GEOGRAPHY/URBAN & REGIONAL PLANNING 505:
URBAN SPATIAL PATTERNS AND THEORIES
Spring 2015
Mondays 2:20-4:50
Room 360 Science Hall
Instructor:
Office:
Office Hours
Email:
Professor Martin Cadwallader
Room 334 Science Hall
Mondays 4:50-5:30, or by appointment
[email protected]
Urban geography is concerned with the spatial patterns and processes associated with urban areas.
More specifically, it involves exploring the following kinds of questions: What is the pattern of world
urbanization? Why do some cities grow (or decline) faster than others? What is the spatial distribution
(map) of land use and land values within cities? What is the spatial distribution of population within
cities and how is it connected to the distribution of land values? What regularities can be discerned in
the spatial pattern of shopping centers? How can we explain those regularities? How does the urban
housing market operate? To what extent are neighborhoods differentiated with respect to income, race,
and ethnicity? How might we describe the economy of a city? What regularities can be identified with
respect to commuting patterns within cities? To what extent do residents possess cognitive maps of the
cities in which they live? What do such maps look like and how do they affect behavior? What are the
processes responsible for migration between and within cities? All of these questions, and many more,
are addressed by urban geography.
In general, then, this course is designed to provide an understanding of the spatial structure and
movement patterns within urban areas. The approach is multidisciplinary in the sense that appropriate
ideas are culled from various disciplines within the social sciences, including geography, economics,
sociology, and psychology. An emphasis is placed on the integration of substantive and methodological
material. In addition, discussions of urban models, and their implications for urban and regional
planning, are stressed throughout the course.
The course provides an immediate follow-up to Geography 305: Introduction to the City. It should also
be of interest to those students who have completed a 300-level human geography course (for example
Geography 349: Europe). Students from cognate disciplines, such as urban and regional planning,
economics, sociology, and real estate, will also find the material to be of relevance to their major.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
As a result of taking this course it is hoped that students will attain a greater appreciation of the
following aspects of urban areas:
1. That urban spatial patterns (maps) are generated by various social, economic, political, and
psychological processes, and that these processes are themselves constrained by the patterns
they generate.
2. That various aspects of cities can be approached and understood from a variety of disciplinary
perspectives, and that the richest explanations reflect insights from all those disciplines.
3. That substantive, philosophical, and methodological issues should be fully integrated in any
understanding of urban areas. That is, our understanding of cities is at least partly determined
by the methodologies we use.
4. In addition, students will feel comfortable writing a paper that involves: (1) identifying a
problem; (2) finding and evaluating the relevant literature; (3) analyzing both qualitative and
quantitative data; and (4) drawing reasoned conclusions. This paper can be used in future job
interviews to demonstrate these abilities.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
The course requirements will include a term paper and final examination, each of which will count for
50% of the final grade.
The term paper will involve primary research on a topic selected by the student in consultation with the
instructor. Chosen topics will be associated with one or more of the major dimensions of the course (see
outline below) and can focus on cities in any part of the world. Papers will ordinarily include a statement
of the problem being investigated, a short literature review, an analysis of qualitative or quantitative
data, and a set of conclusions. Undergraduates should aim for an 8-12 page double-spaced paper, while
graduate students should aim for 15-20 pages.
The final examination will involve three or four short essay questions. There will be a choice of
questions. We will use the overview during the final week of class to discuss the nature of these
questions. They will be general, rather than specific, and will encourage students to distill, describe, and
critically evaluate the major insights of the course.
Letter grades for the course will be assigned as follows (with equal weighting given to the term paper
and final exam):
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F
93-100pts
90-92
83-89
80-82
70-79
60-69
less than 60
COURSE OUTLINE
The recommended texts are Martin Cadwallader, Urban Geography: An Analytical Approach, Prentice
Hall, 1996 and David Kaplan, Steven Holloway, and James Wheeler, Urban Geography, Wiley, 3rd Edition,
2014.
Additional suggested reading will be assigned from the following books: Paul Knox and Linda McCarthy,
Urbanization: An Introduction to Urban Geography, 3rd Edition, 2011; Paul Knox and Steven Pinch, Urban
Social Geography: An Introduction, 6th Edition, 2009; and Michael Pacione, Urban Geography: A Global
Perspective, 3rd Edition, 2009. Copies of these texts will be placed on reserve in the Geography library.
Recent journal articles are also suggested for each topic.
Week 1: Introduction to basic concepts and terms.
(systems of cities; internal structure of cities; spatial patterns; scientific method)
Cadwallader, pp. 21-40.
Kaplan, Holloway, and Wheeler, pp. 3-24.
Knox and McCarthy, pp. 3-16.
Pacione, pp. 18-34.
Weeks 2 & 3: World urbanization.
(urbanization curves; city size distributions; implications for regional planning)
Cadwallader, pp. 301-306.
Kaplan, Holloway, and Wheeler, pp. 61-64 and pp. 400-416.
Knox and McCarthy, pp. 47-57.
Pacione, pp. 68-93.
G. Mulligan, “Revisiting the urbanization curve”, Cities, 32 (2013), pp. 113-122.
Weeks 3 & 4: Patterns of land use and land value.
(land use theory; bid-rent curves; empirical testing; polycentric model, land use zoning)
Cadwallader, pp. 41-67.
Kaplan, Holloway, and Wheeler, pp. 117-132.
Knox and McCarthy, pp. 62-85.
G. Giuliano, P. Gordon, Q. Pan, and J. Park, “Accessibility and residential land values: Some tests
with new measures”, Urban Studies, 47 (2010), pp. 1-28.
Weeks 4 & 5: Land value and housing models.
(land value models; the housing market; housing values)
Cadwallader, pp. 71-100.
Kaplan, Holloway, and Wheeler, pp. 198-232.
Knox and Pinch, pp. 115-146.
R. Cebula, “The hedonic pricing model applied to the housing market of the city of Savannah and
its Savannah historic landmark district, The Review of Regional Studies, 39 (2009), pp. 9-22.
Weeks 6 & 7: Urban retailing.
(relationship to land values; spatial organization of shopping centers; central place theory;
implications for urban planning)
Cadwallader, pp. 101-113.
Pacione, pp. 240-262.
G. Mulligan, M. Partridge, and J. Carruthers, “Central place theory and its reemergence in
regional science”, Annals of Regional Science, 48 (2012), pp. 405-431.
Weeks 8 & 9: Urban social areas and neighborhoods.
(population density; classical models; social area analysis; factorial ecology; implications for
urban planning).
Cadwallader, pp. 113-152.
Kaplan, Holloway, and Wheeler, pp. 169-197.
Knox and Pinch, pp. 59-83.
Pacione, pp. 368-395.
R. Reed, “The contribution of social area analysis: Modelling house price variations at the
neighborhood level in Australia”, International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, 6
(2013), pp. 455-472.
Weeks 10 & 11: The urban economy.
(economic base concept; economic multiplier; urban growth and decline; input-output analysis)
Cadwallader, pp. 153-175.
Kaplan, Holloway, and Wheeler, pp. 142-166.
Y. Zhang and K. Zhao, “Impact of Beijing Olympic-related investments on regional economic
growth of China: Interregional input-output approach”, Asian Economic Journal, 21 (2007), pp.
261-282.
Weeks 12 & 13: The city of the mind.
(designative perceptions; appraisive perceptions; mental maps; cognitive distance; implications
for urban planning)
Cadwallader, pp. 177-205.
Knox and McCarthy, pp. 358-365.
Knox and Pinch, pp. 225-233.
N. Lopez and C. Lukinbeal, “Comparing police and residents’ perceptions of crime in a Phoenix
neighborhood using mental maps in GIS”, Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast
Geographers, 72 (2010), pp. 33-55.
Week 14: Migration and residential mobility.
(decision to move; interregional migration; migration within cities)
Cadwallader, pp. 237-291 and pp. 323-348.
Knox and McCarthy, pp. 218-222.
Knox and Pinch, pp. 252-271.
S. Oishi, “The psychology of residential mobility: Implications for the self, social relationships,
and well-being”, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5 (2010), pp. 5-21.
Week 15: Overview.