INDIVIDUAL QUESTIONS FOR THE FINAL EXAM

You all did very well in coming up with questions for the final exam, so you earned some bonus points and will have the benefit of knowing many questions going into it. Of course, there was a lot of material from which to make these questions. So, without further ado, here they are:

HANNAH: earn 20 points, plus one bonus point.

1. As I noted in my summary comments on Chapter 3, Fabric of Enterprise, Rae identifies 3 factors that would later help unravel this "fabric of enterprise." Identify any TWO of them. (2)

ANSWER: Any TWO of the following: (a) Retailing depends on export industries that feed the cycle of exchange, but as exports decline, the richness of retail circulation is curtailed. (b) Small, very decentralized retail operations are vulnerable to competition from larger operations that can achieve economies of scale and undercut prices, which is exactly what began to happen by the 1950s. (c)The richness of the fabric depended on a permissive treatment of mixed-use neighborhoods by government, but zoning ordinances across the country set out to homogenize land uses and drive a wedge between residential and commercial areas.

2. In my summary comments on Chapter 8 of "City:" Race, Place, and the Emergence of Spatial Hierarchy, what did I highlight were TWO of the three actions which reinforced municipal inequality? (2)

ANSWER: Any TWO of the following: (a) municipal zoning, (b) neighborhood security studies of the HOLC (Home Owners Loan Corp.), (c) initial phases of public housing.

3. In the video, "Taken For a Ride," Lewis Mumford poses what interesting question about transportation and cities, and how does he answer that question? (2)

ANSWER: Does the city exist for people or for cars? For cars.

4. In Chapter 3 of "The Geography of Nowhere," what did Lewis Mumford say about industrialism in the 19th century? (1)

ANSWER: that it produced the most degraded human environment the world had yet seen.


FRANCES: earns 20 points, plus one bonus point.

1. In terms of the emergence of cities and human civilization in general, what was the single most influential step in human history? (1)

ANSWER: the development of AGRICULTURE, which creates a surplus that allows craft, trade and the development of an intellectual life beyond survival needs; it facilitates the later stages of development -- i.e., villages and cities.

2. In "Heat Wave," what analogy does the author use (one used by Durkheim and other classic sociologists) to examine the events that unfolded in the city of Chicago? (1)

ANSWER: the organic or organismic analogy, as evidenced by his term, "social autopsy."

3. Identify ONE of the two theoretical principles Klinenberg brings out in "Heat Wave" that can be used to approach a broader inquiry into the life of the city. (1)

ANSWER: ONE of the following: (a) the first deriving from Marcel Mauss and Emile Durkheim, "is that extreme events such as the Chicago catastrophe are marked by 'an excessiveness which allows us better to perceive the facts than in those places where...they still remain small'scale and involuted.'" (b) The second, is that institutions have a tendency to reveal themselves (and not-so-obvious flaws in these systems) when they are stressed and under pressure -- in how they react or respond to such crises.

4. Define Rae's term "useful inefficiency," as used in "City." (2)

ANSWER: In essence, that urbanism was constructed out of several "useful inefficiencies," i.e., mom-and-pop groceries, smaller streets which played important roles in the community and civic fabric, despite being "inefficient" or outdated, in a sense, from a market or economic standpoint.


MIYA: earns 20 points, plus one bonus point.

1. Identify any TWO of the four major themes of the city that I introduced at the very beginning of the course. (2)

ANSWER: Any TWO of the following: (a) cities and urban life vary according to the time and place, (b) cities reflect and intensify a society and culture, (c) cities reflect the best/worst about the human condition, (d) cities offer the promise, but not always the reality, of a better life.

2. Define and contrast URBAN IMPLOSION and URBAN EXPLOSION. (2)

ANSWER: Urban implosion -- centripetal forces were dominant and people were drawn into the city. Cities are compact, densely populated, polluted due to industry -- characteristic of the 19th century. Urban explosion -- centrifugal forces draw people out of the cities into surrounding suburbs. Forces include auto/highway system -- characteristic of the 20th century.

3. In my summary comments on Chapter 2 of "City," what comment did I make about Rae's noting the inaccurate growth assumptions for New Haven circa 1910? (2)

ANSWER: "To make more accurate predictions...we must understand these larger technological/economic/ecological factors which have proven to be the real keys to urbanization, not necessarily political decisions of local officials."

4. Describe GM's "motorization campaign," as presented in the video, "Taken For A Ride." (2)

ANSWER: This involved replacing sttreet cars with diesel buses and eventually cars. National City Lines Bus Co., which was financed by GM, bought up trolley systems all across the country and made these trolley systems more expensive, less accessible, and less attractive, which eventually led to their dismantlement.
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That's it. See you Friday morning in Main 122, as my email note indicated.