GEOG 2400 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Visible Minority, Marshall Plan, Deindustrialization
14 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
GEOG 2400
Europe
Iron curtain
• Divided western and eastern Europe, post WWII
• 20th century, shift of world global power from UK to US
• Capitalist western Europe and eastern Communist Europe, 1945-1989
• Berlin wall is a part of this
• Consequences still visible today, people from either side still identifies differently
• Initiated by the East
Western Europe
Post WWII - 1970s
• Ravaged by war, cities destroyed
• Growing cold war politics: mounting tensions between the allies and Soviets
• Contrasted all capitalistic ideals with communism
• Western Europe susceptible to communist threat, Eastern Europe and Soviet Bloc susceptible to
capitalist threat
• 12 Billion spent by US on Western Europe for rebuilding and to prevent communist take-over,
Marshall Plan
• Decentralization, decongesting of major cities like London and Paris, resulted in major European
cities decline in population and economic activity
• Growth of small cities
• Created ethnic enclaves and enclaves of poverty
• Major receiver of immigrants
• 1970s: urban growth slows, deindustrialization and corporate restructuring
o Decline of central parts of large cities and traditional industrial centers
o Economic downturn (like in US, job losses, class disparities, more unemployment)
o Stronger relationship between visible minorities and low income people
• Declining birth rates
1980s
• Labour restructuring, shift to professionalization of workforce, banking, and insurance in major
cities
• Austerity, increasing privatization and corporate power
• Development of new high-rise offices, luxury condos, boutiques, expensive restaurants
• Decline in available public housing, government spending plummets
• Income gap visible in the urban form
• New growth in major cities, recentralization
• Post 1989: Western European cities much more spatially segregated than cities that developed
under communism
After 1980s
• Urban inequality on the rise
• Middle-class professionals flock to central neighbourhoods, immigrants increasingly congregate
together often in suburban enclaves (economical and social)
• Shifting of core cities with economic restructuring
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Income gap visible in the urban form under communism. After 1980s: urban inequality on the rise, middle-class professionals flock to central neighbourhoods, immigrants increasingly congregate together often in suburban enclaves (economical and social) London and paris host most tncs in the world: peripheral cities have more limited potential for economic development, europe home to most billionaires in the world. The blue banana, a version of core periphery model: roger brunet, corridor in europe (northwest england to northern italy, rotterdam: transport hub, europe"s largest port, manchester: attracts business home to england"s most deprived and affluent neighbourhoods. Liege: air and space technology, biotech, info tech. Since 1989, core cities shifted east with fall of iron curtain: companies attracted to bratislava and warsaw because of low production costs. London and paris still thrive because of historically established importance and place as global cities. Redevelopment of waterfronts, hotels, convention centres, residences in urban core, large- scale luxury offices, high end shopping districts.
