unit 13

In this unit we finished our studies of urbanism which is a good point to recap and analyzed the transformation of our cities. We can identify three major events of transformation. First, is the industrialization in the late 1800’s. The introduction of new building materials such as iron help build higher structures changing the typology of the cities. The second event occurred after WWII and it's known as suburbanization of the city. The third and actual event is the decentralization of the urban fabric forming megacities. 

 In this unit we also learn that the actual conditions of our postindustrial society is threatened   with globalization and hyper-network environments. Scholars claim that the “post industrial economy” is what defines the urban growth. In order to achieve this task, economies rely upon the distribution of systems that feed a global network of data and exchange. In the 1980’s  the urban thinker Manual Castells did an analysis of the complex interaction between technology society and space. In his studies, he explains the importance of space and defines it as an expression of our society. Space becomes super complex to understand in this information era which questions the need for a physical space of congregation. 

 Many scholars have been studying post modern societies and have created concepts such as “Global city” by Saskia Sassen and “Technopoles” by Allan J. Scott. In order to understand this megacities of our era, Robert Fishman, introduced concepts such as; technoburb to describe the reorganization of urban space. This same idea is defined by Garneau the “Edge city” in which Orange County is one of his study grounds. 

 Now at days, there are many events happening that are affecting the urban organization. These transformations have taken two faces that are expressed in the megacities. The first one is the decentralization and globalization of cities such as; New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo and London. These cities are threatened with placelessness of post modern architecture and the idea of a non-place culture whose identity is not link to any specific society. The other face of the megacities are when the global economy puts you in a bad spot and you become the producer for the consumerist megacities. In George Parker’s article, “Decoding The Chaos Of Lagos,” we have a clear example how this mega city is suffering all the negative aspects of our era where people work only to earn about 2 or 3 dollars per day with poor quality living environment. 

Questions: 

1. How do you think that globalization and network societies have shaped the urban sprawl of Los Angeles?

 2. Taking the place of an urban developer, how would you suggest to fix the differences between the two types of megacities like Lagos Nigeria to Orange County?