A2 Study Day

Workshop I attended
1
The Urbanising World
Dr. Charlotte Lemanski
Robinson College, University of Cambridge
Lecture pitched at first year undergraduate level as a sort of taster.
Main themes of lecture:
Global Urbanisation
Historical and contemporary trends
Contemporary urbanisation linked to poverty rather than growth ?
Changing urbanisation
Described the use of the Global north and south as alternative terms for
LEDC/MEDC used at the University.
Started with some images of prosperity and poverty from the opposite places
that one would expect.
Africa / Asia / South America images of wealth and growth of buildings
Europe and USA to demonstrate deprivation
Definition of urbanisation was explored. Used the cartoon from Windows on the
World people arriving are contributing to urbanisation, but those who are
waiting for the city to come to them are not. They are waiting for urban sprawl.
Urban areas are not just cities, therefore there arent 50% living in cities this is
a mistake made by many media.
Urbanism: a way of life cultural attitude to life a mentality
Divisions between settlements are difficult to define e.g. large village to small
town etc.
International comparisons are difficult changing definition of cities in some
countries.
UN Habitat Graph population as a whole has grown.
Popn. has grown x3 Urban areas population x5 urban Africa will have a greater
population than Europe by 2030
Time for 1 billion.. 10 000 years for first billion
3 4 billion added in just 15 years (2003-18)
Speed of urbanisation is unprecedented, so current urbanisation is on a different
scale, and occuring at a different pace.
Europe and USA took around 200 years to urbanise, many countries currently
taking more like 80 years.
Graph doesnt show where urbanisation is happening.

Importance of graphs showing part of the story graph of Asia would be

dominated by India / China but not show some of smaller countries.
Comparison of N and S
Counter-urbanisation a process in the N. but not in the S.
1. Occurring in context of higher popn. growth
2. Occurring more rapidly
3. Fewer resources (linked to industrialisation) city as an engine of growth
not any more
4. Lower income level cities not the infrastructure to cope with the people
arriving (given their status) and aggravating povery and multiple issues in
cities.
Growth in Megacities (popn. > 10 million inhabitants)
Issues long commutes to work for the poor, who live on the fringes.
Clip from Andrew Marr programme
URL - embed
World Urbanisation Prospect reports
UN takes Census data from different countries (quality of data is variable, and
ask different questions in the Census)
Comparisons different, and establishment of urban boundaries are different.
Definitions create variability in percentages.
India villages >5000 people still rural. Many cities it would be classed as urban.
Megacities house less than 5% of worlds urban population, but there is a focus
on them very often when programmes explore the urban.
17 or 18 megacities rather than the 30 that were predicted a few decades ago.
Some myths placed on the screen
Difficult to project data into the future, but it is likely to be an urban future by
spatial location, or by urban lifestyle. Existing cities which are currently
powerful in finance and economic growth will remain powerful, but others that
we are yet to hear about will probably take their place in the future.
Films e.g. Blade Runner, set in 2019 tend to have dystopian visions
Future urban Sci-Fi concentrated in America, but major world cities likely to be
in Asia and Africa.
Economist map of Growth of African cities
Worldmapper showing future urban growth this map is a little out of date
Will counter-urbanisation start to happen in Africa / Asia in future decades?

Should governments (dis)(en)courage people from urbanising?

Link to 21st Century Challenges work
Workshop 2
David Holmes
Climatic hazards.
Updates which arent necessarily in the textbooks.
David encouraged students to take a critical look at climate hazards and hazard
trends.
Classification of hazards check the particular classification that you awarding
body uses.
EM-DAT
CRED Centre for Research into Epidemiology of Disasters
When asked about impacts. Think about impacts in different dimensions e.g. if
you look at number of people killed, there has been a reduction in global terms.
Rate of drop has slowed more recently.
Number of people affected has gone up considerably.
Exponential rate of economic losses due to hazards.
Number of reported disasters has grown by around 800 each decade.
http://www.emdat.be/publications
Fig 1: Trends in occurrence and victims
Discussion on trends and data
Rise since the 1960s
Munich Re insurance company
Climatic hazards increased in recent years. Down to the physical and human
geography not just one
Major disasters between 2000-2010 dominated by floods and wind storms.
Fig.3 We want to know as geographers where they are happening.
Textbooks: story tends to be that they affect people in poorer parts of the world
2013 1. China, 2. USA
Size of the country scale has an effect
Europe extreme temperatures & flooding are the hazard with the greatest
impact.
Africa droughts etc.
N. America storms
AQA: Discuss the idea that disasters are everywhere
Figure 1.3 Disasters almost everywhere (1970-2010) frequency
WMO mapping of particular examples
Case Studies for good essay writing. There are three types:
- Little located example (mini-snippet)

Case Study (mini) 3 or 4 sentences about a location, with some factual detail
supporting an argument
2 or 3 at most in-depth Case Studies of around half a page to point your
argument

World Disasters Report (2013) UNEP

EM-DAT - University of Louvain, Belgium
Katrina 2005 etc. disasters
Linking to supply chains global shock
Flooding in Thailand affecting production of disc drives for computers.
Technology to think about risk reduction in the future
Q: Are risks in the future likely to increase?
Social media has connected here
Global Warming IPCC (2013) AR5
David referred to the Sloppy terminology usage in some exams, and went
through definitions of key themes:
Climate change benchmark is 1971
any change in long term averages measured over 30 years
Natural climate change external forcing e.g. volcanic eruptions
Greenhouse effect
Enhanced greenhouse effect human emissions of greenhouse gases amplify
the natural state
Global Warming
Increase in the average temp of the earth caused by human activity
Textbook graphs A level core written in 2008/9
NASA 2013 scenarios of warming
Economist Graph To slash or to trim a little subjective but helpful
Impacts on climate change.
Synoptic thinking about topics.
St Judes Storm 28/10/13
Unusual patterns of wet weather in the UK 2013/14
Australian drought, 2014 viability of farming
Tornado frequency
Finished with a summary of impact of global warming
Coastal areas megacities are often located close to the coast and will be affected
by any rise in sea levels.
Carrying capacity future capacity to support the population
1 billion may be the capacity of a world warmed by 4C
Population movement
Transition world
Workshop 3
Technology, Development and Conflict
Simon Oakes

World-view of young people is shaped by being networked.

Technology is a constant in students lives.
World has changed since the textbooks were written.
Students writing answers to questions shapes the mark scheme.
Topical themes become part of the assessment.
Technology
- Access to technology (digital divide)
- Power, control and conflict
- The use of technology
Clarity of terms e.g. Mobile phone (SMS), mobile broadband, fixed broadband,
hardware.
Text transformational.
Reduces isolation, and
Technology affecting globalisation. Economically globalised.
Cultural globalisation access to memes.
Trends in mobile ownership more mobiles than people ?
BRIC and MINT
If you get some cash, you buy a mobile
Consumers
Development in action is whether you can pay your mobile bill create phones
for first time owners in India and China.
In other countries its sales of 2nd and updated phones Apple
TNCs not just Disney or McDonalds
Bharti Airtel mobile phone networks
Self diagnosis picture sent to someone in areas where there might be
limited medical support
African mobile access over 60%
Globalised world
Submarine cables how does it get over the Mid Atlantic Ridge
New hazard risks of undersea cables
Hurricanes can drag up cables and damage them
Shark trying to eat a cable YouTube video
Power Control and Conflict
Importance of power, including political power involved in development

Gender aspects of MDGs human rights and democracy

Rostow model and political development go hand in hand democracy and equal
rights develop through the stages.
There are barriers and limits to globalisation and technology
Morality
Security
Legality
Safety
Power and control over technology
Individual / families
Nations place barriers
Censorship rules
Great firewall of China, splinternet or Walled Garden
Google 2009 - China
If Chinese are connected with themselves but not with the rest of the world, are
they globalised?
Facebook friends map
N. Korea no Internet
Egypt / Tunisia Arab Spring organised using social media
Drone warfare technology and conflict
Just in time systems
Micro-payment schemes
Crowdsourcing
Kickstarter
Skype social needs of migrants
Diaspora and the Gathering
Australian etc.