Urban Sociology Test: Marxist Notions, Feminist Critique, Gentrification, and Post-Industrial City

True or false

Please answer the following questions accordingly. Use the uploaded files named lectures for references. This is a test please do not cite outside sources this needs to use only course material. True or false: 2 points each, total of 6 points. The urban revolution followed the Neolithic (agricultural) revolution. __________ The political economy (Marxist) approach emerged as a critique on the ecological approach. ___ The use-value and exchange value are central concepts in the ecological approach. _____ Definitions: 6 points each, total of 18 points, 150 words each. Define the feminist critique in urban sociology as advanced by Gilbert (1999). Define gentrification and its phases. Define the post-industrial city. Essay question: Total of 11 points. Up to 600 words. Mention and explain the advantages and disadvantages of gentrification, at least 3 advantages and 3 disadvantages.

Overview of the Marxist notions central to the political economy approach in urban sociology: •Means of production (land, capital), mode of production (feudal, capitalist), class warfare between those who have the means of production (lords of land, capitalists) and those who do not (serf, laborer-sell their labour).

•Base and superstructure.

•Surplus value, profit, accumulated capital.

•Use value vs. exchange value.

 

Gans: Use-centered View of Space.•Focus: the relationship between the physical (natural) space, human communities, how space is used and the social space. •Causal relationship? Shaped by the users in one direction and the physical/natural space as a mere spatial container? •Humans use the physical/natural space hence transforming it into social space. This entails setting boundaries, rules of ownership, pricing, allocating functions (residential, industrial, commercial), givingmeaning (sacred, homes as a sanctuary, memories). •In turn, how this transformation shapes social forces and the social; examples: inequality, poverty, economic growth.

•Use here has double meaning: use value and exchange value drawing on the Marxist tradition. •Use value: how it is used based on functionality or utility.•Exchange value: the other values embedded in it beyond its functionality.

 

Use-centered view allows us to examine: •Land use (allocation and zoning): as these are generally regulated by the government, how this affects the users, affects the city. Imagine a single mother having to take 5 buses to arrive home without any stop that has a grocery nearby. Think about the social effects of this example. •Land values: linked to the first point. How land is assigned or has value. Is it based on its functionality or utility (use value), or is it based on what is beyond its functionality or utility (exchange value). This is linked to how space users as well as builders, developers, bankers, financial speculators, owners, renters, all determine the price or value of land. Think about suburbanization and its reversal nowadays. Is this constellation unfolding naturally by demand-supply logic or are there other interests and conflicts?

 

•Locations: as a points connecting users or uses; think about mono-use or multifunctional mixed use (transportation hub and shopping). How this shapes the use value and the exchange value of a location. •Density: living space of the space users (their dwelling), its social effect. Think about the epidemiological aspects, other emotional effects like the right to privacy. •Propinquity (proximity): its effect on social contact or conflict. Think of a BBQ on the balcony. •Public space: whose public space is it? Who uses it? How they use it? Think about homeless individuals in the subway or in parks.