SETTLEMENTS

SETTLEMENTS

1. What are the distinctive features of settlements?

   • rural areas: areas which are lightly populated and have a relatively larger dependency on agriculture
   • Urban areas: areas that are relatively more densely populated and have a range of economic activities, but usually limited amounts of agriculture
   • Main criteria: population size, function and sphere of influence, employment, density and character (can be used to determine differences between rural and urban areas on a local and regional scale but not global as such great variations between settlement types from one country to another
     • Population size
       • Western Canada and Northern Sweden; sparsely populates so a settlement of only 1000 people is classed as urban
       • Southern Italy; higher population density so settlement with over 30,000 people classed as urban
       • Japan very densely populated in parts so settlement with over 50,000 people classed as urban
     • Function and sphere of influence
       • Urban areas have a wide range of functions from retailing to educational to financial
       • Functions have a HIGHER ORDER in URBAN areas- people will travel further to use them e.g. bank
       • Functions have a LOWER ORDER in RURAL areas-people will not travel far to use them e.g. corner shop
     • Employment
       • Traditional main employment sector in URBAN areas is in SECONDARY or TERTIARY and QUATERNARY
       • Traditional main employment sector in RURAL areas is in PRIMARY industry
       • BUT today in rural areas in MEDCs less than 10% work in PRIMARY sector, this is because recent increased car ownership and improved transportation means people can COMMUTE to work from rural to urban areas
     • Density
       • Urban areas are more BUILT UP, threshold population densities can be used to measure how BUILT UP a settlement is, dense/urban areas have between 100-400 people/km2
         • BUILT UP: densely covered by buildings
     • Character
       • Urban and rural areas have social dimensions and are influenced by our perception of rural and urban
         • PERCEPTION: is about how people interpret places, different people therefore have different perceptions of places.
           • URBAN: perceived as stressful, fast-paced, unsafe, polarisation of extreme wealth and poverty in small area. RURAL perceived as peaceful, quiet, safe, CHOCOLATE BOX = RURAL IDYLL
         • Culture, personal background and socio-economic status: all influence a person's perception of the geography of their local area
   • CLOKE AND EDWARDS INDEX OF RURALITY
     • 1986 developed an index of rurality based on data from 1981 census. Identified four different categories of rural and urban environments.
       • 1) EXTREMELY RURAL
       • 2) INTERMEDIATE RURAL
       • 3) INTERMEDIATE NON-RURAL
       • 4) EXTREMELY NON-RURAL
       • it is based on statistics rather than subjective and cultural criteria and that since 1981 the impact of motorways and technology has reduced actual and psychological distances

2. How does the social and cultural structure of settlements vary and why?

   • FILTERING: the process by which housing passes down from higher-income to lower-income occupants. New suburbs are added by more wealthier people who vacate properties who thus leave them for less well off people when they move. When these people move to this property they are too leaving/vacating previous property for less well off people
     • POSITIVE IMPACTS: provides housing for the poorest households, allows households to move gradually up the housing ladder
     • NEGATIVE IMPACTS: abandonment of properties at the end of the filtering chain, plays significant role in creating ghettos of society dropouts, new immigrants and ethnic minorities, perpetrates the vicious downward spiral of poverty and deprivation
   • GENTRIFICATION: is filtering in reverse. Involves the improvement and upgrading of older properties inner-city areas, the movement out of low-income tenants and the in-flow of high-income owner occupiers.
     • POSITIVE IMPACTS: increased investment in property improves the environment of run-down areas, old housing is refurbished rather than becoming derelict, increased wealth in the area boosts local businesses and local authority revenue.
     • NEGATIVE IMPACTS: reduces the stock of housing available to poorer households, friction between incomers and existing local people, traditional local services such as schools and corner shops not used by incomers, street parking of cars becomes a major problem.
   • STUDENTIFICATION: refers to the social and environmental changes caused by large numbers of students living in particular areas of a town or city. Filtering because they move into low-quality accommodation, however gentrification as they intellectual improve the area; stimulating the development of science parks.
   • GHETTOISATION: or exclusion involves barring partiular groups of people from living in certain parts of the city. Excluded groups then become concentrated in another part of the city.
   • GATED COMMUNITIES: are an extreme form of segregation and exclusion and are a product of income inequalities and a growing concern about personal security.
   • URBAN MORPHOLOGY: the form/shape of a town and the arrangement and layout of its buildings. What processes influence the morphology of settlements?
     • SUBURBANISATION: an outwards movement within the city e.g. from the inner city to the inner suburbs, from the inner city to the outer suburbs or from the inner suburbs to the outer suburbs. (intra-urban migration)
     • RE-URBANISATION: an inwards movement from the suburbs to the inner city areas.