculturation: learning is embedded in co-ethnic community