Download Study Guide for Midterm Exam - Urban Theory | URBS 200 and more Study notes Urban planning in PDF only on Docsity! Urban Theory Fall 2001 URBS 200 Prof. Nevarez Study Guide for 10/11 midterm The midterm will be closed-book and contain two of the following four questions, to be selected by me. No blue books will be needed; you should be able to answer the questions in one page (front and back) each. 1. Judit Bodnar contends that since at least the time in which Georg Simmel wrote, cities have always shown fragmentation. However, the kind of and site for fragmentation have changed as the industrial metropolis of the early 1900s has become polynucleated to incorporate edge cities. Explain this change and discuss its consequences for the social and political unity of the contemporary city. 2. How does the city grow, according to urban ecologists? What are the sources of urban growth? Your answer should explain the processes and interrelationships between the following ecological concepts: centralized decentralization, concentric zones, invasion and succession. 3. Describe the quality of urban life in the zone of transition according to the urban ecology paradigm. Where is this zone located in the basic ecological model of urban morphology? Why do immigrants, deviants, and other potentially undesirable groups find it easiest to establish themselves in the zone of transition? What ecological characteristics reinforce personal and social disorganization in the zone of transition? What kind of practical approach to solving urban problems does this urban ecology perspective support? 4. For Modern urban planners, whose ideals are arguably crystallized in the Radiant City and the Garden City, at what level of analysis can the order of the modern city be found and “improved”? By contrast, at what level of analysis does Jane Jacobs find this order, and how does this support a critique of Modern urban planning? In turn, how does the sociological approach of Herbert Gans reveal the common assumptions shared by Jane Jacobs and Modern urban planners about the influence that planning can have on urban life?
