The Cultural Significance of Urban Development - Assignment Example

Part1 Discuss how political ecology in a specific region affects and is affected by all four themes of the When we discuss political ecology, or the social communication, debate, and struggle for power related to the decision making process and organization of resources and power in communities, we can determine differences between social movements based on place or location, human-environment interaction, movement, and region. Each political organization is coming from a grass-roots organization anchored by individuals in a community, and within a greater context of that community’s power structures and cultural expression. We can consider the mobility of a movement or idea in its ability to be transmitted across borders and across ideologies as an integral thought system or meme. The uniqueness of the environment in each region will determine both cultural expressions such as language, personality, and worldview of the movement, as this is based in the inseparability of human culture from the natural ecosystem. The region and resultant cultural diversity must strive to grow to abundance of expression just as we and nature seek the same in bio-diversity. Thus we can view the political ecology of each region as a cultural expression of nature and the process of decision making a homeostatic one compared to global needs. 2. Are we entering a ‘dark age’ as a planet? The technical reference that “dark age” connotes is one where light is diminished or distinguished, “light” in this instance being synonymous with information or knowledge. A dark age is one where communications are limited between regions, allowing for withdrawal and adaption of cultures within a closed local environment. Our planetary civilization in the 21st century is anything but a “dark age” – in fact, it is exactly the opposite. We are standing at the crest of technological progress, eliminating disease, harvesting energy from the sun, wind, and waves, developing next generation telecommunications that link individuals all over the world to the collected works of literature and scientific knowledge of mankind. While the above sounds vaguely like propaganda, and is widely accepted in Western society as a fundamental worldview, we must analyze it again in terms of environmental destruction, the extinction of plants and species, the pollution of the environment, the loss of non-renewable resources and so forth. For information comes in many forms, not only the digital and web based. Consider the DNA of extinct animals and plants that represented billions of years of evolution – that is a type of collective knowledge that is being increasingly lost in our era. Will we wake up one day in a “dark age” due to the extinction of cultural knowledge as represented in indigenous traditions, our linguistic and religious diversity? How many indigenous tribes have lost their way of life in modernity, how many lines of knowledge and wisdom are extinct culturally? From these two aspects, we can see the “light” and “dark” natures of information and its extinction in a greater homeostatic dynamic. But the extinction of indigenous knowledge, plant life, and animal species may be irreversible. The limited view of knowledge we hold today that values the technological, the digital, and the human society over the environment may lead us to wake up one day in a “dark age” recognizing that we have lost so much natural information through the destruction of biodiversity. 3. Does urban development only affect the area where it is built, or does the development of an urban area affect the environment of a region? Use several examples As all life on the planet is inter-connected, and natural eco-systems are exceedingly complex when referenced to the abundance of life and species existing within a certain locale, often evolved to survive with particular traits that unique to the region, it is definite that urban development will affect the greater environment much further than the limits of the ground that it is constructed on. The most obvious example is water. Cities consume vast quantities of water well beyond the resources of the locality to supply without outside sources. Consider in India, where all the great rivers derive from their sources in the glaciers of the Himalayas and Tibet, and this water nourishes all of the crops and cities of the Indian plain, billions of people. Another example is smog or acid rain that may be created by the combination of an excessively large number of automobiles within an urban location such as Los Angeles or Beijing. This smog may travel with the wind to agricultural areas, or the ocean, and where it meets with rain it causes the chemicals to return to earth, coating plants that can destroy local ecosystems and kill animal species. The automobiles may combine with urban factories to increase the pollution level in a greater region significantly. Chemicals from industry located in an urban location such as Cleveland can carry through a river to pollute a larger ecosystem, as has happened with the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie in Ohio. Concentrated carbon emissions from urban areas rise indiscriminately into the upper atmosphere, affecting the entire planet. Noise and light pollution at night from urban areas can change natural habitats. For these reasons it is evident that the development of an urban area affects the entire planet’s environment, not only an extended region. 4. Do recent interpretations of the environment and changes in globalization reflects a transition from modern to post-modern thinking? ­To use circular logic, if modernism is symbolized by the centralization of power, as represented for example by cultural hegemony and domination of a discourse by authority (from the post-modern view), then post-modernism taking a central role as the dominant ideology of globalization would not be post-modern. Nevertheless, the modern environmental movement and post-modernism heavily inspire and cross-pollinate each other as the memes pass through and mix in the minds of individuals, and then reform in collective structures of organization and action. Cultural diversity and bio-diversity for example are both valued highly by post-modernists and environmentalists, and both seek to preserve traditions through new invention, paradoxically. A transition to post-modern thinking will only occur when post-modern ideas replace modern ideas in the education system, something that has been happening slowly and progressively over the last 20 years but still has not definitively changed the over-riding cultural paradigms that are accepted by government and mass-media, for example. As of today, post-modernism still has a sense of being a vanguard philosophy, and by the time it finally becomes mainstream values by the majority of members of civil society, there will be another vanguard in the place of post-modernism. Essentially, post-modernism requires a political change something like proposed by the Zapatistas in Mexico and this is still very far from mainstream globally in most cultures, media systems, and governments. Thus globalization as we know it is still based more on centralized power hierarchies and authority than post-modern ideals, save the web. 5. How different spaces are used for different purposes and how our interpretation of a space can depend on cultural identity. Give some examples of how space can be used differently and how that space can come to be culturally significant. One example of how cultures view spaces differently is to look at how the Sherpas viewed mountains in the Himalayas traditionally compared to the Western tourists, trekkers, and mountain climbers represented by Edmund Hillary. The Sherpas traditionally viewed mountains as holy, and the actual residing place of a deity. In a way, the mountain and deity were intertwined in both language and conception. This is why, until the 20th century, we have no record of any great mountain climbers of the Himalayas and Hillary is regarded as the first person to “conquer” the world’s highest peak of Mt. Everest. Before the mountain climbing people arrived from Western cultures, the Sherpas had no cultural thought to climb to those places, as they were the residing place of gods in addition to being harsh and inhabitable environments. They went there sturdily carrying gear for the mountaineers however, and this has impacted and changed local culture considerably. 6. Discuss gentrification. What is it, what are some critiques, and what is your analysis of gentrification? Gentrification is essentially where a lower income neighborhood with low real estate prices is gradually or swiftly “taken over” by an outsider community through property and land purchases that change the identity of the community. First, this definition clearly aligns with the original neighborhood community and includes in the definition a critique of the practice, so may be considered a minor pejorative when used. It carries within the term a type of moral condemnation as if the rich should not be evicting the poor from their neighborhoods and renovating their old homes into condos and luxury apartments. From an urban development standpoint, it is a “natural” occurrence consistent with the need of the community to evolve, improve, and regenerate old buildings and “run-down” neighborhoods. Yet, in many ways it is a mirror of the situation that is experienced in power politics between rich and poor nations, the developed and developing world. From the activist critique, gentrification is similar to the way the original Native Americans were evicted from their land and it was taken over for new development by the “Whites”. There is often a racial undertone to gentrification, even if “yuppies” are multi-racial in identity, communities in urban locations often exist on a micro-scale organized around culture, race, ethnicity, and other traditional factors. While it is the nature of urbanism to break down these divisions, some laud the way that micro-communities preserve cultural identity in the traditional sense within the modern urban landscape. Thus gentrification is seen as a threat to community identity and even traditional values. However much change is a part of life, and urban landscapes shift and change identity swiftly, there are nevertheless social justice issues within the term gentrification itself that need to be addressed politically, and these relate to poverty, inequality, racism, and other problems of the modern city. 7. Is there a relationship between economic status and the environment? Nature inherently does not recognize economic status in dispensing boons or disaster, as it is said, the sun shines on the rich and poor alike and does not make distinctions. If we recognize a difference between nature and how humans organize their environment, we risk setting up a dualism that positions human activity “outside” of nature, something that is historically important in how modern society defines itself, but which may not be altogether true. Why should human behavior be considered outside of nature any more than that of a fish or monkey tribe – it is only when we subordinate nature and view it as outside of ourselves that we are surely out of tune with how our actions impact the environment. The laws of gravity are the same for humans and birds, only one has wings, but economic status arrives with the corporate structure that builds airplanes. Thus economic status concerns human organization, and the greater question is whether or not human view their selves, actions, and society as part of or outside of nature. With economic status are power relationships between humans based on capital worth, and with this power comes the ability to seize, for example, the prime land for leadership residences. From this we can conclude that economic symbols are merely a choice of the society for its use in determining power relationships and control – other societies, for example might base their foundation on non-economic criteria like strength, battle, intelligence, compassion, wisdom, etc. Each society is reflected in its own choices of expression with regard to power relationships between humans, but economic status is not inherent to human society and thus cannot be fundamentally related to the environment. To use a rough example, the colors and patterns of bird feathers represents a unique evolution of species, so too does economic status represent a type of bird feather on a type of human culture with regard to the way power is managed within the society, resources hoarded and exchanged, etc. If we see humans as inherently part of the environment, and all of their actions as natural, then this economic status is natural in the same way as the feathers of the species of a bird or their unique nesting, communication, and migration patterns. If we see economic status as artificial, then we position human behavior to be in a way unnatural or outside of nature. This is counter-intuitive. 8. A person is affected by the space inhabited and gender. Do you agree or disagree? Use examples from class and the text and be specific with places and examples. Gender creates identity from structural difference, genetic and physiological, in the individual human. These structural characteristics define the person at a level below personality, shaping the nature of mind, perception, and behavior according to gender. Location functions in the same manner, shaping language and worldview, and through that creating identity while limiting expression. Thus we are inevitably affected by both the space inhabited and gender. From this we get the human diversity of indigenous cultures and new, post-modern expressions of community as described in “Human Geography: Places and Regions in the Global Context” by Knox and “Human Geography: landscapes of human activities” by Fellman. Part2 1. What is our global environmental picture? How do we impact the environment and what repercussions are a result? Our global environment picture is one shaped most vividly by the photographs taken by our first astronaut voyages into space, it is of the picture of the planet, illuminated by the sun, with its rich blue oceans, and vast continents, swirling with clouds. This picture of the earth from space, as a planet, is very foreign and existed only in the imagination of our ancestors, and thus forms the definitive picture of globalization as we experience it worldwide today. We impact the environment most obviously through our actions and choices. From where and how we choose to live, what we eat, how we transport ourselves around the community, what type of job we take and what work we pursue, what type of government we support and policies they pursue, we see that our actions have full effect on the local level but we lose control of them at higher levels of organized decision making. The more people who must debate and position views against the other in order to win the authority required to make a decision, the less the individual voice is heard amidst the clamor of views numbering millions. The larger collective structures of organization like corporations or governments act through individuals inherently, but with a larger budget, technology, and power than the average human being. Through this more possibility to create and also destroy is achieved, building teams and complex industrial organizations of production through a decision making process. Minority views with excess capital can create huge environmental impacts without the general consent of 99.9% of humanity. Thus, even if there are only ever actions of local humans in a local environment, the level of technological control determines the ability to create or destroy in the environment, and this is determined in our time by capital and power. Thus corporate and government actions may impact the environment at a greater level than individual actions, even though it is still individuals who are acting on behalf of corporations and governments. This encourages a type of self-government and conscientious objection as a means to protect the environment through knowledge based awareness in the individual. 2.What are major environmental issues facing the globe today? What are some viable ideas to motivate our population to restructure and change our relationship with the environment? The most important environmental issue today is considered to be global warming, though some will continue to claim that it is a myth, the main risk is seen in the melting of glaciers and polar ice caps with rising sea level. Other main issues are the depletion of natural environments with unique plant and wildlife species, and the extinction of species. Chemical pollution, air, water, and food is another major concern. Compassion for all beings is a fundamental motivation for humans in relation to their environment and eco-system, to love and cherish all species as their own neighbors and selves, or as the Tibetans teach, as one’s own mother and father. With compassion, interspecies and planetary, there is great hope for action through understanding, and also hope for justice and equality in application of solutions. 3. What is our oldest environmental problem? How and where does it affect us today? Our oldest environmental problem is most likely coldness, for even when we are in the womb coldness is a major threat to survival whereas rain cannot penetrate, earthquakes are rare, and fire challenges from a different experiential base. Interspecies harmony may be another example of our oldest problem, for human survival required an ever-present awareness to preserve life of the individual, offspring, and tribe from predators. Cold affects us through winters, winds, snows, and changes the requirements for our survival in the environment. Humans can survive without clothes in the tropics but not in the arctic. Coldness drove our need to cultivate fire and from that we developed technology as a species. Electricity, gas, coal, wood and other natural materials are used by humans to fight cold, just as in the very most pre-historic times. We see this in modern utility generation and the use of natural resources in that sector primarily, and in firewood collecting, mining, hunting, cloth making, clothing, etc. today and their offshoots in art & culture. 4. What are key roles of ‘global cities’? Name and describe some global cities, where are the located, how did they form, and what do they have in common? Global cities generally act as centers for human co-habitation, and through that associated activity such as business and industrial development, leisure & entertainment activities, the construction of roads and housing, health care and education facilities, etc. In addition to co-habitation, industrial, and cultural developments locally, global cities also act as transportation hubs internationally, and mixing pots for various cultures to meet and exchange ideas through individuals. Tokyo, New York, London, Madrid, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Rio, Rome, Paris, Berlin, Moscow and others are recognized global cities and the generally attained that status by being capitals of their country, or leaders in another field of economic activity. Generally, they all have multi-million person populations, extensive infrastructure, international air and sea ports, and a dynamic multi-cultural population. 5. Create a working definition of the world urban. Why is it so difficult to determine if an area is urban? Urban can be considered “of or pertaining to a city, things found in a city, activities done in a city, any event or place that is located within a city.” Thus, the key is how we define city, for if we recognize that we will understand urban. The urban landscape has changed vastly in the last 400 years, for example, following the industrial revolution – cities in the 17th century may very well appear to be agricultural areas in comparison with the skyscrapers and parking lots of today. Because culture, technology, and architecture change so quickly, population grows, and what is considered concentrated human occupation changes based on the ratio of the times, it is difficult to determine what is “urban”. 6. If the world had entered the industrial revolution with the environmental knowledge and global perspective we have today how do you think development would look? If the environmental knowledge and global perspective we have today were sufficient to change and transform the world, it would be doing so. As it stands, this knowledge is essentially combating human nature and ignorance which leads it astray from pure results. Consider, the Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad, all of the saints and realized teachers of all traditions have already come, taught, and left their message and teaching to future generations. Was environmental knowledge and global perspective something beyond their view or understanding? Our great teachers as a world civilization essentially instruct on how to go beyond our base natures, of greed, of selfishness, of harming others for personal gain, to one of enlightened knowledge. Yet, despite the existence of this teaching, and the respect humans claim to give to it, we still have the wars of history, violence, corruption, pollution, oppression – thus, if the greatest holy teachers who appeared thousands of years ago could not change results to produce any more than we have as a civilization today, good and bad, why would foreknowledge of environmental science change anything? Those teachers were battling the same forces we struggle with today. Without fundamentally changing human nature, we would likely be no different than we are today. 7. There are great contrasts from place to place in levels of economic development and people’s material well-being. Describe these contrasts, between countries and within countries. Be specific In comparing and contrasting contemporary global society, we make a general distinction between the developed and undeveloped world. In many instances this is similar to the colonial and post-colonial societies and that represents a previous stage of human history where economic development was conducted on different standards. Developing societies use vast amounts of resources compared to undeveloped societies, especially when compared to population. Perhaps 3.5 billion or more people live on a few dollars a day, struggle with clean drinking water, adequate housing, education, health care, transportation, employment, etc. – all of these are experienced in a very different way by the poor families in the developing world when compared to the nuclear powers and former colonial societies. Within countries, class generally drives ingrained divisions of wealth and power, as royalty was replaced by millionaires and billionaires, capital is the means by which societies distribute rewards and organize development. Some feel that colonial states stole a great amount of their wealth at an earlier stage of development, for example Spain, Portugal, and England’s activities in the New World with land, trade, and gold. Within modern societies, the educated tend to be more developed economically and the poor tend to receive less access to quality education. Thus long term historical cycles reinforce themselves and repeat in economic development, controlling and determining the freedom of activity and self-determination of people’s lives. Modern society has not dealt with social injustice on this level in the sense of true equality. 8. Does economic geography have ties to psychology? Our decisions about what to do where are often neither rational nor based on perfect knowledge, are there universal and explicit assumptions guiding all economic theory? Are income and well-being coupled? Some have suggested that human beings are at a state of natural harmony and peace when living in a lake environment. Following this, real estate at lake locations would be valued higher by humans because of its natural inclination in the subconscious instinct and evolutionary history of the race. By the same manner, oceanfront properties command the highest prices in human society due to their desirability, as status or as natural comfort, it has not been determined. Certainly humans are happier in environments of beauty, and that sense of beauty is shaped by the anthropocentric worldview. Our concept of romantic locations may be based also on deeper psychological processes, what an indigenous tribe would view as a mansion in the rainforest may be a mere shack to an American, and vice versa. Happiness is not known to be tied to income, but the degree that a person has sufficiency and abundance in a society is more fundamentally related. Universal assumptions tend to be personal thoughts project outward and magnified through a power structure, they have no inherent relation other than consensual to the environment and may be overturned at anytime by scientific revolutions. Sources: 1. Fellmann, Jerome, Arthur &Judith Getis. “Human Geography.” McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math; 9 edition (October 28, 2005). 2. Knox, Paul, Marston, Sallie. “Places and Regions in Global Context: Human Geography (5th Edition.” Prentice Hall; 5 edition (February 26, 2009). Read More