Why does Harvey believe the process of finding new markets to reinvest surplus value is relevant to a discussion on urban development? Final Exam Study Guide

Why does Harvey believe the process of finding new markets to reinvest surplus value is relevant to a discussion on urban development?
Final Exam Study Guide

Please review the following questions and be prepared to write a short answer response for your final exam. The final exam will be open book and notes, but you must put your responses in your own words. You may use quotes, but very sparingly and only to support statements you’ve already made—i.e. you can’t use the author’s words to respond to the question, you must demonstrate comprehension. You can begin preparing your responses in advance of the final exam and bring them to the final. The final exam will be in class. If you don’t have a laptop please let me know.

I will choose a selection of these exact questions for the final exam.

QUESTION 1

David Harvey’s text provides an analysis of how the need to expand markets under capitalism impacts urban development, often favoring the interests of investors over the urban public. He describes the many instances in modern history where government regimes and private interests have identified urban expansion and “revitalization” programs as a means of reinvesting surplus product to create surplus value (i.e. profits). For this question, explain:

Why does Harvey believes the process of finding new markets to reinvest surplus value is relevant to a discussion on urban development? In your answer, explain what surplus value is and why capitalists need to constantly find new markets to maintain profits.
Explain how this process was manifested historically by relaying one of the examples in Harvey’s text (i.e. Haussmann’s reconstruction of Paris under Louis Napoleon, postwar suburban development in the U.S, etc.)

QUESTION 2

Jane Jacobs’ book The Death and Life of Great American Cities was an attack on city planning. It came at a time when cities across the country were feeling the negative impact of Title I, Title 2, and Title 10 legislation by the federal government, and the private real estate development industry’s capitalization on that legislation. This included increased suburbanization, in which predominantly white middle income families were provided with incentives and support to purchase homes outside the city. This also meant they took their tax dollars with them—and often jobs relocated to the suburbs as well. As a result, center cities began to deteriorate, and those that remained found it difficult to secure good paying jobs. As the housing stock declined, those with profit interests in the city advocated widespread “slum clearance,” replacing older communities with new public and private housing towers. This led to a lot of displacement, upsetting tight knit communities and leaving many low income and ethnic and racial minorities in insecure housing situations—and sometimes even homeless.

How might terms like “urban renewal” or “urban revitalization” be used politically to enact slum clearance or other programs that, in Jane Jacobs’ observation, eradicate great neighborhoods?
What did she see was so great about those run-down communities as opposed to the “revitalized” ones?
For a city to be truly vital, Jacobs suggests it needs to be diverse. What criteria did Jacobs suggest is needed to create urban diversity? Be able to explain why these criteria are important.

QUESTION 3:

Mike Davis discusses the “neoliberalism” of the contemporary city and how it has divided urban areas into distinct social spaces. Much of this division is not only social, it’s physical—i.e. the decisions made about how to design plazas, parks, bus benches, etc. and how those designs send certain messages about who belongs and who doesn’t. We put this theory to the test in our exploration of the Bunker Hill area in Downtown L.A.

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