Settlement Geography Unit 1

Settlement Geography HGHE 3641

• Monday 11H30 – 12H30• Tuesday 11H30 – 12H30• Wednesday 11H30 – 12H30• Thursday 13H30 – 14H30

• Venue: LH05

Unit 1 Origins and Growth

Settlement Geography embracesa wide range of politico-economic

and socio- cultural dimensions of rural and urban life;

BUT shares fields of research interest with disciplines also studying

‘settlements’ such as History, Psychology, Economy, Sociology, Architecture...

Objective• describe, analyse and explain human

settlement in terms of:* Site* Emergence* Development

* Morphology * Pattern * Function * Linkages between settlements

* Regional differences

Settlement:

A place inhabited on a permanent basis, can be categorised according to size status and range of facilities.

Settlements form a settlement continuum(a term used in recognition of the fact that in general there is rarely, either physically (spatially) or socially, a sharp division, a clearly marked boundary between settlements

Can be categorised according to size and importance

Different Approaches to Settlement Geography

• 1920s: emergence of SG • 1946: first English text on urban geography• Since the 1960s: popular and major sub-

discipline of Human Geography• Different phases with different approaches to

the discipline can be distinguished (Daniel & Hopkinson 19892, pp. 7-9)

Phase 1: Descriptive Approaches (1920s/30s)

• Description of settlements; rather simple and superficial, subjective and unscientific

• Stressing of the distinctiveness / uniqueness of each settlement

• Physical environment seen as the major determinant of settlements

→ This phase is also called “environmental determinism"

The site and situation of early London

The pattern and organisation of the settlement will be determined by the form/pattern of the river.

Doctrine: ‘Environmental Determinism’

• stands for the belief, that the environment determines the pattern of human life and behaviour

• Environment was seen as determining economy, activities, thinking and belief.

• This means that the belief of that time, was, that the earth surface is dictating the courses of action of individuals.

Phase 2: Quantitative Approaches (1930s/40s – 1960s/70s)

•Search for common characteristics of settlements •Study of regional relations of settlements (the spacing) and their internal organization •Generalisations and development of models

Phase 3: Behavioural Approaches (mid 1960s)

• Dissatisfaction with former approach, as difference between real world and expected patterns (models) became visible.Argumentation than human decision can not be explained in purely rational term

• → Emphasis on decision-making process of people

• Research focus on individual behaviour and social Psychology

Phase 4: Structuralist Approaches (1970s)

• Argumentation that to apply only one approach is too limited

• →To get a full understanding of a settlement, one has to take different factors into consideration and to integrate them

→ apply a holistic approach

• The morphology of a settlement refers to the external form and layout of that settlement.

• The distribution of homesteads of different social groups that make up a settlement

• Where certain activities are found, in the settlement

• And the location of facilities within the settlement.

SETTLEMENT MORPHOLOGY(DESCRIPTION)

SETTLEMENT PATTERNS

Nucleated and dispersed.

•Nucleated/ Clustered- Settlements, usually villages of common traditional pattern related to the way the land is owned.

•Dispersed- settlements where farmsteads and homesteads are spread out across the area.

Linear/ row/ ribbon

Grid

Radial/ ring

SETTLEMENT SHAPES

Irregular

VILLAGES.Village society

• All aspects of village life were dominated by the landowner.• Villages were divided as closed and open, with greater security in the closed system and greater freedom in the open system.

VILLAGES IN MODERN PERIOD

• Rural planning is constrained by the need to sustain village life and preserve the landscape and provide services and homes at economic prices. •Planning of rural communities and facilities is undertaken as part of major structure plans•The economies of services provision mean that conservation is often restricted to limiting new developments, rather than arresting decay.

PRE INDUSTRIAL TOWNS•The establishment of a new social and economic order in medieval times encouraged the growth of towns.•Medieval towns which were unplanned or organic can be distinguished from those that were planned or planted as not all the planted ones flourished and others prospered for a while and then declined. •Renaissances was characterised by attempts to impose order and symmetry on town planning and development.•Restriction in land ownership resulted in development of high densities and contrast in the quality of housing were accentuated

Residential Segregation

•In the nineteenth-century, different social classes of the towns, though identifiable as separate groups, tended to live in relatively close proximity•As urban transport facilities developed the more well-to-do groups increasingly moved outwards, while the incoming poorer groups moved in the property which had been left.•These led to exclusive socially homogenous neighborhoods.